1. What is the significance of the fact that the “family metaphor” is an ontological reality of the Trinity?
a. The Trinity, while three distinct persons, cannot exist without each other. The identity is relational, not individual. It also describes the love of family; the Father loves the Son and breathes life into the Spirit.
2. Describe, using the nuptial metaphor, the meaning of “an adulterous heart.”
a. An adulterous heart describes the breaking of the covenant we have made with God. This infidelity happens when we try to give loyalty and priority to something other than God.
Good answers. Our “waywardness” hurts God just as much as a spouse hurts when their partner is having an affair. We need to remember that not only are we violating the Law of God when we sin, but we are destroying a loving relationship with him. This also plays into the term we often use for sinners – “lost”. We are lost to God, who is longing for us and seeking us. We do not have to seek after God. God is already seeking after us, longing for us. We just need to stop and turn around…
1. What is the significance of the fact that the “family metaphor” is an ontological reality of the Trinity?
A: the familial metaphor shows that the Trinity has belonged to each other from the beginning in the first familial structure. The Father gives life to the Son. The Son receives and gives life that was from the Father. This is the very distinct nature of the other-oriented self-giving love. Only from this love, from the Father and between the two, there is the Holy Spirit.
2. Describe, using the nuptial metaphor, the meaning of “an adulterous heart”.
A: This adulterous heart is how we have stayed away from God and welcome idols or others in his place. When we’ve loved someone or something like we are to love him. When the covenant that God has gave us broken. I also look at scriptures of Jesus being the “bridegroom” and us or the church as his “bride”.
Good work. It’s interesting how much human families show the relationship within the Trinity. “For this reason, a man shall leave his mother and father and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” God has not only told us how He exists, but shown us. Producing life by having children completes the “three” (even though we might have multiple children). I’ve often said also that marriage is the test of living a sanctified life, how each partner surrenders to the other, and thus shows how the members of the Trinity defer to each other.
1. What is the significance of the fact that the “family metaphor” is an ontological reality of the Trinity?
A: The nature of God containing the metaphor of a familial relationship brings significance to the way God wishes to relate to us, as well as reveal His nature through our own relationships. God’s existence in the familial relationship is what allows Him to be in his essence loving, having the love of both parent and child before the world began. It also shows how God wishes to relate to us, as God’s love is inherently relational, the love he wishes to have with us is that of our being His children. Third, it forms the very basis of our relationships here on earth, all of having been a child and having been in a family relationship, and many also being in the role of parent, which serves as a means to understand the relationship God wants with us.
2. Describe, using the nuptial metaphor, the meaning of “an adulterous heart”.
A: The marriage relationship God wants to have with us reflects an intimate knowing of each other, however, if we turn our hearts away from God we violate that monogamous, intimate, and nuptial relationship through giving ourselves to another in spiritual adultery, damaging our relationship with God through our adultery (though of course not beyond possible repair or restitution from God through the work of His Son).
And to answer your question from last week’s discussion Rev. Phillips;
“What do you think of Kinlaw’s view of self-giving love and its significance in understanding God’s will for us?”
A: I find Kinlaws view scripturally based, bringing much insight in how God interacts with all his creation. With God being in His essence self-giving love, and that we are made in His image, it reflects the very core of our relational existence with God and our fellow man, and how we are to, getting to the heart of Jesus’ command, in Mat. 22 v. 37-40 ”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Good, Jackson. We learn most about the reality of the Trinity by experiencing how God relates to us. In salvation, we have an intimacy with God that we cannot explain, but it is there. God gives us his presence in salvation, which is the Holy Spirit. We are drawn into the life of the Trinity. We do not have to understand all that it means, but we can experience it. We have it, but we must also continue to desire it in order to experience it.
1. What is the significance of the fact that the “family metaphor” is an ontological reality of the Trinity?
God planned for each person to have a healthy relationship. This requires a father and a mother to complete the human family dynamic producing fruit from their love, just as the Trinity depicts. Thus, the Holy Spirit is generated from the love between the Father and the Son. So too, the love between Christ and His Church produces disciples, the fruit of that holy union. In the family, we discover ourselves, a living person who can understand, touch, and love another person, unit, or group. The first family of the holy Trinity is ontologically what God is seeking in the family with His creation. In essence, the Trinity is the biblical example of what the human family should be.
