The Rule of Love
(Crossway, 2018)
WHO: Jonathan Leeman, editorial director for 9Marks.
HE SAYS: “You cannot separate love and rule. It’s only a question of which love will rule: the love of God, or the love of self?”
THE BIG IDEA: We need to refashion our views of love and authority, and what they have to do with one another.
THE PROGRESSION:
This seven-chapter book, part of the “9Marks” series, begins with a chapter on love in the culture—examining romanticism and its influence over the culture.
Chapter 2, “Love Among the Theologians,” examines man’s approach to love through the ages, from Plato to Thomas Aquinas to Luther. Chapters 3-4, “God’s Love for God, Parts 1-2,” explain how God’s love relates to his holiness and the church.
The final three chapters—“God’s Love for Sinners,” “Love and Judgment” and “Love and Authority—examine how love isn’t defined by itself but by God.
“The church’s gospel word, combined with its practices of membership and discipline, play a crucial role in defining and demonstrating love and authority for the world.”
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