{"id":6317,"date":"2022-01-01T07:45:36","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T14:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/blog\/archives\/"},"modified":"2023-11-02T11:46:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T18:46:19","slug":"the-primacy-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/blog\/archives\/the-primacy-of-love","title":{"rendered":"The Primacy of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I&#8217;m excited about my book, <em>Pluriform Love<\/em>, which is coming out in February!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s an academic book. I think of it as a follow-up to my book, <em>The Uncontrolling Love of God<\/em>. Here&#8217;s an excerpt from the first chapter&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery alignright columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><a href=\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Pro-eBook-Covers-tjoord-_pluriform_6x9-1-5-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Pro-eBook-Covers-tjoord-_pluriform_6x9-1-5-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"6323\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Pro-eBook-Covers-tjoord-_pluriform_6x9-1-5-scaled.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/?attachment_id=6323\" class=\"wp-image-6323\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Pro-eBook-Covers-tjoord-_pluriform_6x9-1-5-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Pro-eBook-Covers-tjoord-_pluriform_6x9-1-5-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Pro-eBook-Covers-tjoord-_pluriform_6x9-1-5-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Pro-eBook-Covers-tjoord-_pluriform_6x9-1-5-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Pro-eBook-Covers-tjoord-_pluriform_6x9-1-5-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Pro-eBook-Covers-tjoord-_pluriform_6x9-1-5-600x900.jpg 600w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Pro-eBook-Covers-tjoord-_pluriform_6x9-1-5-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Primacy of Love<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>     It\u2019s not hard to make a scriptural case for the primacy of love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>     \u201cAnd the greatest of these is love\u201d (1 Cor. 13:13),<a href=\"#_ftn1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a> says the Apostle Paul in what many call the New Testament\u2019s \u201clove chapter.\u201d Love never ends, says Paul, and without love, we are nothing (13:2, 8). Even a person who gave away everything and chose death but did not love would gain nothing (13:3). Above all, we should \u201cpursue love\u201d (1 Cor. 14:1), because it is \u201cthe more excellent way\u201d (1 Cor. 12:31).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>     The one whom Christians believe loved best \u2014 Jesus \u2014 says the greatest commandments orient around love. We should love God and neighbor as ourselves (Mt. 22:34-40; Mk. 12:28-34; Lk. 10:25-28). His commands were not new; we find them in the Old Testament. The law and prophets rest on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>     Salvation is oriented around love. In a passage many Christians memorize, Jesus says, \u201cFor God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life\u201d (Jn. 3:16). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>     \u201cBy this will all know that you are my disciples,\u201d Jesus tells his followers, \u201cif you love one another\u201d (Jn. 13:35). Even obedience is ultimately about love, says Jesus (Jn. 14:15).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>     The New Testament doctor of love, the Apostle John, puts the relationship between God and love simply, \u201cGod is love\u201d (1 Jn. 4:8,16). For millennia, scholars have debated the meaning of this three-word sentence. At a minimum, it positions love as central to who God is and what God does. On a spectrum between literal and symbolic, \u201cGod is love\u201d rests closer to being true literally than perhaps any other biblical statement.<a href=\"#_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> The person who doesn\u2019t love, says John, doesn\u2019t understand God (1 Jn. 4:8).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>     Because God loves, we ought to love. Paul tells Ephesian readers to \u201cimitate God, as dearly beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loves us\u2026\u201d (Eph. 5:1). We can love like God loves, and Jesus is our example of what this looks like. An adequate theology makes sense of divine love as a model to emulate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>     Even before the special incarnation of God in Jesus, biblical authors considered love a, if not <em>the<\/em>, primary divine attribute. The phrase \u201csteadfast love\u201d is the most common Old Testament description of divine activities. The Psalmist often says, \u201cthe earth is full of the steadfast love of God\u201d (Ps. 33:5). Such love is relentlessly loyal. Jeremiah records God declaring, \u201cI loved you with an everlasting love\u201d (31:3). The Chronicler says God loves the chosen people (2 Chr. 2:11) and the Deuteronomist says God loves aliens (Deut. 10:18). God loves all creation (Ps. 117:1). Old Testament writers witness powerfully to divine love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>     A recurring description appears in full form like this: \u201cThe Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin\u2026\u201d (Exod. 34:6-7). No description of God occurs more often in the Old Testament, although it takes various forms and abbreviations.<a href=\"#_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> Old Testament writers describe God as loving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>     The major themes of the Old and New Testaments promote love\u2019s primacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>     Not every biblical passage portrays God as loving, however. Scripture does not provide a consistent voice on love, creaturely or divine. Sometimes, God is portrayed as wanting or causing harm. God threatens to abandon or bring pain. I\u2019ll address this issue later because it\u2019s important. For the moment, I simply say love is the main theme of scripture\u2026 even though contrary themes are also present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>     Christian intellectuals often fail to recognize or promote love\u2019s preeminence. To illustrate, I\u2019ll identify two 21<sup>st<\/sup> century examples, Richard Hays and Millard Erickson. They are among many influential Christians who fail to make love a priority in theology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a> Unless noted, I use the New Revised Standard Version for biblical references.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a> On this claim, see Gustavo Gutierrez, <em>The God of Life <\/em>(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a> I first encountered this claim in the work of Terence Fretheim, <em>The Suffering of God: An Old Testament Perspective<\/em> (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 25. It\u2019s developed in various of Fretheim\u2019s writings, many of which are compiled in <em>What Kind of God? Collected Essays of Terence E. Fretheim<\/em>, Michael J. Chan and Brent A. Strawn, eds. (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2015). For other occurrences of this phrase, see Exod. 20:6; Num. 14:18; Deut. 5:9-10; 7:9; 1 Kings 3:6; 2 Chron. 30:9; Neh. 9:17, 31 Ps. 86:15; 103:8, 17; 106:45; 111:4; 112:4; 145:8; Jer. 30:11; 32:18-19; Lam. 3:32; Dan. 9:4; Joel 2:13; Jon. 4:2; Nah. 1:3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m excited about my book, Pluriform Love, which is coming out in February! It&#8217;s an academic book. I think of it as a follow-up to my book, The Uncontrolling Love of God. Here&#8217;s an excerpt from the first chapter&#8230; The Primacy of Love It\u2019s not hard to make a scriptural case for the primacy of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[7301,7109,665,15],"yst_prominent_words":[2041,7031,6747,5418,2998,2892,2264,2055,2032,1909,1736,1682,1482,1259,1151],"class_list":["post-6317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-love_and_altruism","tag-love-book","tag-pluriform-love","tag-theology-of-love","tag-thomasjayoord"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6317"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}