Valentines

As I write this, today is Valentine’s Day.  Valentine’s Day is a time for Cupid, hearts, candy, and all of these are  supposed to be symbols of love.  Sometimes people ask, “How many times does the word “love” appear in the Bible?”  And the answer, of course, depends on what translation you use, but when I put “love” into the search at Biblegateway.com, for the NIV translation, it reports 686 occurrences.  But it really is much broader isn’t it?

There are different Hebrew and Greek words that all get translated as love.  And there are countless places in the Bible where the concept of love is shared without using the words.

We’re told to love our spouses.  We’re told to love each other.  We’re told to love our neighbors.  We’re even told to love our enemies.  But at the center of it all, we are told to “Love the God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)

And to some degree, there is the problem.  Whenever I try to love God without loving Him with all my heart, soul and strength, I am actually sinning.  So, we try to “do” a whole list of things just show ourselves and others that our love for God is real.  We cannot walk in love if we are doing this in an effort to follow God’s commandments. The world will quash us the first time we try.  Often, Christians make the grave error of “trying” to be a Christian and forcing themselves to “act” like a Christian.  But being a Christian does not require you to try anything or act like anything.  A Christian does it naturally.

So Christianity isn’t about what we do… it’s about what’s been done, through Christ, of course.  In Christ, God has sent us the ultimate Valentine.  He’s demonstrated His love for us.  1 John tells us, “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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.… And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”

Only God can generate within us the kind of self-sacrificing love which is the proof that we are His children.  It is only because of God’s love for us that we are able to love others.  And Jesus told His disciples that it was through a sacrificial love for others that people will know we are Christians.

The next time you get or send a Valentine, remember the real love that we know as Christians.  And remember our promise to love God with all our hearts, all our souls, and all our strength.