The Greatest of These

God is love. Love one another. We teach these to children and new Christians, but what exactly do we mean (and do they hear) by love? Our culture offers a multitude of understandings and experiences through which the meaning of love can be filtered. We in the church can become sloppy in our proclamation and embodiment of love as a result of those filterings, unless we remain grounded in the Biblical moorings of love revealed in the narratives of both the Old and New Testaments.The Greatest of These offers an extended exploration of love 's qualities in scripture. Each of the six chapters begins with a single page introduction to the chapter theme. The bulk of each chapter consists of six individual readings (2.5 to 3 pages each) that reflect on a Biblical passage related to the chapter 's theme on love. The book is written for use by individuals or groups, and a leader's guide, which is written into the book, provides for six suggested sessions.

Chapter One - Love as Gift

Chapter Two - Love as Invitation

Chapter Three - Love as Loyalty

Chapter Four - Love as Ethic

Chapter Five - Love as Compassion

Chapter Six - Love as Wonder

The written-in leader 's guide provides a basic template that can be used for each session along with specific suggestions for six sessions to plug into the template in order to explore each of the book 's chapters.