Be Careful with the Trinity

“Fuddy-duddy”. That’s probably how I would get classified in the never-ending conflict between those who think the English language should remain roughly as it is, particularly with the meaning of its words not being changed, and those who think that there should be no limits on something as dynamic as our language, allowing for whatever additions, subtractions, or alterations that might develop. 

It’s not just that I love our language and don’t want anything in or about it to be diminished. It’s also that I fear what will happen to communication and comprehension if we’re not careful to maintain meanings and resist corruptions.

Especially when it comes to words that originate with Christianity or that have been used in a specific way to communicate important Christian truths. It can be difficult or impossible to reclaim such terms once the power has been drained from them. I could give you a list, but today let’s focus on just one:

Trinity.

If you knew even just a fraction of the trouble that the Christian church had in settling on “Trinity” and “Triune” to describe the nature of God, you would likely lose any impulse you might have to treat the term loosely. It took hundreds of years, councils and conferences, letters and sermons, linguistic debates and theological arguments to finally come to a consensus on the proper terminology. The Athanasian Creed is, in many respects, a summary of that consensus.

But since those debates were settled many centuries ago, the common use of “Triune” and “Trinity” has meant that generations after generations of Christians have become familiar with those terms without necessarily appreciating their significance. This has made it too easy to take them for granted and for overuse, misuse, and abuse to rob them of their power and meaning.

One example of this would be the way that people both inside and outside the church will sometimes use “trinity” as a synonym for “trio”, “triad”, “triplet”, etc. But “trinity” is not just a word for three of something. It’s a combination of words for three and one that reflects a reality unique to the Almighty: there are three Persons who are one God — not three persons who work together as a group, or who share a common purpose, or who are very similar. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct and yet not divided; they are three and they are one. This can be properly said of no other thing or things, person or people.

A particularly egregious error of this sort is one I have made myself (and now regret): referring to the three great enemies each Christian faces — the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh — as the “unholy trinity”. While those three certainly cooperate in working to separate us from the Lord and keep us from salvation, they are in no way united. To suggest they are — and in the same way the Father, Son, and Spirit are one — by using the word “trinity” is to pay these sources of evil a compliment they most definitely do not deserve (and dishonors the term and what it represents).

Lack of understanding obviously plays a large part in the misuse of these special terms for God. What “Trinity” and “Triune” signify is beyond human comprehension, even though it is 100% true — and biblically accurate.  Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for humans to mock or call “stupid” what they do not understand — or just presume that it can’t be that important if they can’t wrap their minds around it. 

But when you encounter something that’s a mystery — which God’s Triune nature most certainly is — it’s rarely a good idea to treat it lightly — precisely because you don’t know everything there is to know. Imagine a military planner in time of war saying, “I just don’t get how this nuclear fission thing works, so clearly this atomic bomb they’re threatening us with can’t be a very big deal.”

Which leads us to another reason too many people, especially outside Christianity, but also within the church, are not inclined to be careful with “Trinity”: they lack sufficient fear of the One the term refers to. Whether familiarity has led to contempt, incomprehension has led to underestimation, or the truth that God is loving and merciful has mistakenly led  to an idea that he cannot also be just and powerful, people treat “Trinity” loosely at their peril: mocking the theology it represents, using the term for inappropriate things, or simply stripping it of its meaning.

Since it is, after all, a term that refers to the Almighty Lord and God — and to no one and nothing else — to misuse it is tantamount to misusing the name of God. And you might remember that one of the Ten Commandments is an explicit condemnation of doing that very thing: taking the name of the Lord in vain.

The most common error in using “Triune” and “Trinity”, however, is not so much a misuse as it is a mistake. We Christians hear and read and say the words and just don’t think about them and what they mean — and what they tell us about our glorious and gracious God. This is something we want to be more conscious of, to keep us from taking it — or him — for granted.  It’s good to have one Sunday a year dedicated to the mysterious truth that the Lord Almighty is Triune — but it’s much better if that’s not the only time we give it any thought.