While We're Thinking About Love...

This past week, many celebrated Valentine's Day, a day that is dedicated to remembering those who we care about the most and sharing with them our feelings and appreciation for all they mean to us. And certainly, the word "love" was written, spoken and thought of more this past week than in any other throughout the year.

Love is a word which is important for the Christian as well. Followers of Christ look to God's word for direction and in that word, we see how vital love is to our relationship with God. Love is both demanding and giving and while we're thinking about it, we wish to give the subject some attention.

What Love Demands...

Obedience – Jesus told His followers that if they loved him, they would keep His commandments (John 14:15). Jesus wanted to impress upon us that, if we say we love Him without actually doing what He has commanded, that "love" is meaningless. The Son of God spoke these important words in Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." To be obedient to God is to love Him.

A Constant Presence in Our Lives – Perhaps there is no better place to turn in God's word to understand and appreciate love than I Corinthians 13. In this powerful chapter, Paul writes that no matter how "good" we think we are, if we are

What Love Gives...

God – Aside from Paul, perhaps John is the most prolific writer on the subject of love. And one of the most valuable lessons which John teaches us as Christians is that if we live our lives according to God's will, rendering obedience to Him, we will receive love. In a powerful statement, John writes, "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him" (I John 4:16).

Salvation – It is love which has provided us an opportunity to avoid the horrors of Hell and to one day, if we remain faithful, spend eternity in Heaven. Perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible illustrates this point quite well – "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). These words, spoken by Jesus Himself, prove that salvation is a result of the magnificent love of God. Let us be thankful for that love, and continue to live our lives in such a way that one day, we can spend eternity with our God – expressing to Him our deepest and truest love.

Without love, we are nothing. Paul writes, "though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing" (I Corinthians 13:3). Love should be an ever-present emotion as it will "never fail and will always endure all things" (I Corinthians 13:7-8).