The Bible’s, and Christianity’s, claim that a Triune God has created all things for the specific purpose of reflecting who He is differs from every other faith system because every other faith system claims either a belief in one, unipersonal god, many separate unipersonal gods, or no god at all. If the claim of one, unipersonal god is true then love cannot be at the core of who that god is. Power can be at the core of that god. Selfishness can be at the core of that god. But, love cannot be at the core because if there exists one, unipersonal god then there is no one for that god to be loving towards before anything else existed.

If If the claim of multiple, unipersonal competing gods is true then love cannot be at the center either. Again, power and selfishness and competition can be, but love cannot be at the core of those gods because the very pursuit of those gods is to claim their own jurisdiction, their own demands, their own ultimate reality.

If the claim that there is no god is true, then obviously love cannot be at the core. If this is the case then love, good, evil, right, wrong, and truth is whatever we define it as. Not only can love not be at the core, it is actually impossible for love to exist at all. Without someone who can define what love is we cannot have love at all.

But, if the Creator of all things is a God who exists as One God in Three Persons who have eternally existed in a perfectly loving, unified, selfless community then not can love be at the core, love must be at the core. This results in Christianity having a completely different motivation than every other faith system.

The implications of a Triune and loving Creator, and of us being formed in the image and likeness of this God, are that at the core of our purpose and design is love. As Jesus answered, when asked what the greatest commandment was, loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves is what God desires most. This is the motivation of Christianity. Our pursuit is not to prove ourselves, or to impress God in order to gain some ultimate end result. Our pursuit is not to dominate or rule over others. Our pursuit is grow in the knowledge of God’s love in order to better reflect that love to the rest of creation. Our aim is to receive God’s grace and mercy in order that we might extend that grace and mercy to others. Our goal is to grow in God’s Truth and holiness in order that we might stand for truth and holiness in a world of deceit and sin. Our call is to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This all culminates in our ultimate purpose being to image and reflect this loving and Triune God to the world around us.

If love is at the core of creation then sin is simply choosing to love someone or something other than God first. And, at the heart of that choice ultimately is the desire for us to be the god of our own Universe, to define good and evil for ourselves. Or, to put it another way, sin is replacing love with selfishness. Since the Universe is designed to run on love, and since we were given the responsibility to oversee and steward creation by reflecting that love out into the world, when we choose sin and selfishness instead then it is like putting water in the gas tank of a car. It may look and feel like gasoline, but water can never be a legitimate substitute for gasoline when it comes to the engine of a car. If we attempt to put water in our gas tank the car is going to break down and the engine will fall apart. In the same way, when we live out of the selfish desires of our hearts rather than out of a place of unconditional love towards God and others we fracture God’s creation. Creation begins to come unraveled. Death replaces life. Selfishness replaces love. Tyranny replaces submission. The lust for power replaces the love of others.

When we put our faith in what Jesus has done the core essence of our design, namely unconditional love, is put back in place. If sin comes from fear and insecurity resulting in self-preservation and selfishness, then obedience comes from the security and confidence of knowing the King of the Universe has loved us and called us His own. And, we can know beyond the shadow of a doubt that this is true because Scripture tells us, “God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans. 5:8). The truth of that love, combined with the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, both reconciles us back to the heart of God and His purpose for our lives and empowers us to actually live that purpose out as we seek to image God and love our neighbors as ourselves.