The word “love” is mentioned in the Bible over 500 times; God surely considers love essential to our lives. God is love. Without love we are lost. One of the first Scriptures in the Bible to stress “love” is (Deuteronomy 6:5) where Moses instructs us to; “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Love begins with God. “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Do you remember your first “love?” I do! Her name was “Jeri” and she was my very first little “girlfriend” back in fifth grade. I would do anything to attract her attention, like try to kick the volleyball over the school fence, hang upside down from the monkey bars, and make strange faces for her. Back then I believed I loved her…I did, as a 9 or 10 year old boy could. I made her several valentines that year, even beyond Valentine’s Day! She liked them, so I kept on making ‘em for her probably until summer when school was let out for summer vacation.
Now, nearly sixty-two years later, I have a much more memorable “girlfriend” and she is my lovely wife Sally. I am proud to say, she is my all-time, most-favorite valentine! I wish I could proclaim we first met back in elementary school, but we didn’t. It was not until much later in our lives that we finally met. I was fifty-two and she was only forty-six. The year was 1991in Houston, Texas at a backyard barbecue my brother was having. It was so romantic! I will never forget meeting her and wooing her for months. I fell for her like a ton of bricks!
We are all to love each other just as Jesus said in (John 15:12) “Love each other as I have loved you.” Do we have to know each other to love each other? No. In fact, I seem to remember a saying that declares “love knows no stranger.” We should never look upon a stranger with dislike or disregard for we are all of the family of God; brothers and sisters in Christ. The world (Satan) has tried to teach us to hate and despise each other, to be suspicious of each other. I think it a terrible shame, but true (sigh.) Better we love each other for Christ’ sake.
What is love? God instructed the apostle Paul to speak of love in (1 Corinthians 13:1) saying, “And now I will show you the most excellent way.” In verses 4-7 of the same chapter we learn; “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves.”
Who do you love? Go and tell them…it pleases God, and I promise it will bless them and you.