What do you think?
Rate this book
What is Love? God's Answer to Humanity's Question
There are many voices in every corner of our world that are trying to tell us what love is. We need that noise quieted by a voice that strong and true. In the Bible, God speaks clearly and fully in defining and describing what love is in all the different relationships of life. This book is an encouragement to stop and listen, to consider that which the Scriptures call the lightning flash of the Lord.
135 pages, Paperback
Published December 20, 2022
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 25, 2023
Have we lost the meaning of love? In What is Love? Kyle Borg leads us to the Lord of love.
Grassmarket Press
This book was a refreshing and rewarding read. It is an inaugural title from Grassmarket Press, a new imprint from Crown & Covenant Publications that aims to provide readable resources on Reformed and Presbyterian theology and practice—for regular people. At just under 150 pages, it is a shorter and simpler book from general Crown & Covenant titles.
The book begins by explaining how we all have been taught different definitions of love. Borg brings us back to the Bible, saying that we must hear what God has to say about it. God is love, and this includes the nature of God, the relationships of God, and the source of love. The love of God is most shown in Jesus Christ, and he is the where we find God’s love for us and our ability to share God’s love with others.
The Lens of Love
I was most interested in Chapter 6, where Borg teaches the 10 Commandments through the lens of love. “The God who is love gives us these rules so we can love him and others, which is the most excellent way.” Borg writes with cutting clarity while remaining conversational. He is able to anticipate your thoughts, and answer your objections.
I was most moved when Borg wrote on how love is to be realized in our relationships. He talks about relationships between God and people, parents and children, husbands and wives, and amongst fellow Christians — but he also details the love we must show to our friends and even to our enemies. In our highly individualistic society, these words were much welcome.
Rejoice with the Truth
The chapters towards the end of the book focus on 1 Corinthians 13, explaining the different ways love is described. I found it especially insightful to see how love rejoices with the truth. There is an affection in the action of loving, and it is grounded with the truth of God. I am encouraged to champion love as a Christian. And I am motivated to love better, with the love of Jesus Christ my Lord.
I received a media copy of What is Love? and this is my honest review.
Grassmarket Press
This book was a refreshing and rewarding read. It is an inaugural title from Grassmarket Press, a new imprint from Crown & Covenant Publications that aims to provide readable resources on Reformed and Presbyterian theology and practice—for regular people. At just under 150 pages, it is a shorter and simpler book from general Crown & Covenant titles.
The book begins by explaining how we all have been taught different definitions of love. Borg brings us back to the Bible, saying that we must hear what God has to say about it. God is love, and this includes the nature of God, the relationships of God, and the source of love. The love of God is most shown in Jesus Christ, and he is the where we find God’s love for us and our ability to share God’s love with others.
The Lens of Love
I was most interested in Chapter 6, where Borg teaches the 10 Commandments through the lens of love. “The God who is love gives us these rules so we can love him and others, which is the most excellent way.” Borg writes with cutting clarity while remaining conversational. He is able to anticipate your thoughts, and answer your objections.
I was most moved when Borg wrote on how love is to be realized in our relationships. He talks about relationships between God and people, parents and children, husbands and wives, and amongst fellow Christians — but he also details the love we must show to our friends and even to our enemies. In our highly individualistic society, these words were much welcome.
Rejoice with the Truth
The chapters towards the end of the book focus on 1 Corinthians 13, explaining the different ways love is described. I found it especially insightful to see how love rejoices with the truth. There is an affection in the action of loving, and it is grounded with the truth of God. I am encouraged to champion love as a Christian. And I am motivated to love better, with the love of Jesus Christ my Lord.
I received a media copy of What is Love? and this is my honest review.
May 10, 2023
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
WHAT'S WHAT IS LOVE? ABOUT?
This is Borg's attempt to show what the Bible's authoritative and conclusive definition of love is. He looks and several texts from all over the canon—spending (naturally) a substantial time in 1 Corinthians 13.
It's a multi-faceted look at love. Borg considers the love of God demonstrated between the persons of the Trinity as well as toward His creation. But he also looks at the love that humans are to show each other as well as that we're supposed to show to God.
The seventeen chapters are brief (in 135 pages, they have to be), but he doesn't shy away from going deep into the topic of the chapter.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT WHAT IS LOVE??
There's a lot of good material here—helpful, persuasive, and Biblical. But...it seemed to miss the intended goal of the book of giving a strong definition for love. Don't ask me what was missing, but it just felt to me like Borg fell a little short.
I've been listening to Borg for a few years now on a couple of podcasts, and really appreciate his insights and explanations for various topics. So I was a little surprised that I didn't connect with this the way I expected. I halfway expect that he tried to do too much in such a brief book, and if his goal hadn't been so lofty, he'd have done better.
The writing is clear and concise—it's as approachable as you could hope for, no matter your age or groundedness in Christian teaching. This seems to be the intent of the books in the Bedrock series, and Borg succeeded there.
I do recommend the book and think readers will benefit from reading it—I did. While I'm not sure Borg delivered the conclusive definition he intended to, he gave a lot of clear teaching on what the Bible says to lead to that definition, and that's a good enough place to start.
---
...deep down we know that love isn't all we need. We also need to love well. We need to love rightly. So who gets to define that? Which voice is worth listening to, and which voices should be ignored? Is philosophy right? Is psychology right? Sociology? Biology? Politics? Economics? Literature? Hollywood? Music? Social media? Porn? Who gets to tell you what love is?
In the midst of these noisy voices, we need a louder voice. We need a voice that can break through the chatter and clearly, authoritatively, conclusively define for us what love is.
WHAT'S WHAT IS LOVE? ABOUT?
This is Borg's attempt to show what the Bible's authoritative and conclusive definition of love is. He looks and several texts from all over the canon—spending (naturally) a substantial time in 1 Corinthians 13.
It's a multi-faceted look at love. Borg considers the love of God demonstrated between the persons of the Trinity as well as toward His creation. But he also looks at the love that humans are to show each other as well as that we're supposed to show to God.
The seventeen chapters are brief (in 135 pages, they have to be), but he doesn't shy away from going deep into the topic of the chapter.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT WHAT IS LOVE??
There's a lot of good material here—helpful, persuasive, and Biblical. But...it seemed to miss the intended goal of the book of giving a strong definition for love. Don't ask me what was missing, but it just felt to me like Borg fell a little short.
I've been listening to Borg for a few years now on a couple of podcasts, and really appreciate his insights and explanations for various topics. So I was a little surprised that I didn't connect with this the way I expected. I halfway expect that he tried to do too much in such a brief book, and if his goal hadn't been so lofty, he'd have done better.
The writing is clear and concise—it's as approachable as you could hope for, no matter your age or groundedness in Christian teaching. This seems to be the intent of the books in the Bedrock series, and Borg succeeded there.
I do recommend the book and think readers will benefit from reading it—I did. While I'm not sure Borg delivered the conclusive definition he intended to, he gave a lot of clear teaching on what the Bible says to lead to that definition, and that's a good enough place to start.
April 19, 2026
While short, this book gives a good overview of what the Bible says love is. It's not repetitive but gets the point across and does so in an engaging package. 5 stars
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews