Personal Growth, Christian Living, Love & Marriage
Date Published: May 25, 2021
Publisher: Lucid Books Publishing
Explore the little-known truth about what it really means to love your neighbor as yourself.
Loving your neighbor as yourself is an act of the will, not something you feel. At least that's what most Christians believe. But is that what the Bible actually teaches? In Love Is an Emotion R. L. Lewis invites you to take an honest look at the scriptures and determine the answer to this question for yourself. As you reason your way through these pages, you'll discover:
● How the common view of "Christian" love measures up to the test of logic.
● How the subjective nature of emotion relates to the objective truth of God's Word
● How a revised definition of love can impact our understanding of the gospel of grace.
If you're eager to explore the little-known truth about what it really means to love your neighbor as yourself, this book is for you.
Interview with R. L. Lewis
What was the hardest scene from your book to write?
Honestly, the introduction was probably the hardest part to write. When I first presented the manuscript to my publisher, I didn’t have an introduction. And I secretly hoped they wouldn’t ask for one. Since I’m much more comfortable working with concepts and puzzles and logic, bringing out the more anecdotal side of my journey was a challenge for me. But I’m so glad I did!
Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre?
I love nonfiction books written from a Christian perspective. My bookshelves are full of them. But I have rarely found one that doesn’t talk about love without defining it as some kind of action or commitment. So, I was compelled to shine a brighter light on an extremely underrepresented perspective.
If you write in more than one genre, how do you balance them?
This is the only genre I’ve explored thus far, but I think I would welcome the opportunity to take a break from one mental space and jump into another.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
I think I most enjoyed all the things I didn’t know I would have to learn along the way. Spending so much time writing on one topic forced me to solidify my views on so many other related topics. That’s one reason why it took me so long to write such a short book. Rarely would I find the answer to one question without having three other questions pop up for me to investigate.
What book that you have read has most influenced your life?
A few months after I dropped out of college to pursue what I thought God was telling me to do at the time, I read Garry Friesen’s Decision Making and the Will of God. In addition to showing me the freedom I had to (wisely) go back to school, that book has continued to serve as a bedrock of wisdom for all kinds of decisions in my life, including my decision to persevere long enough to finally finish my own book.
Tell us a little about yourself? Perhaps something not many people know?
Well, whenever I’m not hanging out with my family and trying to keep up with our new baby boy, you’ll probably find me tucked away in a coffee shop somewhere reading a book or studying something new on my computer. However, lest you think too highly of my study habits, there’s about a 60% chance that I will have just typed something like “What are the best desserts in America?” into my search engine. I’m a bit of a foodie and absolutely love “researching” what kind of sweets are out there to conquer!
Can you tell us something about your book that is not in the summary?
After laying out the argument for why I believe that love is an emotion, this book eventually becomes a primer on how a person can be assured of their salvation in Christ. For that reason alone, I never tire of reading it because I always walk away feeling so grateful for the gospel of God’s grace (and I’ve had to read it way more times than I can count!).
About the Author
R. L. Lewis was born and raised in Houston, Texas, where he currently resides with his wife, Kayla, their son, and their 11-year-old dog, Beatrice. A couple of years after earning his degree in applied mathematics from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Lewis moved back to his hometown to study painting at the University of Houston. Though he now works in the art industry, he enjoys spending much of his free time on projects that combine his affinity for analytical reasoning with his passion for studying God’s Word.
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