Book Review – The Love of Christ

Rev. Stephen Steele reviews his favourite book of 2021:

I spent most of the last year reading slowly through ‘The Love of Christ’ by Richard Sibbes – and it was one of the best things I did.

Of the 60+ Puritan Paperbacks, this is one of the longest, if not the longest, at 360 pages. It consists of sermons on Song of Solomon chapters 4-6, first published under the title ‘Bowels Opened’ in 1639. 

I first came across the book via Mike Reeves, who writes the foreward. As Reeves points out, the standard Puritan interpretation of the Song as a parable of the love between Christ and his Church is not held by the majority of commentators today – but ‘even if Sibbes is misappropriating the Song, the wonderful truths he expounds still stand’. Yet Sibbes is both careful and convincing in his exegesis, comparing Scripture with Scripture throughout and warning of the need to be ‘wary’ in applying some of the finer details (p. 285). Above all, he warms our hearts by fixing our attention on Jesus Christ and his love for his people. 

Read more of this book review here.