About the Book

Book: Love Matters

Author: Neil Tolsma

Genre: Non-Fiction

Release date: September 13, 2022

The Bible answers with one word: Love. What am I to do when my love is weak and in short supply? What difference does godly love make in the rush of everyday living? These are questions that Christians ask and need answered.

Love Matters answers these vital questions and others through a careful examination of what the Word of God has to say about reproducing God’s love in the exercise of personal faith. Love Matters is unique in developing this study of love in a redemptive-historical setting.

Love Matters is a biblical study of the divine call to love God and others wholeheartedly and the means by which the believer can overcome deficiencies in that call.

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About the Author

Neil Tolsma was born on February 5, 1935, Saddle Brook, NJ. Met his wife, Lenore Merop, at Garfield Community Church (where he had made his profession of Christ as his Savior at the age of 17) and they were married on August 29, 1959. They had both been part of the Billy Graham Choir that introduced the popular hymn, How Great Thou Art, to America the summer of 957. He graduated from Shelton College, Ringwood, NJ, 1962 with A.B. And from Westminster Theological Seminary 1965, B.D./M.Div. Ordained by the Presbytery of the South, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 1965. Served as pastor of Bethel Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 1965 to 1974, Falls Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, 1974 until his retirement in 2004. They are the parents of three daughters and 8 grandchildren. Neil is the author of This Is Love: Tracing the Love of God throughout the Biblical Story.

Author Interview with Neil

Q: Please give a little introduction to your book.

Neil: In the course of my life as pastor, I counseled many people and found how weak or false was their understanding of true love. This is no small problem. The action word in the great commandment is love, You shall LOVE the Lord. It is the same in the second like it, You shall LOVE your neighbor. It is also true of Christ’s new commandment, You shall LOVE one another as I have LOVE you. LOVE MATTERS not only includes a study of the love of God but offers biblical guidance on how to truly love in the different areas daily life: love in marriage, love of children, love within the church, love in the workplace and love of neighbor.

Q: How long did it take you to write this book?

Neil: It took me six years of research and actual writing. But behind those years are 50 years of study of the Bible and sermon composition.

Q: What do you hope readers will take away from your book?

Neil: It is my prayer that my readers will will be drawn into a living relationship with Christ—to know him and to love him as he loves them—and through the biblical study of LOVE MATTERS may they grow in knowing true love and seek to live such love in their daily lives.

Q: Are you working on another book?

Neil: Yes. I recently completed a small devotional, KIND AND COMPASSIONATE, that will be available without cost to those who pre-order LOVE MATTERS. I am presently working on a third book that would complete my redemptive-historical study of love in the Bible. Tentatively titled, Love, The Fruit of the Spirit: A Biblical Study of Galatians 5:22-23, it will seek to define love in terms of the forms of love Paul lists in these verses and the love of God. My first book is called. THIS IS LOVE: Tracing the Love of God Throughout the Biblical Story.

Q: Do you have a favorite quote from this book?

Neil: I can’t think of a favorite quote but here is one that I would like to share. "In Christ, and by his example, we know how to love as never before and are able to love as never before."

More from Neil

Why Another Book on Love

Walk into any bookstore, Christian or general market, big or small, and you’re sure to be inundated by books on love, both fiction and nonfiction. How to love your spouse or significant other. How to love your children. How to love yourself. Love, love, love. That’s all we seem to hear about today. Love in all its forms, both good and evil.

So, then, why would I write another nonfiction book on love? Aren’t there plenty to choose from already? Well, yes and no. There are many on the shelves. Have your pick. But how many of those talk about what real, biblical love is, why we are to love, and where our one and only source of love is?

So many people today don’t know what love truly is. We have romanticized versions of flowers, chocolates, and violins. We dream of being swept off our feet and spending every waking minute with someone who will cherish us above all else. One of the most popular sayings of the day is Love Is Love.

Is it really? How do we know what true love is? That understanding only comes from God and his word to us. Only through him and in him do we find pure, holy, agape love. Love that sacrificed his only Son for us to give eternal life to us sinners—the impure, unholy, and filthy.

And so that’s why I wrote Love Matters. Because it does. It matters to our lives today, in how we relate to our spouses, our children, our family members, and the world at large. It matters to our eternity in how we view our salvation and how we are to love our Lord. It matters when we’re old and when we’re young, when we’re at home and when we’re at work, when we agree with someone and when we disagree with them.

Throughout my fifty years of in-depth Bible study as a pastor and counselor, I was brought back time and time again to the Bible to discover what love is. Over and over, I returned to the command God gave in Exodus, that we are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, strength, and minds, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Because God is love and love matters to him, it has to matter to us.