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Love in Hard Places
Too often the Christian version of popular culture's sentimental view of love is that, of all things, Christians should be nice . After all, people ask, isn't the Church about forgiveness? Aren't Christians supposed to love others without condition? This book not only focuses on the aspects of Christian love that are not easy–such as when it comes to loving our enemies, and even forgiving those loved ones who have hurt us–but also helps readers understand, then, what biblical love really is. As author D. A. Carson points out, thinking seriously about Christian love soon embroils us in reflection on justice, revenge, war, the authority of the state, forgiveness, hate, and much more. This book shows some of the important ways in which the love of Christians is a reflection of the love of God, and enables believers to develop an appropriate understanding of how to love in the hard places of life.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
D.A. Carson
312 books668 followersDonald A. Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has been at Trinity since 1978. Carson came to Trinity from the faculty of Northwest Baptist Theological Seminary in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he also served for two years as academic dean. He has served as assistant pastor and pastor and has done itinerant ministry in Canada and the United Kingdom. Carson received the Bachelor of Science in chemistry from McGill University, the Master of Divinity from Central Baptist Seminary in Toronto, and the Doctor of Philosophy in New Testament from the University of Cambridge. Carson is an active guest lecturer in academic and church settings around the world. He has written or edited about sixty books. He is a founding member and currently president of The Gospel Coalition. Carson and his wife, Joy, reside in Libertyville, Illinois. They have two adult children.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 25, 2016
Quite dry in places - and I say this as someone who has read and enjoyed multiple Carson books. Still, this has been an enormously fruitful read, and it has afforded me some necessary adjustments in point of view.
December 17, 2012
See my notes from his _Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God_...
Anyway, he needs to back off of the "sentimentalism" critique... yeah, he has some good points along the way, but leaves to many open doors for God sanctioned "hate"... OBVIOUSLY that is not his point... but his orthodoxy necessarily leads to an orthopraxy with boarders and boundaries... that is a love with limits and parameters... of course, never explicitly saying to us to withhold love... but instead begging LOTS of questions.
Anyway, he needs to back off of the "sentimentalism" critique... yeah, he has some good points along the way, but leaves to many open doors for God sanctioned "hate"... OBVIOUSLY that is not his point... but his orthodoxy necessarily leads to an orthopraxy with boarders and boundaries... that is a love with limits and parameters... of course, never explicitly saying to us to withhold love... but instead begging LOTS of questions.
November 20, 2017
In Love in Hard Places, D. A Carson is “not attempting a full-orbed and comprehensive survey of Christian love.” That would be a longer and different book. Rather, he’s particularly focusing on “those aspects of Christian love that are not easy and may be painful as well as difficult” and the truth that, living in a “fallen and broken world” as we do, “we are unwise to retreat too quickly to merely sentimental notions of love” (p. 18). He argues that Christian love is not just a vague “niceness” or a “committed altruism” (p. 21). He warns us “to avoid distortion…[pitting] one attribute of God” against the others. “All of God’s perfections,” love, holiness, sovereignty, omniscience, even His wrath, “work together” (p. 17).
He discusses at length what Jesus called the most important commandments, loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbors as ourselves, and what they mean and do not mean. He also discusses passages that talk about loving our enemies, both “big” (persecutors, people who hate God and His ways) and “small” (people who are irritating, bitter, arrogant, etc., who rub you the wrong way). Within that discussion he explores what Jesus did and did not mean by his command to “turn the other cheek.” That leads to a chapter on forgiveness and all that it involves and the tension between it and a passion for justice, both of which are characteristic of God. He explores in depth two “hard cases”: racism and people like Osama bin Laden (and Hitler and Pol Pot and the like). Within the latter he covers the “just war” theory and pacifism. He goes on to explain what tolerance means and does not mean and how the meaning of it has changed over the years and shows that love does mean tolerating evil or never rebuking anyone for it. He delves into a case study of Paul’s rebuke of Peter in Galatians 2:11-14 and shows that it is “entirely within the constraints of Christian love. Indeed, at one level, it is motivated by Christian love” (p. 150). He discusses church discipline and defending the gospel. Finally he examines the church at Ephesus in Revelation which, though it had many commendable qualities, had “left its first love.” Finally he discusses how our love should be reflective of God’s love (which has also been referred to throughout the book).
