The Love Triangle Series

One of the great tragic plays of all time is Shakespeare's Othello. Othello was a general in the

Venetian army. He secretly married Desdemona the daughter of a Venetian senator. Desdemona

was the most lovely of all Shakespeare's characters. She was a beautiful and ideal wife. Othello

was less than the ideal husband, however, for he killed her. There was no reason for this senseless

act of violence, but he was convinced there was a just cause. This is how it happened.

Othello had promoted Cassio to higher rank, but bypassed Iago, and Iago was deeply offended.

So much so that he plotted revenge. His method was to hint and imply to Othello that his wife

Desdemona was involved with Cassio. He arranged that a handkerchief that Othello had given to

his wife be found in the possession of Cassio. By crafty words and clever circumstantial evidence he

succeeded in weaving a pattern of suspicion that put Othello in a jealous rage. In that evil stage of

mind he smothered Desdemona in her bed.

In spite of the fact that Iago killed several people, including his own wife, to keep his evil scheme

hidden, he was found out and sentenced to torture. But Othello, thunderstruck by his senseless

jealousy, kills himself with his own sword crying, "The pity of it. O the pity of it." Indeed, a tragic

story that illustrates the danger of the love triangle. Here was a case where there was no real

triangle, but just the false suspicion, and that was enough to bring many to ruin. When David turned

the love relationship of Uriah and Bathsheba into a love triangle, it could be said that the end result

was a wreck-tangle, for it led to wrecked and tangled lives, and the tragic murder of the innocent, as

was the case in Shakespeare's tragedy. The Bible, literature, and history, all agree that the love

triangle is a plot that leads to tragedy.

In spite of this great danger of the triangle in the realm of romantic love, Jesus makes it clear that

in realm of redemptive love the triangle is not tragic, but tremendous. The love triangle is not only

permissible, but it is promoted as the only love that is complete. Any love that does not go upward

to God, outward to others, and inward to self is as incomplete as a one or two legged tripod.

Augustine said, "Where there is love there is trinity: A lover, a beloved, and a spirit of love."

It makes sense that Jesus would teach the necessity of a triune love. If God is love, and God is

triune, then it follows that love must be triune if it is truly a Godlike love. Any love that lacks the

triune nature tends to become a perversion. But what about romantic love? We just reviewed the

well known fact that the love triangle on that level leads to tragedy. The problem there is a false

picture we have in our minds. The triune nature of romantic love is also beautiful and complete. It

is God, the husband, and the wife who make up the three of the true trinity on that level. It is when a

fourth breaks into the triangle that there is a problem. Four is the number of earth, and three the

number of heaven. Three is the number of heavenly balance even on earth. When Adam and Eve

and God were the only three on the stage of history, all was beautiful. When the fourth, which was

Satan, came on the stage, then came the seed of tragedy.

The point I am making is that love and trinity go together, and anything more or less is not

complete love. On every level, if we rightly understand it, the love triangle is beautiful and

complete. If you eliminate any of the three points on the triangle of love that Jesus portrays as the

fulfillment of the whole law, you will destroy love. If you love God only, and not self or neighbor,

you turn religion into a thing of horror. Men have committed every crime known for the glory of

God, like Saul before he became the complete and loving Paul. He persecuted, tortured, and killed

Christians for the glory of God. He loved God, but proved that without love for man love for God

can turn you into a monster. History is filled with tyrants who claimed love for God while they

crushed their fellow man. John rightly asks, "How can you love God whom you do not see, if you

do not love your brother whom you do see?" John is saying what Jesus is saying, that love that does

not have a triangle shape is not true love.

If one loves himself but not God and others he is not to be admired, for his love is pure