2. Describe, using the nuptial metaphor, the meaning of “an adulterous heart.”
Using the nuptial metaphor, the meaning of an “adulterous heart” is a negative quality born and raised in the human nature. In small, controlled portions it can stimulate a jealousy than can create a healthy competition in sports or the workplace. Left unchecked, it can be very damaging, even destroying relationships between friends or loved ones. God’s positive jealousy is to love and be loved. This is a precious attitude in humans but if this attitude is taken to the extreme, it becomes an adulterous heart bent on wandering, unfaithfulness, and never being satisfied. Israel initially formed a covenant with God to be faithful to His teachings and His laws. This covenant relationship was viewed as a marriage between God and His people. Even so, Israel had an adulterous heart which led her away to become idolatrous. She could not, nor would not be faithful to her first love. Thus, she broke the marriage vows when she wandered to other gods.
Good Sharon,
The story of Hosea is the perfect example of what God means by idolatry being “adulterous”. The Lord told Hosea to marry a prostitute, who even bears him children. However, he finds that she is unfaithful, and sends her away. In the end, though, she ends up in debt and is about to be sold into slavery. The Lord tells Hosea to go and purchase her back, then make her his wife again. It’s strange that God would make such a display, but it served as a warning to Israel about how their idolatry would lead to their enslavement, but that God would be there to pick up the pieces when they were at their lowest point. A very visual representation of sin and redemption.
1. What is the significance of the fact that the “family metaphor” is an ontological reality of the Trinity?
The parent-child relationship explains how we relate to the example set by the father-son relationship. Jesus was a man, but also a divine being. We were created to be Christ-like.
2. Describe, using the nuptial metaphor, the meaning of “an adulterous heart”.
We were created to have a close, intimate relationship, similar to that of a married couple. When we turn away from God and become rebellious, we are saying that we care more about what we want than God’s design for our lives, even though we know it breaks His heart.
1. What is the significance of the fact that the “family metaphor” is an ontological reality of the Trinity?
a. The Trinity, while three distinct persons, cannot exist without each other. The identity is relational, not individual. It also describes the love of family; the Father loves the Son and breathes life into the Spirit.
2. Describe, using the nuptial metaphor, the meaning of “an adulterous heart.”
a. An adulterous heart describes the breaking of the covenant we have made with God. This infidelity happens when we try to give loyalty and priority to something other than God.
So good. We have to make sure we get our priorities straight and keep God first.
Good answers. Our “waywardness” hurts God just as much as a spouse hurts when their partner is having an affair. We need to remember that not only are we violating the Law of God when we sin, but we are destroying a loving relationship with him. This also plays into the term we often use for sinners – “lost”. We are lost to God, who is longing for us and seeking us. We do not have to seek after God. God is already seeking after us, longing for us. We just need to stop and turn around…
1. What is the significance of the fact that the “family metaphor” is an ontological reality of the Trinity?
A: the familial metaphor shows that the Trinity has belonged to each other from the beginning in the first familial structure. The Father gives life to the Son. The Son receives and gives life that was from the Father. This is the very distinct nature of the other-oriented self-giving love. Only from this love, from the Father and between the two, there is the Holy Spirit.
2. Describe, using the nuptial metaphor, the meaning of “an adulterous heart”.
A: This adulterous heart is how we have stayed away from God and welcome idols or others in his place. When we’ve loved someone or something like we are to love him. When the covenant that God has gave us broken. I also look at scriptures of Jesus being the “bridegroom” and us or the church as his “bride”.
I agree. We easily get distracted by other things that seem “better” than God just because it takes less effort.
Good work. It’s interesting how much human families show the relationship within the Trinity. “For this reason, a man shall leave his mother and father and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” God has not only told us how He exists, but shown us. Producing life by having children completes the “three” (even though we might have multiple children). I’ve often said also that marriage is the test of living a sanctified life, how each partner surrenders to the other, and thus shows how the members of the Trinity defer to each other.
