The verb love
Our reading from John’s gospel sparks all kind of reactions in people. Some think it is really narrow, and opens us to all kinds of debate about who is abiding in Jesus and who is not, who is bearing fruit and who is for the chop. For others this is their favourite reading and holds in it the essence of the gospel. How then might we read this? David Ewart suggests the key to understand this passage is love. But love itself is a debatable concept. Just look at what we Christians have done and still do in the name of love. He offers these thoughts. ““Love” can be either a transitive or intransitive verb. An intransitive verb is one where the subject is also the object of the verb. So for example, if someone says, “I love pizza” they are describing how they feel about pizza, and not what the pizza is experiencing from them. In the same way, when someone says, "I love you," they may in fact only be talking about their own experience. They are really saying, “I am exp...