How do we Love?

​Tomorrow is Valentines day.  If they haven’t already, untold numbers are thumbing through cards that they hope will express love for their significant other in a way that is authentic and not trite.  Aboutflowers.com predicts somewhere around 250 million Roses will be bought and given tomorrow.  The National Retail Federation estimates that in 2020, people will spend an average of $196, with total spending for the holiday to exceed $27 billion.  Restaurants will be bustling, soft lighting will abound, and Americans from coast to coast will want to communicate on this day they LOVE one another.
 
When we as believers look at how to express love, however, we should notice something very different than those statistics imply.  Though God’s love is evident in nearly every page of the Bible, we don’t see chocolates or jewelry or flowers as the way God displayed His love.  No, brothers and sisters, God displayed His love in a far more demonstrative way!
 
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” (1 John 3:16a, NIV)
 
Jesus didn’t display His love for us in mere gifts or words, He displayed it by sacrificing His life in our place... restoring our relationship to God.  Paying the price for our Sin.  Buying us back as His own.  This is the picture we are to have for one another!  John continues in that verse:
 
“And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”
 
This Valentine’s Day, let us go beyond heart-shaped chocolate boxes and Roses (though don’t forget them!) and look for ways we can love our significant others, our spouses, our Children, our brothers and sisters in Christ, in a way that not only shows them we love them… JESUS loves them!
 
For His Glory,
-Pastor Zach