1. What is the significance of the fact that the “family metaphor” is an ontological reality of the Trinity?
A: The nature of God containing the metaphor of a familial relationship brings significance to the way God wishes to relate to us, as well as reveal His nature through our own relationships. God’s existence in the familial relationship is what allows Him to be in his essence loving, having the love of both parent and child before the world began. It also shows how God wishes to relate to us, as God’s love is inherently relational, the love he wishes to have with us is that of our being His children. Third, it forms the very basis of our relationships here on earth, all of having been a child and having been in a family relationship, and many also being in the role of parent, which serves as a means to understand the relationship God wants with us.
2. Describe, using the nuptial metaphor, the meaning of “an adulterous heart”.
A: The marriage relationship God wants to have with us reflects an intimate knowing of each other, however, if we turn our hearts away from God we violate that monogamous, intimate, and nuptial relationship through giving ourselves to another in spiritual adultery, damaging our relationship with God through our adultery (though of course not beyond possible repair or restitution from God through the work of His Son).
And to answer your question from last week’s discussion Rev. Phillips;
“What do you think of Kinlaw’s view of self-giving love and its significance in understanding God’s will for us?”
A: I find Kinlaws view scripturally based, bringing much insight in how God interacts with all his creation. With God being in His essence self-giving love, and that we are made in His image, it reflects the very core of our relational existence with God and our fellow man, and how we are to, getting to the heart of Jesus’ command, in Mat. 22 v. 37-40 ”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Good, Jackson. We learn most about the reality of the Trinity by experiencing how God relates to us. In salvation, we have an intimacy with God that we cannot explain, but it is there. God gives us his presence in salvation, which is the Holy Spirit. We are drawn into the life of the Trinity. We do not have to understand all that it means, but we can experience it. We have it, but we must also continue to desire it in order to experience it.
1. What is the significance of the fact that the “family metaphor” is an ontological reality of the Trinity?
God planned for each person to have a healthy relationship. This requires a father and a mother to complete the human family dynamic producing fruit from their love, just as the Trinity depicts. Thus, the Holy Spirit is generated from the love between the Father and the Son. So too, the love between Christ and His Church produces disciples, the fruit of that holy union. In the family, we discover ourselves, a living person who can understand, touch, and love another person, unit, or group. The first family of the holy Trinity is ontologically what God is seeking in the family with His creation. In essence, the Trinity is the biblical example of what the human family should be.
2. Describe, using the nuptial metaphor, the meaning of “an adulterous heart.”
Using the nuptial metaphor, the meaning of an “adulterous heart” is a negative quality born and raised in the human nature. In small, controlled portions it can stimulate a jealousy than can create a healthy competition in sports or the workplace. Left unchecked, it can be very damaging, even destroying relationships between friends or loved ones. God’s positive jealousy is to love and be loved. This is a precious attitude in humans but if this attitude is taken to the extreme, it becomes an adulterous heart bent on wandering, unfaithfulness, and never being satisfied. Israel initially formed a covenant with God to be faithful to His teachings and His laws. This covenant relationship was viewed as a marriage between God and His people. Even so, Israel had an adulterous heart which led her away to become idolatrous. She could not, nor would not be faithful to her first love. Thus, she broke the marriage vows when she wandered to other gods.
Good Sharon,
The story of Hosea is the perfect example of what God means by idolatry being “adulterous”. The Lord told Hosea to marry a prostitute, who even bears him children. However, he finds that she is unfaithful, and sends her away. In the end, though, she ends up in debt and is about to be sold into slavery. The Lord tells Hosea to go and purchase her back, then make her his wife again. It’s strange that God would make such a display, but it served as a warning to Israel about how their idolatry would lead to their enslavement, but that God would be there to pick up the pieces when they were at their lowest point. A very visual representation of sin and redemption.
1. What is the significance of the fact that the “family metaphor” is an ontological reality of the Trinity?
The parent-child relationship explains how we relate to the example set by the father-son relationship. Jesus was a man, but also a divine being. We were created to be Christ-like.
2. Describe, using the nuptial metaphor, the meaning of “an adulterous heart”.
We were created to have a close, intimate relationship, similar to that of a married couple. When we turn away from God and become rebellious, we are saying that we care more about what we want than God’s design for our lives, even though we know it breaks His heart.