A Time for Christian Love
I can occasionally get sad on Valentine’s Day, not having someone to buy me flowers, send me notes, and tell me I’m awesome. My kids are several years past the age of giving mom a cute little valentine, with a corny little joke and signed in their precious handwriting.
I am ok with that, really, I am. See many years ago, I received the best Valentine ever. It wasn’t written with pen and paper but with lacerated flesh and oozing blood. The words on the outside were "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." It brought me to tears like so many other Valentine cards received in years past. But this inscription, was scripted on my heart forever. I was so touched, overwhelmed about what God had done and in doing so, secured my place for eternity. After wiping the tears, I opened the card to see these words inside, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Pure love wrote that Valentine. Forgiving Love. Life transforming love and a grace indescribable.
For me, it was and is mind blowing, that while we were sinners, He loved us. When we had done nothing for Him, He loved us. His love for us meant death, and death He gladly received. Only the heart that treasures this love is capable to give it out. To love not to get but to give. Not to use, but to be used. The heart that loves yearns to make much of God, not to make much of self.
See, when I was lost, it somehow became acceptable to be angry and depressed when your Valentine's Day is lacking a person to celebrate you, to proclaim how special you are and their undying devotion to you. How ironic to prize selfishness in the name of love.
As a born-again Christian, this became nonsense, knowing I follow a crucified and risen Lord who defined love by sacrifice. But I am human, and the sting and disappointment is real. You may be in the same boat for different reasons. So how do we sort through these emotions and honor Christ on Valentine's Day?
There is something greater that this world cannot offer. I turned to these words from 1 John 4:9-10 “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” This is the way of true love for all of us. Any other counterfeit will ultimately enslave us and steal our joy. This love elevates others above self. This love sacrifices wants, desires, and dreams for the joy of another. A love unto the glory of God, not the glory of ourselves. For us to truly love someone (Jesus calls them ‘our neighbors.’), we must love the person God created us to be. The way he designed us to be. We also must be willing to receive this incredible, unconditional love, God has for all of us.
Without understanding, receiving, and enjoying God's love for us, we are not capable to give out such sacrificial love to those in our lives. From 1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.” Let that soak in.
It's far too easy to focus on what we think others should do for us, especially those we're closest to. When they fail to meet our expectations, we are tempted to punish them. However, just like Christ's death, ours also has the ability to bring about new life. Love is sacrifice. Love is self-forgetting. Love is not about you.
I am encouraging you this Valentine month, to remember who we are. The sinners with a Savior, the orphans with a Father, the beggars with abundance. Entitled to nothing, possessors of everything. Freed from our selfishness to love sacrificially.
We can reject the cultural lies about love and about what we deserve. We can believe in our God who is enough. In Christ alone true love is found, and through Him alone true love is given.
In Christ’s love,
Pastor Teresa
