How could the eternal God be Love before He created anything to love?

How could God have been the Creator, and Love, and the Peacemaker for all eternity, before He created the universe? Can He possess these attributes before He created the world? The answer of some intellectuals who do not believe in the Holy Trinity is this: God always has these titles and characteristics potentially but not in actuality; only after the creation does He have them actually . This would mean, on their view, that creation was necessary for the divine attributes of love, peace, mercy, etc., to become actually realized — to become actions rather than just the potential to act.

The Trinitarian doctrine of three Hypostases in one divine essence renders this problem easy to solve: all these characteristics reduce to a single attribute — “love.” Out of love, God created the heavenly and earthly beings. God is merciful, and a peacemaker, and compassionate, etc., because He loves humanity. The Holy Bible says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8); endless love. The Father has always loved the Son, and there was no time when the

Father did not actually love the Son. Thus, as a divine characteristic, love is timeless and eternal both potentially and actually. Love is God, who has loved from before the ages, and will love forever. He has no need of the creation to reveal His characteristics. Our Lord Jesus spoke to His eternal Father, saying, “ for You loved Me before the foundation of the world ” (John 17:24).

The relationship between the eternal and absolute Holy Trinity is revealed to us in God’s dealings with us, especially through His work of salvation. Before surrendering Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ prayed to the Father for our sake, saying, “as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us ... And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one ... And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them ” (John 17:21–26).

Without Trinitarian faith, if we say that God is love from before the ages, we are bound to attribute selfishness to Him — that He loved Himself, since there was no other to love — God forbid! The same holds true for peace, for we would have to ask, “with whom was God at peace before the ages?” In this way, we find that many questions have no answer without the doctrine that God is a Holy Trinity in one divine essence.

This Trinitarian doctrine is founded upon a scriptural understanding of the essence of God who is love. God is not one by being distinguished or isolated from others. The Father exists together with the other two Hypostases in one essence. We must distinguish between “one” in the sense of being distinct from others, and “one” in the sense of singularity. Trinitarian doctrine does not speak of God in terms of a oneness of absolute material individuation, nor does it speak of three separate beings; it speaks of one essence, eternally active both within and without to unite its Hypostases.