A Language Ever Ancient, Ever New

What governs human behavior? Today it boils down to whether or not something is pleasurable, beneficial, legal, socially acceptable, or acceptable to our peers. But what happens when these influences clash with one another? What if we believe something to be beneficial or pleasurable that also happens to be illegal? What if we were encouraged to do something because of our upbringing that is now looked upon as unacceptable? Which moral influence is authoritative? Modern man struggles with such questions. Should marijuana be legal? If so, what about heroin or cocaine? If abortion is legal, why not infant euthanasia? If fornication is legal, what makes prostitution illegal? Society struggles with such dilemmas because society by itself has no competency to answer these issues. Democracy, socialism, totalitarianism, etc. cannot answer these questions. Only God has the competency to provide true, lasting, and beneficial guidance on how we ought to behave.

After all, if a society or a government were the ultimate moral authority, then how could we condemn North Korea or any other abusive regime? The truth is, we have no moral standing to approve or condemn of any other country or society – past, present, or future – unless God is the ultimate and timeless source of what is right and what is wrong. And even if we are truly on God’s side, that does not mean that other societies or nations will listen to us. Moralizing with the Nazis was futile because the state was their ultimate authority. The state expresses its moral code in the legal system, and under the Nazis, it was legal to exterminate the Jews. Likewise, stopping honor killings of women, persecution of minorities, human trafficking, child labor, etc. will not happen because of our personal or national opposition. Again, we ourselves have no moral authority, only God does.

Indeed, we will not rid our world of social and personal injustice until God is seen as the supreme Moral Authority. Yet, some do recognize a deity as their moral authority and yet commit great atrocities. We need only consider the American South before the end of slavery and segregation or what happens in many islamic countries. Were the people of the antebellum South God-fearing? Do the muslims fear allah? They would say yes.

So how do such societies commit atrocities when they have deities as their moral compass? It is because they get God wrong. John Calvin, for example, taught that the most essential quality of God is His sovereignty. Yes, God is totally sovereign, able to do all that He wills. The muslims would likewise claim that allah is totally sovereign. For both the calvinist and the muslim, the moral law is simply a matter divine decree. Over-emphasis on God’s ultimate sovereignty has led and still leads to a tolerance of evils. So, for God to be our true moral compass, we need to get Him right. Getting God right is not just a matter for clergy and theologians since it affects our everyday lives. Why can’t I take revenge on my boss or why can’t an unmarried man and woman live together? Is it only because God says so? Parents, do you have rules for your kids to follow just because you say so?

Of course not. Parents have rules for the same reason why God has given us the moral law, and that reason is love. Parents naturally love their children because of who they are. For God it is not just that He loves us as parents love their children. No, God loves because of Who He is. God is love. To say God is sovereign is to proclaim one of His attributes. To say God is love is different than saying that God is loving. Loving is an attribute, but love is the very essence of God.

So God has been revealed to us as a Trinity of Divine Persons. A deity who is first and foremost sovereign may or may not be loving, he cannot be love, and he need not be triune. But if God is love, if He existed before anything was created, then God must be an eternal community of Persons. Since God is love, then God must have an eternal uncreated Person to be the object of His love. Any Person Who is eternal and uncreated must also be divine. Thus, to say that God is love is to say that there must be multiple divine Persons in the one and only God.

The Trinity is a community of divine Persons, a community that is not simply based on love but is Itself love. So if we ask what should guide our actions in this world, the Trinity gives us the answer: to live as a community of love and to love in a community of life.

—Fr Booth