This book is densely packed. I could generally read and process only 2-4 pages at a time. Though the style of Carson’s writing (at least in this book; I’ve not read anything else by him) is more like a college lecture than a cozy devotional, it’s not hard to understand, but I did have a little trouble maintaining the thread of his argument over a chapter sometimes. If I had it to do over again, I’d jot down the outline of the chapters as I read.
The one thing I wish he had added was a little summary at the end and even a working definition of Biblical love. The one thing I want to know is how to be more loving, because I fail in it all too often. It’s a fruit of the Spirit, so it’s not something I “work up” in myself. Yet it is also a command, so it is something I must obey. He does acknowledge that our failure to love is evidence of our fallen nature, redeemed by Christ’s death, yet imperfect til we get to heaven, but something in which we can grow. So in the meantime I remind myself of something I have shared here before, a story from a missionary who grieved because of her lack of love. Telling herself every day “I need to be more loving” did not increase her love but did increase her sorrow. Finally she focused instead on God’s love for her, undeserved, forgiving, longsuffering, and without even realizing it, she was slowly changed. We are changed into His likeness by beholding Him. And I pray that my “love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment” and that the Lord would make to “increase and abound in love for one another and for all.”
Nevertheless, I did find this book a worthy and deeply thought-provoking read, and I much appreciated the author’s thoroughness, carefulness, and balance.
He discusses at length what Jesus called the most important commandments, loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbors as ourselves, and what they mean and do not mean. He also discusses passages that talk about loving our enemies, both “big” (persecutors, people who hate God and His ways) and “small” (people who are irritating, bitter, arrogant, etc., who rub you the wrong way). Within that discussion he explores what Jesus did and did not mean by his command to “turn the other cheek.” That leads to a chapter on forgiveness and all that it involves and the tension between it and a passion for justice, both of which are characteristic of God. He explores in depth two “hard cases”: racism and people like Osama bin Laden (and Hitler and Pol Pot and the like). Within the latter he covers the “just war” theory and pacifism. He goes on to explain what tolerance means and does not mean and how the meaning of it has changed over the years and shows that love does mean tolerating evil or never rebuking anyone for it. He delves into a case study of Paul’s rebuke of Peter in Galatians 2:11-14 and shows that it is “entirely within the constraints of Christian love. Indeed, at one level, it is motivated by Christian love” (p. 150). He discusses church discipline and defending the gospel. Finally he examines the church at Ephesus in Revelation which, though it had many commendable qualities, had “left its first love.” Finally he discusses how our love should be reflective of God’s love (which has also been referred to throughout the book).
This book is densely packed. I could generally read and process only 2-4 pages at a time. Though the style of Carson’s writing (at least in this book; I’ve not read anything else by him) is more like a college lecture than a cozy devotional, it’s not hard to understand, but I did have a little trouble maintaining the thread of his argument over a chapter sometimes. If I had it to do over again, I’d jot down the outline of the chapters as I read.
The one thing I wish he had added was a little summary at the end and even a working definition of Biblical love. The one thing I want to know is how to be more loving, because I fail in it all too often. It’s a fruit of the Spirit, so it’s not something I “work up” in myself. Yet it is also a command, so it is something I must obey. He does acknowledge that our failure to love is evidence of our fallen nature, redeemed by Christ’s death, yet imperfect til we get to heaven, but something in which we can grow. So in the meantime I remind myself of something I have shared here before, a story from a missionary who grieved because of her lack of love. Telling herself every day “I need to be more loving” did not increase her love but did increase her sorrow. Finally she focused instead on God’s love for her, undeserved, forgiving, longsuffering, and without even realizing it, she was slowly changed. We are changed into His likeness by beholding Him. And I pray that my “love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment” and that the Lord would make to “increase and abound in love for one another and for all.”
Nevertheless, I did find this book a worthy and deeply thought-provoking read, and I much appreciated the author’s thoroughness, carefulness, and balance.
March 15, 2018
This book wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it still thoroughly thought provoking and enriching.
