"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God [is] one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.... " Deut. 6:4-5
When tempted in the wilderness and urged to worship Satan rather than the true God, Jesus, making reference to Deut. 6:13, said: "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matt. 4:10).
But who is the LORD God whom we are to worship and serve? Who are we to love with all our heart, soul and might? Who are we to trust for our eternal salvation?
In Deut. 6:4, God reveals the fact that the LORD God (Jehovah Elohim) is one Jehovah. But the very name of God, Jehovah (singular) and Elohim (plural) indicates that God is one God and yet more than one Person. Consider the plurality of persons and the oneness of God revealed in passages like Gen. 1:2; 1:26-27; 3:22-24; Psalm 2; Num. 6:22-27; Isa. 48:16-17.
In Matthew 28:19, Jesus commands baptism in the name of the true God with the words: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost...." We therefore learn that the three persons of the Godhead are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Consider other passages speaking of the Trinity, such as 1 John 5:7; 1 Pet. 1:2; 2 Cor. 13:14; Isa. 48:16-17.
And so, Christians believe and teach that the true God, who has revealed Himself to us in the Bible is one God and three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There are not three Gods but one God, and yet each Person is fully God and equal in divine attributes such as being eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing.
The Father begets the Son from all eternity, the Son is begotten of the Father from all eternity, and the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son from all eternity (cf. Psalm 2:7; John 1:18; 3:16; 14:15-26; John 16:7-16).
To worship and serve the true God, we must worship and serve the Triune (three/one) God who is one God and yet three Persons. Those who deny the Son, do not know or worship the Father (cf. John 14:6-7; 1 John 2:23; 2 John 9), and apart from the Spirit, we cannot know or trust in the Father or the Son (cf. 1 Cor. 12:3).
We thank Thee, O gracious Holy Spirit, for revealing to us the Father and the Son and making known to us the salvation provided for us through the atoning sacrifice of God the Son for the sins of all people. Keep us in the one true faith that we might worship and glorify You, with the Father and the Son, ever one God for all eternity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
[Devotion by Randy Moll. Scripture from the King James Version of the Bible. More devotions are available at www.goodshepherdrogers.org.]
Editorial on 06/18/2014