Topic: Love

Our identity as a community of Jesus’s followers is primarily expressed in love, gratitude and hospitality, not in compliance with a negative code of conduct.

The reputation that matters is a reputation for loving as Jesus loved and, like him, that will be seen as disreputable.

Extravagant expressions of love are a sign of the culture of God, and Jesus models generous giving and receiving of them, regardless of the scandal they cause.

God wants love rather than sacrifice, but in a fallen world love that is genuine will often be sacrificial.

The vision of the Trinity reveals some of the most important characteristics of God: radical mutual love, radically open hospitality, and transformative engagement with the suffering of the world.

The Church is one body, sent into the world to live the life Jesus has begun, a life of love, reconciliation and mercy.

Jesus invites us into a new relationship with God and with one another based on love and friendship instead of power and rivalry.

God evaluates us only in terms of our growth to fruitfulness, expressed as Christ-like love, and such fruitfulness comes only from our interrelationship with Christ. God deals with us in whatever way will lead to further growth – sometimes that is gently, sometimes it is harshly, always it is for the same purpose.

The commandments cannot be imposed, but are what result when people have learned to love and their desires have merged with God’s.

God’s covenant of love and grace is made unconditionally, not depending even on our response, and so the promises are made to our children whether they respond or not.

Our anticipation of new life in Christ, though not removing all grief, allows us to find hope in the mercy and love of God.

Jesus recognises that there are different ways of interpreting the Bible that lead to different understandings of God and of following God, and he demonstrates the principles by which he would have us read it.