Today is Valentine’s Day when friends and lovers traditionally exchange notes, poems, cards, and tokens of affection. This afternoon I looked across the street to see that our elderly neighbor has decorated her front porch with red, white, and pink hearts. Streamers quietly dance in the breeze. She celebrates alone this year for the first time in decades, since her husband recently passed away. They loved each other and she journeyed alongside him and aided him in his ailing health for several years before he died. That’s what love does. It’s more than an attraction, more than romance, more than a feeling. It’s not something you fall into or fall out of. Love is a commitment.
Many people never experience the fullness of true love because they only love what brings them joy. If they are not happy in a relationship they hold back or eventually give up on loving that person. Yet the deepest joy and the greatest good that you can experience are found in seeking to bless others rather than yourself. This doesn’t come naturally. It flows by faith from a relationship with God who is the source of love, joy, and goodness. We love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19).
God’s love for us is amazing. He loves the least, the lost, the last, and the unloving. He even loves those who hate and rebel, graciously calling them to return home. God proves his love for you in Jesus. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8). Only God fulfills our dire need to be loved and to love.
You can know this amazing love of God by trusting and obeying Jesus. As you grow in his love you can’t help, but love others. His love in you overflows to bless others. Jesus told his followers, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:9-13). When Jesus’ disciples sought to be honored and exalted out of self love, he told them that is not the way to live. “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man [Jesus] came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
Learn from Jesus each day. Let him love through you. At times it will push your comfort zone and it will cost you physically, mentally, and emotionally. It involves being intentional in your words, thoughts, and actions as you treat others they way you would want to be treated. Love your enemies and those who persecute you. Love those who disagree with you. Don’t cancel them. Love those who have wronged you and hurt you. Forgive them. Love widows, prisoners, and strangers in need. Love children. Fight for the unborn, the orphans, and the exploited. Love those who can’t or won’t love you back.
As God helps you to make loving connections with others he draws you closer to himself. As you give yourself out, he fills you in with more of himself. He is what each of us most deeply need, for he is love. “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” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8). So despite the difficulty at times, choose to receive and share God’s love and you will experience his abundant life not only on Valentine’s Day, but every day.