Love and its fruits

Living in the Light of God’s Love

I am delighted about this new edition of Edwards’s Charity and Its Fruits. This series of sermons holds a special place in my affection for Edwards for three reasons. First, in Munich, Germany, my wife and I read it aloud to each other in 1972. What a way to build a young marriage! Second, Edwards’s treatment of “Love Seeks Not Her Own” profoundly shaped my emerging Christian Hedonism. Third, the last chapter, “Heaven Is a World of Love,” is simply unsurpassed in its power to make me want to go there. My love for Jonathan Edwards and the greatness of his God is unwavering. May God give him an ever-widening voice. John Piper Pastor for Preaching and Vision, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Twin Cities, Minnesota

This new edition of Charity and Its Fruits is a most welcome addition to the growing library of books by and about the great Jonathan Edwards. For those who wrongly think that Protestant theologians overemphasize faith at the expense of love, these classic sermons by Edwards will be an antidote to a stereotype. But even more important, this deep mining of 1 Corinthians 13 is a pathway into spiritual theology that will bring every believer closer to Christ. Timothy George Founding Dean of Beeson Divinity School; General Editor, Reformation Commentary on Scripture

For Jonathan Edwards, the true Puritan understanding of Christianity as loving life in God through Christ was a lifelong theological-pastoral-devotional focus, and his fullest display of it is here. Kyle Strobel’s comments help us appreciate this classic on communion with God. J. I. Packer Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology, Regent College; author, Knowing God

The best I can say is that this is a first in Edwards studies. No one has done with Charity and Its Fruits what Kyle Strobel accomplishes here, providing us with an illuminating commentary and a readable text of one of Edwards’s most important—yet much neglected—treatises. Everyone who loves Edwards (and everyone should) will benefit immensely from this exceptional volume. Sam Storms Senior Pastor, Bridgeway Church, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Jonathan Edwards is America’s most famous theologian, and he is experiencing a resurrection among some evangelicals today. Not all who applaud Edwards have read him extensively, and for some the applause seems to be little more than groupthink. But this annotation of Edwards’s seminal exposition of 1 Corinthians 13, edited by a competent young Edwards specialist who offers an informed introduction to Edwards’s moral thought, promises that all of us will become more devoted to the theological vision for God’s glory in Edwards’s theology. All who read Edwards know they are in for an experience of sensory knowledge, and not just academic intelligence. Read this book in worship. Scot McKnight Karl A. Olsson Professor of Religious Studies, North Park University