Theme | February 2023

(How to) Love Thy Neighbor

Love has been taken captive. Like a prisoner reading a prepared statement under threat, love has been misused to justify anything from child mutilation, LGBTQ practice, and euthanasia, to name a few. Beyond this, slogans surround us that promise “love is love,” and “all you need is love.” This month we examine genuine love of neighbor, along with the false parody of it. And we do this anchored in the greatest love mankind has ever known.
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Table of Contents

Concise

Lawful Love: How the Law Preserves and Propels Our Love

By David Schrock • Concise Article • February 1
The words "Love" and "Law" make for an odd couple, but these two words together explain the fundamental nature of Christian love.
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Concise

The Hostility of Loving Your Neighbor

By Chase Davis • Concise Article • February 2
What better way to enforce obedience than to dress up a command that is not in the Bible with language that is from the Bible? "Love your neighbor" indeed.
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Concise

The True Nature of Love, God’s and Ours: Love without God Becomes Wicked

By Ardel Caneday • Concise Article • February 3
As we reject God and slouch towards Gomorrah, we find that the erotic "free love" that promised so much ultimately fails to deliver true love of neighbor.
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Longform

The True Nature of Love, God’s and Ours: Love is from God and Imitates Him

By Ardel Caneday • Longform Essay • February 6
Does God love everything in the same way? The answer is a five-fold "no."
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Podcast

2.6 Ardel Caneday • Reading • “The True Nature of Love, God’s and Ours”

By Ardel Caneday • Podcast Reading • February 6
As we reject God and slouch towards Gomorrah, we find that the erotic "free love" that promised so much ultimately fails to deliver true love of neighbor. We also find that God does not love everyone in the same way.
Listen to Podcast
Concise

The Counter-Cultural Nature of Love in John’s Gospel

By Drake Isabell • Concise Article • February 7
Is it loving or unloving to go to a so-called same-sex wedding? The apostle John weighs in.
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Concise

The First and Second Commandments as Fundamental to Political Philosophy

By Jonathon Woodyard • Concise Article • February 8
Aren’t we better off closing our eyes to political involvement, saving our opinions for the private voting booth, and simply loving our neighbor? Won't this be more evangelistically effective?
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Concise

How God Turns Enemies Into Friends of Friends

By Brad Green • Concise Article • January 10
The gospel message in Isaiah 52:7 includes the announcement, “Your God reigns.” But how is this good news? And what if you are an enemy of this God and an enemy of others?
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Concise

What Wondrous Love is This?

By David Christensen • Concise Article • February 13
At the cross, we behold a love like no other—a soul-satisfying love that reveals the very character of God himself.
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Podcast

2.7 Ardel Caneday, David Schrock, Stephen Wellum • Interview • “The True Nature of Love, God’s and Ours”

By Ardel Caneday, David Schrock, Stephen Wellum • Podcast Interview • February 13
As we reject God and slouch towards Gomorrah, we find that the erotic "free love" that promised so much ultimately fails to deliver true love of neighbor. We also find that God does not love everyone in the same way. Listen to Ardel Caneday, David Schrock, and Stephen Wellum discuss Dr. Caneday's longform essay, "The True Nature of Love, God's and Ours."
Listen to Podcast
Concise

Loving Those Caught in Gender Ideology: The Ethics and Metaphysics of Sexual Identity

By Ryan T. Anderson • Concise Article • February 14
Don't "intersex" conditions prove that gender is non-binary? And isn't it unloving to call a "transgender woman" a man? And why are puberty blockers such a big deal anyway?
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Concise

Love, Francis Schaeffer, and Euthanasia

By Christopher Talbot • Concise Article • February 16
"Have you nothing to contribute? Then we're better off without you." So says the culture of death. However, everyone—from the pre-born to the aged—has inherent dignity and worth as God's image bearers.
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Concise

The BioLogos Statement vs. The Frankfurt Declaration: Two Opposite Evangelical Responses to the State’s Power

By Jacob Reaume • Concise Article • February 17
Commitment to Christ and commitment to government control ought not be conflated. Yet, some Evangelical responses to COVID-19 revealed the temptation to do just that.
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Longform

The Moral Meaning of Loving One’s Neighbor

By Andrew Walker • Longform Essay • February 20
The world's meager idea of love as mutual affirmation pales in comparison to the robust view of love presented in Scripture. True love of neighbor refuses to uphold tacit lies, but instead seeks human flourishing lived out in God's ordered reality.
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Concise

