The other concept of freedom belongs to the language of community and fellowship. Here ‘free’ has the same etymological rood as ‘friendly’; its cognates in meaning are ‘kind’, ‘to be well disposed’ to give pleasure’. The German word for hospitable, gastfrei (literally guest-free’) still shows this meaning even today. If we take this line of approach, freedom does not mean lordship; it means friendship. This freedom consists of the mutual and common participation in life, and a communication in which there is neither lordship nor servitude. In their reciprocal participation in life, people become free beyond the limitation of their own individuality.
Which of these freedoms corresponds to God’s freedom? The triune God reveals himself as love in the fellowship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. His freedom therefore lies in the friendship which he offers men and women, and through which he makes them his friends. His freedom is his vulnerable love, his openness, the encountering kindness through which he suffers with the human beings he loves and becomes their advocate, thereby throwing open their future to them. God demonstrates his eternal freedom through his suffering and his sacrifice, through his self-giving and his patience. Through his freedom he keeps man, his image, and his world, creation, free – keeps them free and pays the price of their freedom.
Quoted from The Trinity and the Kingdom, p. 56