What is Love?  God’s Answer to Humanity’s Question, Kyle Borg.  Pittsburgh: Grassmarket Press, 2022.  Softcover, 135 pages.

This little book is yet another volume in Grassmarket Press’s “Bedrock Series.”  This series “aims to provide clear, concise books on Christian doctrine and life from a Reformed and Presbyterian perspective.”  Having read several of them now, I have yet to read one that falls short of that aim.  More than that, I’ve enjoyed them, including this one by Kyle Borg from a couple of years ago.

This book tackles the topic of love.  Many years ago, D.A. Carson wrote a little book, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God.  That book focused on one aspect of the Bible’s teaching on love and Borg goes into that here as well, though in a way that makes it really quite simple.  But he also goes beyond that to include teaching on what the Bible says about how we’re to love one another.  Expositing the well-known passage of 1 Corinthians 13, Borg outlines what love is and what it isn’t. 

The book begins with one question:  “What is love?”  Our culture has its answers, but what does the Bible say?  Borg then proceeds to answer many other questions we might ask.  These include:  does God love everyone?  What about the love we read about between David and Jonathan?  What was going on there between them?  What about love in marriage?  “When you don’t feel in love with your significant other, how do you still love?” (p.119).  Read the book to find out.   

Two of the most insightful chapters occur early in the book.  Chapter 2 is entitled “Love isn’t God.” Here Borg explains how making love divine ends up elevating our idea of love over God as he reveals himself in the Bible.  The next chapter is the counterpoint:  “God is Love.”  The author has a great explanation of love as one of God’s attributes.  If love must always have an object, and if God’s attributes are always true of him, whom did God love before he created humanity and other creatures?  If you don’t know the answer, this book is for you. 

I appreciated that Borg underlined the greatest expression of God’s love in the incarnation.  He writes, “The sending of his only Son into the world is the greatest demonstration of love imaginable – it’s self-giving in the greatest sense” (p.31).  Then he gives this great quote from Octavius Winslow:  “Who delivered Jesus up to die?  Not Judas for money; not Pilate for fear; not the Jews for envy; — but the Father, for love.”  So beautiful! 

Borg has a breezy, conversational writing style.  There are many illustrations and personal anecdotes to keep your interest.  If you want a nice little book that will get you thinking widely and deeply about love – both God’s love and ours – this one is hard to beat.

Originally published in Clarion 74.01 (January 17, 2025)