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The Message of Love: The Only Thing That Counts
Love – such a deceptively simple and popular little word.
It is almost universally agreed that we need love in order to live and flourish as human beings; and yet within our contemporary culture there are numerous confusing, competing and evolving ideas about what ‘love’ is.
There are few greater subjects in Christian theology than love; yet it is a surprisingly complex and challenging concept to understand, let alone live by. Patrick Mitchel’s conviction is that Christians need to be thinking about, and practising, love in compelling and winsome ways. Our task is not only to articulate what love is, but also to show to the world what authentic Christian love looks like in practice. ‘The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love’ (Gal. 5:6 NIV).
Mitchel’s exposition explores love in the Old Testament; how the love of God is supremely revealed in the mission and death of Jesus Christ; love in the life and teaching of Jesus; and the church’s calling to be a community of love. He helps us to grasp afresh the breadth, depth, scope, and radically counter-cultural nature of the Bible’s teaching on love.
336 pages, Paperback
Published September 19, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 27, 2021
The most recent addition to IVP's thematic series of Bible Themes, Mitchel's treatment of 17 Bible passages gives a very good overview the ideas around love found in the Bible in the OT, NT, life and work of Jesus and in the life of the Church. He is widely read and treats this vast and contested subject with great diligence, not dismissing notions of love in the world but not being driven by them either. Highly recommended to anyone.
August 17, 2020
This book is very thorough, but extremely dense. It is a hard and long read that I probably would not have gotten through without accountable. It tackles the idea of love in the Bible and was good at its job. I would recommend to read, but just be aware of the time commitment.
January 29, 2020
It’s a fuzzy subject that can evoke strong responses, and rarely gets defined because it’s assumed everyone simply “knows” what it is. I’m referring to that old four-letter word, “Love”. That’s what makes “The Message of Love: The Only Thing that Counts” by Patrick Mitchel, Senior Lecturer at the Irish Bible Institute in Dublin, and elder in Maynooth Community Church, Maynooth Ireland, such an important work. This 336-page softback is one of the newer installments in “The Bible Speaks Today” series edited by Derek Tidball. This volume is thorough, exegetical, thoughtful and engaging.
In the introduction Mitchel defines love, and then sets about to show how that definition differs from the alternatives served up today: romantic idealized love; hyper-sexualized love; all-inclusive love; and universal love. The author then asserts that “Christian love is increasingly at odds with contemporary romantic, sentimental and consumerist notions of love…There is nothing easy or soft about Christian love” (10). Next, he deposits his aim for the book that it is written for Christians, especially as we seek to hold together “the love and judgment of God, what it means to love and follow Jesus in a consumer culture or what it means that Christian marriage is a covenant of love” (op.cit.).
The lion’s share of the book, thenceforth, walks through sacred Scripture, from the Old Testament through Jesus to the church, expounding what the Bible actually says about love. Chapter after chapter the author carefully unpacks exemplary passages of Holy Writ. Throughout, Mitchel doesn’t shy away from God’s justice and judgment and its place in regard to divine love, but rather, he holds an unpopular but clearly scriptural line. As he states, “God is a lover but also a just judge. The Bible sees no incompatibility between divine love and judgment” (271). Similarly, he sticks to the ways God’s love, and his people’s love, really is costly and muscular. It is a book worth delving into! My only beef with the book is the fact it promotes an ethic of non-violence in any situation (if I’m reading it correctly). My only doubt in the book is the way it handles Ephesians 5:21-33, marriage, and submission, and yet completely skips Titus 2:5.
“The Message of Love” was a Christmas gift from my dear friend, Paul Rebelo, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to have read it. I will be referring back to it for years to come. With the study guide in the back of the manuscript, this book would be ideal for a group Bible study. And I think every pastor who believes that the Scriptures are the final rule of faith and life should snatch up a copy and pour over it, with pen and highlighter in hand. I happily recommend the book.
In the introduction Mitchel defines love, and then sets about to show how that definition differs from the alternatives served up today: romantic idealized love; hyper-sexualized love; all-inclusive love; and universal love. The author then asserts that “Christian love is increasingly at odds with contemporary romantic, sentimental and consumerist notions of love…There is nothing easy or soft about Christian love” (10). Next, he deposits his aim for the book that it is written for Christians, especially as we seek to hold together “the love and judgment of God, what it means to love and follow Jesus in a consumer culture or what it means that Christian marriage is a covenant of love” (op.cit.).
The lion’s share of the book, thenceforth, walks through sacred Scripture, from the Old Testament through Jesus to the church, expounding what the Bible actually says about love. Chapter after chapter the author carefully unpacks exemplary passages of Holy Writ. Throughout, Mitchel doesn’t shy away from God’s justice and judgment and its place in regard to divine love, but rather, he holds an unpopular but clearly scriptural line. As he states, “God is a lover but also a just judge. The Bible sees no incompatibility between divine love and judgment” (271). Similarly, he sticks to the ways God’s love, and his people’s love, really is costly and muscular. It is a book worth delving into! My only beef with the book is the fact it promotes an ethic of non-violence in any situation (if I’m reading it correctly). My only doubt in the book is the way it handles Ephesians 5:21-33, marriage, and submission, and yet completely skips Titus 2:5.
“The Message of Love” was a Christmas gift from my dear friend, Paul Rebelo, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to have read it. I will be referring back to it for years to come. With the study guide in the back of the manuscript, this book would be ideal for a group Bible study. And I think every pastor who believes that the Scriptures are the final rule of faith and life should snatch up a copy and pour over it, with pen and highlighter in hand. I happily recommend the book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews