Jared Byas - Love Matters More: How Fighting to Be Right Keeps Us from Loving Like Jesus

PRAISE FOR
LOVE MATTERS MORE

In the New Testament gospels, Jesus presents love as the ultimate end of a moral life. But like many Americans, I grew up in a tradition that granted truth co-primacy with love. We were told to make absolutely sure we held all the correct beliefs and that we needed to remind everyone who disagreed that they were wrong, wrong, wrong. Jared Byas has come along in the nick of time with a powerful book to help us dismantle these false constructs and liberate ourselves to love without constraint. Just as Jesus taught. Love Matters More is required reading for anyone who has ever felt they had to balance being correct with being loving.

JONATHAN MERRITT, author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch and award-winning contributor to The Atlantic

Im the kind of person for whom the term biblical carries a lot of baggage. But Im also the kind of person who cares about matters of faith and who longs for a relationship with Jesus that doesnt make me feel like Im a soldier in the Roman Empire. If youre like me, youll find Love Matters More to be a cool breeze on a hot summer day, reminding you of why you fell in love with Jesus in the first place.

MIKE McHARGUE, bestselling author of Youre a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass) and Finding God in the Waves

In Love Matters More, Jared Byas takes the discussion of love into the hard places of life. The brand of love Jesus embodies is indiscriminate, unconditional, sacrificial, and relentlessits the kind of love that is the identifying attribute of those who follow Jesus. Jared puts this radical call to love on the table where it belongs and draws wisdom to help others from his own struggle to love. This book will challenge, rebuke, inspire, amuse, and leave readers rethinking their own relationships. We will be healthier and truer to Jesus, and the world will be a better place for others, if we read and take to heart this revolutionary call to love.

CAROLYN CUSTIS JAMES, author of Half the Church: Recapturing Gods Global Vision for Women and Malestrom: Manhood Swept into the Currents of a Changing World

What an amazing book! Jared Byas uses a lot of complete sentences and punctuation, and its relatively free of typos! Its also beautifully provocative. Jared brings his philosophical chops to cut through the clichs and show that speaking the truth in love is deeper, more interesting, and far more important than our tired notions of truth allow. A must-read for people who actually have to engage other people.

PETER ENNS, cohost of The Bible for Normal People podcast and author of How the Bible Actually Works

ZONDERVAN BOOKS

Love Matters More

Copyright 2020 by Jared Byas

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Zondervan titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email SpecialMarkets@Zondervan.com.

ISBN 978-0-310-35863-3 (audio)

Epub Edition July 2020 9780310358626

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Byas, Jared, 1984- author.

Title: Love matters more : how fighting to be right keeps us from loving like Jesus / Jared Byas.

Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : Zondervan, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: For years, Christians have argued, debated, and fought one another while speaking the truth in love, yet we are no closer to the grace-filled life Jesus modeled. Biblical scholar and popular podcast host of The Bible for Normal People Jared Byas casts a new vision for the Christian life thats built not on certainty, but on the risk of loveProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020000398 (print) | LCCN 2020000399 (ebook) | ISBN 9780310358602 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780310358626 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: LoveReligious aspectsChristianity. | TruthReligious aspectsChristianity. | Jesus ChristExample. | Christian life.

Classification: LCC BV4639 .B93 2020 (print) | LCC BV4639 (ebook) | DDC 241/.4dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000398

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000399

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version). Copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org).

Any internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design: Thinkpen Design
Interior design: Kait Lamphere

Printed in the United States of America

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 /LSC/ 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Information about External Hyperlinks in this ebook

Please note that the endnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication

For my mom, Anita
who puts people over ideas and often models
how love and forgiveness can overcome disagreements

CONTENTS

T his book is for anyone who has ever felt they had to choose between truth and love. Its for anyone whose heart has told them the way of Jesus is standing up for people, but theyve been taught that being faithful to Jesus is standing up for truth.

Pastor Richard got up out of his chair and began to pace around his office. Do you understand, boys, that what you did on Sunday put a stumbling block in the way of someones salvation? He was speaking to me and my friend John. We were ten-year-old kids. He was telling us the truth in love, he assured us, because thats what God wants Christians to do.

For those who have never been sent to the pastors officeits like being sent to the principals office, except instead of detention, this guy could send you to hell for eternity. When my mom told me Pastor Richard wanted to talk to us, I was worried. I didnt know what he wanted to talk to us about.

Picture a small Southern Baptist church in the 1980s. There are rows and rows of wooden pews with red, itchy cushions the same color and texture as the carpet on the floor. On the Sunday morning in question, Id been sitting up against the straight, hard back of one of the pews, thinking that the original designer likely knew the people sitting in those pews would need help staying awake. Next to me was my best friend, John, whom I dragged to church most weeks, even though his family didnt attend.