Scripture repeatedly and emphatically commands us to live in love (Eph. 5:2) and to put love above and before all things (Col. 3:14, 1 Peter 4:8). It tells us that if we love, we fulfill everything else the Lord requires of us (Gal. 5:14). But that if we don’t love, nothing else we do is of any value (1 Cor. 13:1-3). Our God-like love is to be the distinguishing mark of the believer: the proof that God is real and that God is love (1 John 4:7-5:2).
The thesis of this book is that love is the central goal of creation and thus of the Christian life, and that its main obstacle is our getting life from our knowledge of good and evil – from our judgment. It may be difficult for some to think of sin as getting life from our knowledge of good and evil. It is like becoming aware of the air that you’ve breathed all your life. It is much easier and initially more self-rewarding to view sin in terms of evil that is “out there.” This failure is what keeps us from experiencing the life of Christ fully and is largely responsible for our inability to bear the kind of witness to which God calls us. I encourage the reader to combine his or her consideration of this book with much thought and prayer.
Chapter 1 – Dancing with the Triune God
This is a book on love and its main obstacle – the “original sin,” the “knowledge of good and evil.” We will do well, therefore, to start by defining what we mean by love.
There is a kind of love that is universal and unconditional. It is the kind of love referred to as agape. This love is not a feeling one has. It is rather a commitment one makes, a stance one takes toward another, and an activity one does. Agape is a kind of love you can have when there’s nothing about the other that you like, when you have no romantic interest in the other, and even when the other is your enemy rather than your friend. As revealed through Jesus Christ, agape is most fundamentally the love God had for us while we were yet sinners and the kind of love we are commanded to have toward all others.
The Bible doesn’t give us an abstract definition of agape love. It rather points us to its perfect expression in the person of Jesus Christ, dying for us on a cross. In the words of Paul, “God proves his love [agape] for us in that while we still were sinners Christ dies for us.” (Romans 5:8) The cross was the price he was willing to pay to make this happen, and this speaks volumes about the worth he ascribes to you and me. It is the act of unconditionally ascribing worth to another at a cost to oneself. Out of the fullness of life and love we freely receive from God, we are called and empowered by God’s grace to replicate this love in our relationships with God, ourselves, and all other people. This is the nature of agape love.
Boyd, Gregory A. Repenting of Religion – Turning from Judgment to the Love of God. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004.