The day of love has arrived … so says our calendar.
Flowers, chocolates, lingerie, jewellery, cards and more are purchased as declarations of our love. Dinner reservations (or home deliveries) are made, candles are lit, chilled drinks poured into stemmed glasses … all to show and celebrate love for someone close to our hearts.
I’m kinda lucky, because my special guy got me freshly fallen snow … could there be a better Valentine’s gift?
The following three verses about love are probably the most frequently quoted love verses in the Bible.
1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Matthew 22:37-39
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
The first, written by Paul to the Corinth church. He is instructing the believers in this community on what is important in how to live as followers of Christ.
The second are from the lips of Jesus. He reminds us that we are first to love God, then others. It is through our love of God that we have the capacity to love each other.
The third were the words of Jesus on the night before his death … after the foot washing, after Judas left the room. These were his closest followers, who would build his church on the foundation of these words.
The thing is the word love in each and every use in these verses, is the Greek word agape.
agape is the love to die for …
more specifically,
it’s the love that would die for you
Agape love is unconditional, self-sacrificing, never-ending. It is the highest form of love, the most difficult love to give, the most innately sought. As humans, I believe we were created longing for that love … it is in our DNA to seek it … for it is how our Creator-Father loves us.
Agape love costs nothing, and everything.
It takes no time, yet all of our time.
It requires that we just be ourselves, yet, in our own strength we cannot love like that.
It is the sum total of the reason for the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus … for his Father (He) loved the world so much that he gave so that we would live (John 3:16).
Agape love is to love as does not come natural for us, as humans, for it requires that we say and do things that we do not want to … because someone else needs to receive … and their need, seen through the eyes and heart of agape love (God’s eyes and heart) trump our own.
As we declare our love for those around us, today, may our words and deeds be in line with the unconditional, self-sacrificing, never-ending love that God has modelled for us.
love, as I have loved you
itsawonderfilledlife 