John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
There are many stories that surround the reason for why Valentine’s Day is celebrated
on February 14th. From the Christian historical viewpoint it is because the priest,
Valentine, was, supposedly, martyred on that day. One legend contends that Valentine
was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. Valentine may have been killed
for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often
beaten and tortured.
According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine”
greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl–possibly his jailor’s
daughter–who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that
he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use
today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize
his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and–most importantly–romantic figure. Because of
this, as well as other legends, we have a day, specifically, dedicated to love. But as
you’ve already learned, God is love. So, why, then, do we excluded God from this
celebration when he has given the greatest gift of all?
Maybe you haven’t, quite, grasped the concept of salvation just yet. There is a system
in the world that we live in which requires sacrifice. You can have seed in your hand,
but until you plant it in the ground you’ll never have a crop or harvest that you could
live off of for weeks. All of life is built around dying and living. The most fearful
thing for humans is dying, however. Mainly, because as a living, human being, you die only
once, and after that, the judgment. And when we realize that we’re no longer within a
familiar surrounding we do all that we can to avoid it, or escape it. But the fallacy of
this is that mankind has ran away from the truth, the source, which calls it back to
himself. The truth is that we don’t understand love at all. What we understand as love
is complete and utter selfishness.
God reveals to us in Romans 13:10 that love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore
love is the fulfilling of the law. Jesus said, if you love me you’ll keep my commandments.
Without creating the laundry list of scriptures in the Bible, it should be very plan that
love is about complete and relentless sacrifice…on the part of the loved, and the part
of the lover. Even the ceremony of gift-giving is the sacrifice of money and time on
the behalf of the giver to induce the feeling of love, respect, adoration, surprise, or
merriment in the heart of the one gifted to.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. But the Son loved his Father,
and us so much that with the choice to not lay down his life, he turned to the cross, and
marched towards it so he could fulfill the plan of salvation that you and I may be able
to take part in today. We do not deserve God’s love, yet, he commends it to us because
He is love.
God doesn’t have to love us. And if you listen to some preachers you’d think God was
all about trying to put people in hell. God isn’t putting people in hell like some kind
of evil overlord who’s waiting to punish everyone for any reason. No, hell was created
for the devil and his angels, and human beings break into hell.
God created a plan that he is fulfilling to get everyone that wants to go to spend the
rest of eternity with him. Jesus said, “that I go to prepared a place for you, and if I
go, then I’m coming again to receive you unto myself.” Does that sound like a God who’s
wants to put people in hell when he’s preparing a place that is so magnificent that we
have to be changed into the “incorruptible” in order to be able to contain it’s beauty,
and excellence.
See, love is a choice. It’s a choice to sacrifice. It’s a choice to prepare. It’s a
choice to die. It’s a choice to send representatives to get you prepared. It’s a
choice to reveal to you the mind of God. It’s a choice to send people your way to
encourage you. It’s a choice to have angels encamped around you. It’s a choice to
give the power of the Holy Ghost so that you may lead a sin-free, and holy life. It’s
a choice to equip you with everything that pertains to life and godliness. But the one
thing that choice can’t do is make you love him back. This is what breaks God’s heart.
It breaks God’s heart that men and women declare that they love, and, yet, don’t love
him. They find every opportunity to celebrate human-kind, and neglect the everyday
miracle of just “being” human that God gives to us all. God is worthy on so many levels,
and for every imaginable reason, but humans abhor his existence because love comes with
rules.
Today, if you hear his voice, and can understand the heart of God you know that he
wants to call you his son or daughter. All you have to do is confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you can
be saved. You can be a new creature with a new heart, and you can experience the love
of God in it’s fullness, as a child of God with all of the privileges that come with
being in a royal family. Real Love has been waiting for you.
