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"All you need is love," the pop song goes.
But as we look around our personal and public worlds we see that while
love is one of the most visible themes on the horizon, it is quite
apparent that there is still a lot of need. Perhaps we have not understood
what love is really all about, or have not learned to put it into practice
effectively, or both!
Christian A. Schwarz, with the release
of The 3 Colors of Love (the second title to be published in the
"NCD Discipleship Resources Series"), seeks to take the reader beyond the
simplistic version of love that most of us have been trained to read into
the biblical text. To do this, he unpacks the biblical concept of love
into three vital, but often overlooked dimensions, and argues that
biblical love is equal parts justice, truth, and grace. Moreover, contrary
to what most people think, this robust love can be learned, and thus the
second half of the book offers a very creative collection of 20 exercises
that one can engage in on his or her own or in the context of a church
group.
As is characteristic of a "3 Colors" book, Schwarz's analysis of the
subject through the three-colors lens offers completely unique
perspectives on an overworked theme. At times the reader may wish for more
support for a particular conclusion, but in a practical, fast-paced book
like this the author's purpose is to hand the reader a tool that can
transform his life rather than confuse the issues with needless detours
down the byways of academia. The result is an engaging, straight-forward
manual that provides a simple paradigm with which a person can experience
significant growth.
As with The 3 Colors of Ministry, this book also offers a
statistically validated test – this time on the fruit of the Spirit. A
surprise to many readers will be the author's exegesis of Galatians
5:22-23, since it follows a minority interpretation. However, it is
precisely this interpretation that explains how a "Fruit of the Spirit
Test" can show up in a book on love: "...but the fruit of the Spirit is
love...". For more reasons than are stated in the book itself, love is
seen as the preeminent product of the Spirit work in the believer's life.
This love is then understood in terms of the eight characteristics that
form the basis of the test: "joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." While this approach may seem
novel to many, and the exact distribution of the eight terms around three
colors depends very much on one's analysis of their biblical usage, the
legitimacy of this effort can hardly be denied when one compares Paul's
usage of terms in Galatians 5:22-23 with his usage of terms in 1
Corinthians 13. For that matter, a "Love Test" could also be developed off
of that passage, but the sheer number of terms involved would make it
impractical.
Beyond these more or less formal observations, one final characteristic
should be highlighted. This is a wonderfully personal book. Christian
Schwarz does not merely discuss concepts and make individual and church
growth recommendations, he shares many of his own growth adventures in the
process. For that matter, he even credits a "failure" in one of these as a
key factor in the origin of the entire NCD ministry. This transparency and
engaging style make The 3 Colors of Love the sort of book that
virtually any person will thoroughly enjoy.
Download:3ColorsLoveENG.pdf
Jon Haley lives with his family in Spain
and serves as National NCD Partner for Spain and International Publishing
Director |
