Living in turbulent times, it is becomingly increasingly difficult to navigate the ethical challenges confronting a believer living in post-Christian 21^st-century.  Love Your Neighbor: Thinking Wisely About Right and Wrong, by Norman Geisler and Ryan Snuffer, is a welcome resource in a time where relativism and personal freedom blur the biblical lines of morality.  Examining a variety of issues from a biblical perspective, Geisler and Snuffer acknowledge within each a difference of opinion within Christendom.  Rather than resorting to hard-line absolutes, this book acknowledges that there are many views that are consistent with the attributes of God.  

Geisler is Dean of Southern Evangelical Seminary and co-author of over 70 books including such classics as Christian Apologetics, Why I Am a Christian, When Critics Ask and the four-volume Systematic Theology.  Snuffer teaches philosophy and religious study at Mountain State University.  His teachings at the university keep him informed on the latest ethical debates, especially those concerning biomedical issues.  Together, Geisler and Snuffer bring a wealth of biblical knowledge along with an ear to the latest conversation regarding moral and ethical controversies. 

Love Your Neighbor serves as a concise, but deep, introduction to Christian ethics.  Beginning with an analysis of the biblical basis of morality drawing from both the Old and New Testament, it defines and contrasts competing philosophical approaches to ethics, pointing out the fallacies and failures of each.  Laying the groundwork of biblical morality serves as the foundation for the rest of the book. 

Examining a handful of issues ranging from personal to social may seem overwhelming to accomplish in one volume.  Yet, Love Your Neighbor manages to do so without reading like a textbook.  Personal issues such as lying, cheating, stealing, homosexual sin, heterosexual sin, pornography and divorce are all handled with truth, compassion and grace without sacrificing the loving correction of God’s word.  The pages devoted to these subjects would be enough to justify a recommendation.  However, it is the author's crafty handling of controversial social issues is what sets this book apart as unique and an absolute must-read. 

While issues like homosexuality, abortion and capital punishment have been hi-jacked by religious conservatives (and therefore, the mainstream church) many other issues have been pushed aside.  The church has been deafeningly silent on such issues as civil disobedience, poverty, economic justice and ecology.  Here, Geisler and Snuffer bravely tackle the issues biblically without pandering to either side of the political debate.  This non-partisan approach will be certain to open the eyes to many who have either ignored these issues previously or written them off as non-essential to living to glorify God.    Hopefully, the dialogue on these powder-keg subjects will intensify and this book can be the springboard for the church to be at the forefront of the conversation.   

The authors of Love Your Neighbor: Thinking Rightly about Right and Wrong deserve accolades for writing this essential book.  Teens, college-age students and adults alike will be challenged, encouraged, enlightened and informed on the many ethical issues we live with everyday.  Psalm 119:105 says that God’s word is a “light to my feet and a light for my path.”  Geisler and Snuffer tackle the issues and, in an age of ethical darkness, point us back to the light and path.

Tim Berroth lives in San Diego, California, with his wife Dana and two sons Joshua and Peyton.  He is an elder at Crossroads Church and is currently a writer for Hollywoodjesus.