Inter-Varsity Press

Contents

Preface

1 Nothing Without Love

2 Love That Is Better Than Life

3 Love Is Not Irritable

4 Love’s Holy Joy

5 Love Waits

6 Love’s Full Extent

7 Love Hopes

8 Love Is Not Self-Seeking

9 Love Bears All Things

10 Love Trusts

11 Love Forgives

12 Love Never Fails

Preface

“To write on the love of God is the Christian theologian’s supreme privilege and supreme responsibility.” Thus says Kevin Vanhoozer, who teaches theology at Wheaton College. In addition to a privilege and a responsibility, to write on the love of God is also this: a theologian’s supreme humiliation.

Presumably, only a lover is able to write about love. Yet if there is one area of my life where I know that I fall short of the character of Christ, it is having true love for God and my neighbor.

Nevertheless, my sometimes loveless heart is compelled to testify to the truth of God’s love in Jesus Christ. This book started with nearly the last sermon series that I preached at Philadelphia’s Tenth Presbyterian Church. The heartfelt, Christ-like love of that congregation helped sustain my ministry there for fifteen years. Yet for all the love that we shared as a church family, we still found that we had seemingly infinite room to grow in the love of God. Studying 1 Corinthians 13 in a Christ-centered way helped us—as I hope it will help you—to learn how to love the way Jesus loves.

As a demonstration of their love, several friends and colleagues helped to improve this book as it made its way to publication. Lynn Cohick, David Collins, Lois Denier, Tom Schwanda, and LaTonya Taylor all read the manuscript, making needed corrections and suggesting numerous ways to strengthen the exposition and application of the biblical text. Robert Polen checked facts and offered administrative assistance. Nancy Ryken Taylor prepared the study questions. Marilee Melvin entered the final revisions. Lydia Brownback and other friends at Crossway edited the book and shepherded it to the press. These labors of love will help you see the love of Jesus more clearly in the pages of this book.

As I was studying 1 Corinthians 13, I read a testimony from World Harvest Mission that expressed my own need for more of the love of Jesus. A missionary wrote:

Upon returning home from a day of relief supply distribution, I joined my three-year-old daughter in the kitchen. She was drawing a picture of our family. I noticed what appeared to be me standing somewhat at a distance from the rest of the family wearing what was clearly a frown. “Is that Daddy?” I asked. “Yes,” came the sheepish reply. “Why am I frowning?” She said, “Daddy, you never smile anymore.”

The man proceeded to ask for help. “Pray for me,” he wrote. “I want to apply this message of God’s love to this cold, hard heart.” The missionary’s prayer is my prayer, too, and I hope you will make it your prayer as you read this book: “Lord Jesus, apply the gospel of your love to my cold, hard heart.”

Phil Ryken

Wheaton College