Carson first traces the different ways the Bible speaks of God's love, before tracing out the Biblical commands to love. The rest of the book is an unpacking of how that might apply to the Christian in various situations: with enemies both big and small, in the call to forgive especially in difficult cares (Carson uses racism and Osama bin Laden as test cases), in the case of church discipline and denial of the Gospel and ends with a reminder that the Christian's primary call is to live God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Carson is always great, and extremely exegetically careful. This book is not light reading, and I was quite surprised by some of his conclusions on racism and Just War theory. But I thoroughly enjoyed engaging with it.
Worth a read.
Carson first traces the different ways the Bible speaks of God's love, before tracing out the Biblical commands to love. The rest of the book is an unpacking of how that might apply to the Christian in various situations: with enemies both big and small, in the call to forgive especially in difficult cares (Carson uses racism and Osama bin Laden as test cases), in the case of church discipline and denial of the Gospel and ends with a reminder that the Christian's primary call is to live God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Carson is always great, and extremely exegetically careful. This book is not light reading, and I was quite surprised by some of his conclusions on racism and Just War theory. But I thoroughly enjoyed engaging with it.
Worth a read.
November 15, 2019
An excellent and insightful book on the issue of love in places where it is really hard to love. We know it is relatively easy to love those who are loveable, but what about that person whom you may describe as an enemy? Let's make it even harder: How should the Christian view wicked people such as Osama Ben Laden (now deceased, but clearly an enemy of western civilization)? How does the Christian think through the hard issues related to loving others in hard places? Carson does a brilliant job of walking us through the various aspects of thought in relation to this issue and provides some basic, biblical and helpful insight into how we can thinking clearly and godly when the natural way to think is diametically opposed to responding like Christ. This is an excellent book. Much of what we have come to expect from D.A. Carson.
July 10, 2021
Christians today are known for many things, bigotry, intolerance and the like, but love is rarely one of those things. Yet the call for Christians everywhere is to love everyone.
In this book, Carson makes the Biblical case for this and shows that the command to love is greater and difficult than we realise. He is clear that this is no excuse and urges us to love as God loves us.
This book is typical Carson. Very detailed, very thorough so you have to put in effort as you read it but there’s so much good in here if you do so.
In this book, Carson makes the Biblical case for this and shows that the command to love is greater and difficult than we realise. He is clear that this is no excuse and urges us to love as God loves us.
This book is typical Carson. Very detailed, very thorough so you have to put in effort as you read it but there’s so much good in here if you do so.
December 31, 2021
Книга не про чувство, а про логику Божьей любви. Читать не просто, она научная, но мне было полезно поразмышлять над сложными вопросами.
June 16, 2021
This is my third reading of this book, and I may yet read it again.
Carson’s book is a considerably expanded version of four lectures he gave in 2001. The focus of the first long section is on the less-than-Scriptural Western notion that love is something wishy-washy. As he points out in his introduction, ‘love’ (especially New Testament love) ‘soon embroils us in reflection on justice, revenge, war, the authority of the state, forgiveness, hate and much more.’
Furthermore, for the good of the other party, love confronts. The Old Testament is full of pictures of God confronting his people, and Carson also spends some time in his last section showing how Paul was forced to bring Peter to heel in the course of the famous disagreement mentioned in Galatians. (I often think Peter is still smarting ever so slightly when he writes in his second letter that Paul’s writings can be hard to understand. Carson shows why this might have been so!)
Equally, love isn’t always a turning of the other cheek: while God says quite plainly in more than one place that he wants no one to perish, He often reminds us that the persistently wicked will be punished. Getting to grips with the breadth of God’s love is one of Carson’s aims in the early part of the book.
In another facet of his discussion, Carson says he won’t have it that we can love in some sort of ‘duty’ way – love means having real affection, not claiming to love while failing to alter the relationship. Nor will he have it that ‘loving our neighbour as ourselves’ means we have to learn how to love ourselves first. He doesn’t actually say so, but the implication is that we don’t have a big problem loving ourselves.
