Valentines day...snuck up on me but I figured I might as well try to write about something related to Valentines day.
Despite the dubious origins of Valentines day and cultish practices that have accompanied this holiday throughout the ages, in our present time Valentines day is supposed to be a celebration of love. This is supposed to be a time where we let people whom we love know that we love them. Rather than getting on my soap box about the commercialization of this day and culture's totally wrong definition of love...lets just go to scripture to see somethings that what God has to say about love.
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love
This often quoted passage reveals so much more than what our culture thinks. At the end of the passage it closes with "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
This is possibly one of the richest and most undervalued passages of scripture simply because it is so often taken out of the context of the passages preceding and following it. It's also misunderstood because often we fail to understand the value of the message of this passage in light of the totality of scripture. This truth is shown here:
1 John 4:9-11
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
The only reason why we have faith and hope is because of God's love for us. Our faith and hope are found in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:2). Our acts of love are acts of obedience to Jesus Christ because of the love that He demonstrated first for us.
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We demonstrate our love for God in response to His love for us by obeying Him (Jn 14:15,21). This love is a great love that doesn't just stay between us and God. The love God has for us calls us to demonstrate our love for Him by loving everyone He loves. In our own strength and ability this is impossible, however by placing our faith and hope in Jesus Christ by His love we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus in his sacrificial love for others.
So how does all this connect to the song that you played at the beginning of all this?
The love of Jesus never fails. When everything in our life seems uncertain and we feel abandoned, let down, or hurt let us remember that Jesus loves us. Let us return to our first love, He who loved us. He who began a great work in us (Phil 1:6). Let us place our faith in the one who deserves our full trust. Let us hope in the One who has the power over life and death over our body and soul (Matt 10:28). Jesus Christ, our Savior, King, Redeemer the lover and keeper of our souls.
Further Reading
Psalm 18
2 Peter 1:1-11
John 14:15-31
John 1: 1-18
Colossians 1:15-23
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