At least, a great part of the moral rectitude of God, whereby he is disposed to every thing that is fit, suitable, and amiable [i.e., pleasant, admirable] in itself, consists in his having the highest regard to that which is in itself highest and best. The moral rectitude of God must consist in a due respect to things that are objects of moral respect; that is, to intelligent beings capable of moral actions and relations. And therefore it must chiefly consist in giving due respect to that Being to whom most is due; for God is infinitely the most worthy of regard. The worthiness of others is as nothing to his; so that to him belongs all possible respect. To him belongs the whole of the respect that any intelligent being is capable of. To him belongs ALL the heart. Therefore, if moral rectitude of heart consists in paying the respect of the heart which is due, or which fitness and suitableness requires, fitness requires the greatest respect to be paid to God; and the denying of supreme regard here would be a conduct infinitely the most unfit. Hence it will follow, that the moral rectitude of the disposition, inclination, or affection of God CHIEFLY consists in a regard to HIMSELF, infinitely above his regard to all other beings; in other words, his holiness consists in this. Jonathan Edwards
The above statement by Edwards (or at least the thought) should be considered to be the fountain of all things and all theology. Since the heart of theology is the study of God and living unto God, it would appear obvious that the study of theology would be at the heart of all things. This would also show how the nature and character of God would be absolutely vital to all things. While it may not be obvious to fallen man, how God relates to Himself as triune and the reasons for which God does things are absolutely in how things are to be viewed.
There is a huge theological and conceptual divide regarding God and how He relates to His creatures. On the one side we have people thinking that to some degree how God acts toward His creatures is related to their value and/or merit or works. In some regards historical Protestantism seems to think that this does not point toward them at all, but in fact it does. While many will hold to some theoretical concept of justification by faith alone, yet in many ways they have the idea of merit in their thinking when it comes to sanctification or answers to prayer. This is also seen in how people react in the hard things of life. We have a hard time believing (at times) that something happened to us, so our response is to think that we have done something wrong or God has not seen our good behavior. In all of these occasions we tend to think that God does what He does to us and toward us because of what we have done. This can be and often is a works based system.
The biblical system is that God works all things for Himself and based on Himself. When we are told to pray in the name of Christ, what this means is that we are to pray for the sake of the glory of Christ and on the basis of the merits of Christ. His name is not some magic word that we add on to the end of prayer in order to talk God into giving us what we want, but instead it is to pray with a God-centered motive and on the merits of Christ.
Why does God forgive sins? It is for the sake of His name and for the glory of His name. We tend to think of forgiveness as related to ourselves and how we long to be forgiven in order to obtain something we want, but God forgives sins because of Himself. “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name’s sake” (Psalm 79:9). It leaves man without any hope or strength in self so men resist the idea that God is self-centered and does all for Himself, though man wants all to be done for himself. In reality, however, there is no firmer foundation than the fact that God does forgive for the glory of His own name. If He forgives on the basis of man’s merit or worth, then there could be no forgiveness at all since man has no merit or worth before God. But since God does all for His own name and glory, He can forgive sins on the greatest of all foundations. Again, the greatest aspect of all Christian theology is that God does all that He does for the glory of His own name. If we begin to see and love that, we will see the firmest foundation is in fact that very truth.
God Loves... Himself 
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