Tommy Mann

Falling in love with someone often feels out of our control, something that just happens to us. I’ll never forget the first time I met Alicia. It was like a scene from a Hallmark movie when she tripped over my foot and turned around to apologize. We hit it off right away as if we were struck by Cupid’s arrow.   Similarly, I’ll never forget the birth of our children, especially our firstborn. Reagan (who somehow turns 16 this week!) came via an emergency C-section, so we were in the OR when the nurses handed us this tiny baby that made us parents. I was instantly smitten with a kind of parental love I didn’t know before. Those things just happen to us. These were not choices we made. Loving my kids was not a wait and see thing where I chose to love them if they were well behaved or made good grades. It was almost out of my control.  When the New Testament speaks of Christians showing love, it uses that famous word  agape  that describes a choice we make to put the nee...

  The Bible calls us to show love. Jesus Himself said loving God and loving our neighbor constitutes the two greatest commandments. We might become tempted to make a list of people we are supposed to love, and then keep a separate list of people we don’t actually have to love. But the author of Hebrews did not give us that option.   Notice what he says in 13:1-2: “Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”    This brotherly love, as some will recognize, is  philadelphia  in Greek, where the famous city in Pennsylvania (the city of brotherly love) derives its name. It is a combination of two words, and it literally means love from the same womb. The author told the Hebrews to love all those from the same womb. Because they were all Jews, they were each descended from the womb of Sarah, the matriarch of Israel. There is a clear call to love their fellow countrymen.  ...

I John 4:8 says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” The love of God is a frequent theme in the Bible. Perhaps the most famous verse in all of Scripture begins with the words, “For God so loved the world…” We even see God’s love back in the Old Testament. Jeremiah 31:2-3 says, “Thus says the Lord…‘I have loved you with an everlasting love.’”     Not only do these verses teach us the succinct truth that God is love, but they highlight the fact that God’s love is outside of time. In fact, God’s love is eternal. Love is part of God’s nature; it is not just something that He chooses to do, it is who God is. God is love.    Philosophers have used this great doctrine as an attack against God. The critique goes like this: God claims to be a God of love, but before He created mankind, there was no one for Him to love. Thus, God’s love relies on humanity. God cannot be loving unless we exist, so God becomes dependent upon His creation....

Q. Which is the greatest commandment? A. The greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind; the second greatest is to love your neighbor as yourself .   Jesus was once asked what the greatest of the commandments was. Although that question was intended to trap Jesus, He still gave a magnificent answer. He could have easily said the greatest command was not to lie, steal, or murder, but if He responded with any single command, His enemies would accuse Him of not caring about the other commands. Jesus’ answer silenced the crowd. He responded, “Y ou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22:37-40).” The first part of the answer is very straightforward—love God with all that you are and all that you have. ...