The Importance Of Healthy Interpersonal And Intrapersonal Relationships

The important role that healthy interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships play is depicted in the model of the Trinity. According to Darrell Johnson’s Experiencing the Trinity, “we are created and redeemed to enter into the love each person of the Trinity has for the other” (64). This statement encompasses both intrapersonal and interpersonal interactions. The Trinity is one; thus the love that each person in the Trinity has towards another person in the Trinity is the love that the Trinity has for itself as a whole. In essence, the Trinity relates to itself with love. Johnson’s statement also makes it clear that there is an interpersonal relational aspect to the model of the Trinity. God created people to enter into the love that the Trinity holds for itself. Thus, this model of the Trinity stresses both the importance of the relationships that one has to oneself and the relationship that one has to others. This view is the healthiest form of interpersonal and intrapersonal associations; the relationships are grounded in love. Love is biblically described as being patient and kind, not envious, not boastful, and not self-seeking, “It does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” (1 Cor.13). Therefore, the doctrine of the Trinity not only stresses the importance of one’s interaction with oneself and one’s association with others, but, it also sets forth the healthiest form of the two types of relationships.
Masolino’s Temptations of Adam and Eve depicts an…