As I mentioned when we studied the book of John together, John is my favourite author of the Bible. I mean, I absolutely love Paul but I resonate with John – he is a logical, analytical super-passionate teacher that is anchored in the Old Testament but with an incredibly creative prophetic edge.

A recurrent, and all to easy, temptation when doing theology is to unhook describing the life from living the life, as though theology were a science. This is one reason I prefer Biblical Theology to Systematic Theology. Biblical Theology tends to take the passages in their immediate context, applying them to the purpose for which and to which/whom they were penned, whereas Systematic Theology attempts to make a coherent system of disparate parts.