WHERE TRUE LOVE IS FOUND

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. 1 John 3:16

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today is Valentine’s Day, the one day out of the year (minus wedding anniversaries) where we celebrate our love for others. There will be many expressions of love exchanged this day like flowers, candies, and jewelry. Many couples will flock to nice restaurants for romantic meals together, sometimes accented by candlelight.

Yes, love is in the air and yet I wonder if we’re celebrating true love on this day centered on it. This thought was prompted by a post that I read once from someone who had just attended an Ash Wednesday service, a solemn service meant to acknowledge that it was our sin that led Jesus to be crucified. The observance reminds the Christian believer that short of God’s grace, all are worthy of death and the grave.

To symbolize this during typical Ash Wednesday services, an ashen cross is typically applied to the forehead to remind one that it was the cross that rescued him or her from the dust of death as new life is breathed into them through the resurrection of Jesus and the grace and forgiveness God, His Father and ours.

After Ash Wednesday, the days leading up to Easter (a time called Lent) are intended to be a time of reflection, a time when we consider our wrongs and seek to repent, turning anew toward righteousness and seeking to improve our Christian walk. At times, this reflection may also involve fasting.  

Reflecting on all this, the aforementioned person who posted was unsure how to respond to Valentine’s Day and all the revelry when they had just entered into Lent and the somber introduction that is Ash Wednesday and minus the clarity found in God’s word, this is a legitimate emotional quandary.

So how do we resolve this? How do we look at Valentine’s Day in light of reflection on Jesus and His crucifixion and subsequent resurrection?

The answer comes when we look to the cross.

Examine the two scripture passages for today’s special Valentine’s Day message. We’re all very familiar with John 3:16 but look at 1 John 3:16 and be amazed at the awesome nature of God’s perfect Word as it tells us about perfect love:

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

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. 1 John 3:16

In sum, when we look to the cross, we will see love in its purest and truest form. We find an agape love, the kind of self sacrificing love that led Jesus to say:

“I am willing to die for you. I am willing to allow my life to be taken so you might live.”

It’s the kind of unselfish love that led God to say:

“I am willing to give up My only child so everyone else can live. That’s how much I love you.”

The scriptures are clear. We only know how to love because Jesus laid down His life for us. And we only know love because God expressed it to us through sacrificing His Son Jesus so we might live, not just in the here and now but forever.

Friends, if you know a love outside of this, a love that is void of God the Father and Jesus, His Son, then be wary of it because it is a counterfeit love, a love the world has fabricated and seduced the Lord’s people with. It’s the kind of love that leads someone to think love is lust and sex. It’s the kind of love that proved to be the downfall of many people in the Bible who chose to place their affection in the wrong places and it continues to be the downfall of people today as we show over and over again that we have yet to learn from the mistakes of the past.

Today, on this Valentine’s Day and on every day from this point forward, my prayer is that you will join me in staying focused on the only true love that exists, the love of God as expressed through the living sin-sacrifice of His Son Jesus, the perfect unblemished Lamb who shed His blood as a final atonement for our sins. It was His death on the cross and resurrection from the tomb that gave us the chance for salvation and ensured that our best life ever is still yet to come. So on this day, I encourage you to push aside all the flowers and candy and jewelry and look to the cross so you can truly see what true love looks like.  

Amen.

In Christ, 

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.