Thou Shalt Be Vaccinated: When “Love Thy Neighbor” Does Not Fulfill the Law

By Stephen Wellum • Concise Article • February 20
Did "loving your neighbor" require getting vaccinated against Covid-19? What is most loving today in hindsight? And have we learned nothing from history?
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Podcast

2.8 Andrew Walker • Reading • “The Moral Meaning of Loving One’s Neighbor”

By Andrew Walker • Podcast Reading • February 20
The world's meager idea of love as mutual affirmation pales in comparison to the robust view of love presented in Scripture. True love of neighbor refuses to uphold tacit lies, but instead seeks human flourishing lived out in God's ordered reality.
Listen to Podcast
Concise

Into the Light: Why Two Christian Men Made a Documentary About Pornography

By Jacob Valk & John-Michael Bout • Concise Article • February 21
Learn more about Into the Light, a new teaching documentary on pornography, and learn how this issue relates to loving one's neighbor.
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Concise

Love and Liberty Part One—Loving Your Neighbor and Your Free Christian Conscience

By Ardel Caneday • Concise Article • February 22
Does love of neighbor compel one to receive the COVID-19 vaccination? And is such compulsion really loving if it violates your neighbor's conscience?
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Concise

Love and Liberty Part Two—Loving Your Neighbor and Your Free Christian Conscience

By Ardel Caneday • Concise Article • February 23
When it comes to matters of conscience, Christians have two biblical options: choose freely in faith, or sin. How do these categories relate to vaccines and mask mandates?
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Concise

No Boys Allowed in the Girls’ Locker Room: Why Riley Gaines’s Protest is Loving

By Abby Ross • Concise Article • February 24
Allowing men to compete in women's sports tells lies about the people involved and about the God who made them. Love of God and neighbor compels Christians to stand boldly for truth despite the world's judgment.
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Concise

Science and its Shortcomings: A Book Review of Mattias Desmet, The Psychology of Totalitarianism

By Brad Green • Concise Article • February 27
Can we understand the world on the basis of science alone? And how does an inflated view of science contribute to the rise of totalitarianism?
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Podcast

2.9 Andrew Walker, David Schrock, Stephen Wellum • Interview • “The Moral Meaning of Loving One’s Neighbor”

By Andrew Walker, David Schrock, Stephen Wellum • Podcast Interview • February 27
The world's meager idea of love as mutual affirmation pales in comparison to the robust view of love presented in Scripture. True love of neighbor refuses to uphold tacit lies, but instead seeks human flourishing lived out in God's ordered reality.
Listen to Podcast
Concise

The February Intermission: From Defining Love to Defending the Pastorate

By David Schrock • Concise Article • February 28
A recap of February's articles and podcasts on how to love thy neighbor, and a preview of March's theme on men and women in the church.
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Concise

Encore: Is It Loving for a Faithful Christian to Go to a “Gay Wedding”?

By Robert A. J. Gagnon • Concise Article • March 10
The answer is a clear, unflinching, biblical, "No!"—motivated by a love that far exceeds the love of every single wedding guest.
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The Best Resources from Around the Web

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The Freedom of a Christian: A New Translation

by Martin Luther

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Dancing in the Mine Fields

by Andrew Peterson

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This is Love: Tracing the Love of God Throughout the Biblical Story

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Love Your Neighbor as Yourself • John Piper

by John Piper

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Love Your Neighbor • C.H. Spurgeon

by C. H. Spurgeon

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Love Your Neighbor • Voddie Baucham

by Voddie Baucham

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Love Your Neighbor • R. C. Sproul

by R. C. Sproul

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Love in Hard Places

by D. A. Carson

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The Mark of the Christian

by Francis Schaeffer

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The Rule of Love: How the Local Church Should Reflect God’s Love and Authority

by Jonathan Leeman

Applying All the Scriptures to All of Life

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Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Editor-in-Chief: David Schrock  •  Theological Editors: Stephen Wellum, Ardel Caneday, Brad Green  •  Pastoral Editor: Trent Hunter  •  Managing Editor: Kevin McClure  •  Assistant Editor: Luke Uhl  

Editorial Email: Christisoverall@gmail.com

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