Paperback, 252 pages
Published October 23rd 2015 by WestBow Press
What is this book about? Tristan says, “It's a book about life-every part of it. About how it should be lived, how it should be explored, how it should be expressed. This is a book about meaning, about life's trajectories. It's about God. It's about you. It's about them.”
Brian Zahnd says, “Tristan Sherwin has written a smart and beautiful book showing us that Jesus Christ is the love of God expressed as a human life. This is the life we are called to imitate; this life of love is what we are made for."
What do I say?
Love: Expressed is about love and theology and spirituality, not in the abstract, but in the rubber meets the road, getting your hands dirty kind of way. Sherwin takes us through eight chapters of different ways the love of God can be expressed in us and through our lives: through obedience, learning, mercy, service, worship, Sabbath, prayer, and humility. Love: Expressed is deeply rooted in Scripture, but is also loaded with pop culture references that I tended to enjoy quite a lot. Sherwin also includes personal stories as he works through the different chapters of the book.
The core scripture the book turns on is the passage in Matthew where Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment and he replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:34-40). Sherwin goes back to these verses several times throughout his book as he attempts to work out what it really looks like to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Some quotes I really liked:
“True religion is about reciprocating the love that we have already been shown.” (13)
“…could having questions about God (questions that are actually pursued) be more of an expression of love than thinking we have all the answers? Could a mind stimulated, and in pursuit of God be more ‘pleasing’ to him than a mind that is swept clean and vacant?” (33)
“Mercy provides the sanctuary we all desire, but such an environment can only exist if the architect is love.” (59)
“…it is love that has called us to this place, love that has received us, love that sits enthroned on the mercy seat…” (60)
Love: Expressed Purchase Links: Paperback ($18.08), Kindle Edition ($5.99)
Tristan longs to see that followers of Christ are released to follow and not enslaved. Equipped and not burdened. Engaged and not silent. His heart is that those who claim they love Christ are empowered to express that love.
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