Love & Valentine's Day: 365 Day View

Valentine’s Day is about all-things-love, right? I will enjoy it and celebrate it with you. But why do we try to take life-encompassing ideas and reduce them to one day? We have Thanksgiving Day. But aren’t we thankful every day? And there’s Christmas Day. The fact that God took upon Himself the form of Man is another cause for everyday joy. So what is it about Valentine’s Day that extends to the other 364 days of each year?

Valentine’s Day: More Than Sentiment

For this special day to have year-long value it must go beyond Hallmark Cards, roses, and chocolate. The day’s trapping are not the best connections to its underlying idea. Valentine’s Day is supposed to be about love. And love is something that has value every day of every year. But that lasting value is not found in a special dinner, sappy sentimentality, or a brief retreat from distracted living. Genuine love is very intentional.

Valentine’s Day: The Intentional Example

How do we view love? Our language doesn’t serve us well in this case. We say: I love my…

• Car
• Lunch
• Job
• Spouse

Now, we may in fact love each of those things. But we don’t love each of them to the same degree. So where do we see an enduring, reliable example of love? God is the only perfect One in the universe. It just makes sense to look at His love. What we see will benefit us all year long.
Love is intentional and it also takes action. This was a lesson Jesus taught. He was asked to name the greatest commandments. To illustrate the second commandment, what it means to love your neighbor as yourself, Jesus gave us the parable of the Good Samaritan. This Samaritan man took action where others did not. So love that’s God-like has a corresponding actions. But this isn’t an isolated teaching.
God set the example for love and actions. You know John 3:16? Of course you do. It contains this principle:

God so loved the world that He GAVE…

Real love acted; it gave. But that isn’t all vai al sito. Romans 5:8 gives us another clear example of this principle:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

There it is again! But that takes us to another principle. The expressive actions of love are for a purpose. What purpose? The benefit of its object. We are the objects of God’s affections. He expressed His divine love by acting on our behalf and providing a way for us to receive forgiveness. So far this doesn’t look like the run-of-the-mill Valentine’s Day sentiment!
I’ll wrap this up with a connection to something already said. Love intends its actions. That means the actions are carefully chosen and planned. Here is proof:

All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.

Valentine’s Day: All 365 Days

Even a brief look at real love shows us we have much to improve. But improving is always a good thing. Love like God loves. Let your love express itself with proper actions; actions that will bless, benefit, and delight the objects of your affection. And be intentional!

Soli Deo Gloria! 

PS – We often love others the way we want to be loved. Or, we love them the way ‘they should’ want to be loved (our judgment!). And either of those things can be like standing in front of someone who doesn’t speak English and yelling, I LOVE YOU! Love others in ‘their language.’ This may help – The Five Love Languages