This is love-month?

Today’s flyers are filled with hearts. One of them calls February the month of love. Another features jewelry that is heart-shaped. The stores are filled with chocolate and other gifts in red, heart-shaped containers.

All this is good, yet my question this morning about Valentine’s Day was why should this be only one day a year? Shouldn’t I express my love for others all the time?

This is a challenge because biblical love or the love of God is different than human affection and passion. It is action that expresses God’s desire for the best in the life of another, especially their eternal well-being. God’s love, as expressed in Christ, includes personal sacrifice. That is, if I love people as I ought, then I will be willing to act on their behalf even when it costs me something.

This kind of love comes only from God. For most people, the best love without Him is loving our children, yet all who have children know that there are limits. Our love can ebb and flow and is not eternal. Instead, I am to love others as God loves me, and respond to His love by loving Him in return. This is not emotional even though emotions are involved. Instead, as He says, obedience is the only way to express this love:

“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21)

What happens to love when people resist and reject God and will not obey Him? This happens, even to Christians. For those who have that relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, the relationship is not broken nor is His love affected by our lack of obedience, but sin messes with our fellowship. Prayer stops. Listening stops. Yet God’s love never stops.

So, what happens if I am obeying God and loving others, but someone resists or rejects God? Will they reject me too? Do I stop caring about them? Do I stop communicating with them? Surely communication will be affected, but if the source of my love for them is the love of God for me, then His love will not grind to a halt. It is still there, hoping for a response, hoping for reconciliation and restoration, hoping for an even deeper relationship than before sin messed with it.

Tozer says God loves me because of something in Himself, and so if Christ is dwelling is me, I will love because of the Christ within. He is right. If I try caring about people on my own, I can do it as long as they please me, but if they sin against me, or others, or God, that love is inadequate. It quits. Only the love of Christ never quits.

^^^^^^^^^

Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me. Thank You that Your love is eternal and no matter what I do, it will never drop away or pull back. I also thank You for showing me how to love You in obedience, experiencing that open, sweet fellowship that is like no other. In the Body of Christ, that same love is a wonderful expression of You in our midst. It can be marred by sin, but Your love does not stop. My prayer is that I will keep on valuing it so much that it will never cease to flow through me either!