The difficulty with loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, Carson says, is that the church is made up of ‘natural enemies,’ people with whom we wouldn’t necessarily associate. Our common life in Christ is what holds us together, but we still have to learn to love each other. Not for him the idea of the homogenous congregation: all middle-class, or all black, for instance. And he doesn’t have a lot of time for unity of the ecumenical kind either: he says Christians should love each other, but that doesn’t mean they have to agree on the way church should be done.
After a shortish introduction to the basics of forgiveness he works his argument out in two different areas: firstly in regard to racism, particularly the segregation of white and black within American churches. But there are implications for New Zealand (where I live) too.
He notes: “I doubt that we shall improve much in Christian circles until the parties with the most power reflect a lot more than in the past on matters of justice, and the parties most victimized reflect a lot more than in the past on forgiveness.” No one gets away easily in Carson’s view.
In the second section on forgiveness, he deals with forgiving people such as bin Laden and other terrorists. You won’t agree with everything he says, but he’s more clear-headed on the matter than many other writers have been.
Carson’s book is a considerably expanded version of four lectures he gave in 2001. The focus of the first long section is on the less-than-Scriptural Western notion that love is something wishy-washy. As he points out in his introduction, ‘love’ (especially New Testament love) ‘soon embroils us in reflection on justice, revenge, war, the authority of the state, forgiveness, hate and much more.’
Furthermore, for the good of the other party, love confronts. The Old Testament is full of pictures of God confronting his people, and Carson also spends some time in his last section showing how Paul was forced to bring Peter to heel in the course of the famous disagreement mentioned in Galatians. (I often think Peter is still smarting ever so slightly when he writes in his second letter that Paul’s writings can be hard to understand. Carson shows why this might have been so!)
Equally, love isn’t always a turning of the other cheek: while God says quite plainly in more than one place that he wants no one to perish, He often reminds us that the persistently wicked will be punished. Getting to grips with the breadth of God’s love is one of Carson’s aims in the early part of the book.
In another facet of his discussion, Carson says he won’t have it that we can love in some sort of ‘duty’ way – love means having real affection, not claiming to love while failing to alter the relationship. Nor will he have it that ‘loving our neighbour as ourselves’ means we have to learn how to love ourselves first. He doesn’t actually say so, but the implication is that we don’t have a big problem loving ourselves.
The difficulty with loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, Carson says, is that the church is made up of ‘natural enemies,’ people with whom we wouldn’t necessarily associate. Our common life in Christ is what holds us together, but we still have to learn to love each other. Not for him the idea of the homogenous congregation: all middle-class, or all black, for instance. And he doesn’t have a lot of time for unity of the ecumenical kind either: he says Christians should love each other, but that doesn’t mean they have to agree on the way church should be done.
After a shortish introduction to the basics of forgiveness he works his argument out in two different areas: firstly in regard to racism, particularly the segregation of white and black within American churches. But there are implications for New Zealand (where I live) too.
He notes: “I doubt that we shall improve much in Christian circles until the parties with the most power reflect a lot more than in the past on matters of justice, and the parties most victimized reflect a lot more than in the past on forgiveness.” No one gets away easily in Carson’s view.
In the second section on forgiveness, he deals with forgiving people such as bin Laden and other terrorists. You won’t agree with everything he says, but he’s more clear-headed on the matter than many other writers have been.
May 11, 2015
This particular book is actually taken from lectures that Carson presented, therefore, they are somewhat more clinical than would normally be expected. However, this is an excellent right that challenges the reader to deepen there understanding of God's love as clearly portrayed in Scripture.
This is a worthwhile read that will mature the readers understanding and appreciation. of our Lord.
This is a worthwhile read that will mature the readers understanding and appreciation. of our Lord.
January 15, 2014
loving others is hard, because we are not always lovable. that includes you and i. but if we start with God loving the unlovable...though imperfectly, we'll find his grace to love at all times and all people!
July 27, 2011
It would be hard to imagine a better book on what it means to love your enemies than this. Outstanding.
September 1, 2011
Overall, the book was a decent read. However, I give it four stars because the author's exegesis of the Incident at Antioch (Gal. 2) is one of the best that I have read.
Read
June 29, 2014even the hardest ones though
March 10, 2015
I had different expectations, so I was a little disappointed.
June 12, 2019
Very insightful treatment on the subject.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews