Another Valentine’s Day has come and gone. This day dedicated to romantic love has never been a big deal to me. Whether that is good or bad, I don’t know. When I see all the heart shaped decorations and the insistent ads that tell everyone that the only sure way to show love is to buy flowers or candy or diamonds, I take it as a challenge. I am determined to be different. In my mind, it is much more important to let my wife know I love her all year long by what I do and what I don’t do than it is to buy her a few flowers on February 14. I have most certainly not always succeeded it this, but I’m still working at it.

However, there is something I like about Valentine’s day (besides all the candy that is discounted on February 15). The discussion of love reminds me of just how important love is for those who are disciples of Jesus Christ. We should not let the world’s ideas and definitions of love control our hearts and minds. So much of the message of God’s Word uses that word, both in terms of what God has done and what He would have us do:

• For God so LOVED the world that He gave His one and only Son (John 3:16)
• This is how we know what LOVE is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:16)
• As I have LOVED you, so you must LOVE one another. (John 13:34)
• ‘LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… ‘LOVE your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:37, 39)
• LOVE your enemies, do good to those who hate you (Luke 6:27)

A look through any hymnal or the lyrics of Christian songs will find repeated use of that word, again describing the action of God toward us and how He wants us to act toward each other. Titles like “What Wondrous Love is This” and “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know” come to mind right away, but it is not just in the titles. The last stanza of “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross” says Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.  That same love is described in a newer song from Tenth Avenue North:  Love is here. Love is now. Love is pouring from His hands and from His brow. Love is near, it satisfies. Streams of mercy flowing from His side, cause love is here.

It was God’s love that led Him to offer Himself in payment for the sins of the world. That love is an everlasting love, a love that desires everyone to be saved, a love that will not quit. When you have experienced that love, you will want to pass it on to others.

We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).

What if all of us tried to do that every day?