A wonderful new year is well under way. For many, it is a time of new beginnings. The Lord, through the apostle Paul, gives us good guidance: Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. Philippians 3:13
Paul is not suggesting that we forget our obligations and commitments, but we are to set aside the negatives in our lives, the failures, the unforgiveness and bitterness; and focus on the blessings the LORD has awaiting us in the days ahead.
You know, the more I study and meditate on God’s Word, the more awesome it becomes to me. The precepts, the warnings, the promises are all for our good; but we, like little children, do not understand so much of what our Heavenly Father clearly outlines for us in His Book of LOVE, the Bible.
How to Love; it’s more than flowers and cards!
You may be thinking: “Can the Bible be so simply summarized: ‘How to love’?” Study Matthew 22:37-40: Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Most of us are keenly aware that during the month of February more hearts are drawn, sent, manufactured, bought and sold than any other time of the year. The· catalyst for this is a man-made celebration we call Valentine’s Day. It’s when hearts, messages, and gifts are surrounded by the word love. But, what does it all mean—that familiar word used to transmit so many diverse personal feelings: love?
I love steak. I love tennis. The score is 40 love. I love my husband/wife. I love my Harley-Davidson.I love football. I love my pillow. I love my pet. I love our children.
I love the LORD. The LORD loves me.
Each of the statements in the box above is true for some people. However, not all of the meanings of the word love are the same. For example, those who are married have varying ideas of what marital love entails. Those who play tennis understand that when the score is “40 love,” someone is close to winning the game. Those who are cat lovers have special relationships with felines. No one loves your children the way you do. And what about those Harley-Davidson fans or those who watch hours of football; what kind of love are these?
Charity is an act of giving with nothing expected in return.
The least understood, most rejected love is that with which the Lord loves us; an unconditional, unchanging love. This is partially characterized by the writer of First Corinthians 13 who uses the synonym charity to express a deeper love than most of us are willing and/or able to consistently give. It doesn’t include lust, selfishness, deceitfulness, or unforgiveness.
Wouldn’t it be exciting if we made February 14 a day to evaluate our heart (love) by measuring it against God’s precepts and examples of love, and then to determine to adjust our lifestyles to reflect God’s standards for love? First and foremost, He clearly tells us IF we love Him, we WILL obey his commandments: If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15 The challenge here is that few of us understand the height or depth of God’s love for us and that we are to be reflecting His love in our lives as we relate to those around us:
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39.
A real-life example of God’s love was given to us in Christ’s willingness to die on the cross. Even with this incredible example, we humans do not understand unconditional love, nor are we willing to apply it to those who are closest to us—our families; yes, even our spouses.
- Many say they are willing to die for their country—for a cause;
- to volunteer endless hours of time;
- to share financial resources;
- to attend Bible study after Bible study.
Yet, how many are simply unwilling LIVE for their covenant spouse as God has commanded: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it … and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Ephesians 5:25, 33.
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
1 John 4:8
Does God really expect this kind of love?
Tragically, many spouses (professing Christians and others), after many years of life’s challenges which TEST relationships between husbands and wives, say they can no longer keep the commitment to love and cherish until death:
“…Will thou love her/him; comfort him/her and keep him/her … forsaking ALL others … so long as ye both shall live? (Let us not forget marriage is a commitment until DEATH, not divorce.) The issue really is a battle between many saying they cannot “love” or they will not keep such a life-time a commitment. Few realize marriage is not only a life-time comment to the covenant spouse; but even more importantly, abandoning a covenant spouse is rebellion against God—whether it’s an affair or a subsequent marriage to another while both covenant spouses are living.
Jesus clearly tells us they are NO MORE two: And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. Mark 10:8
There is no escape clause
for an innocent or guilty spouse
regarding God’s until-death-covenant joining.
Joseph understood the seriousness of sexual unfaithfulness.
Yes, few understand that the aforementioned are sins against God (affairs and marital adultery), something Joseph full-well knew when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him: … because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? Genesis 39:9 This was Joseph who refused to have an affair with his “boss’s” seductive wife and paid the price of being put into prison for many years for his chastity.
Be not deceived! It is possible to deny God’s principle … with God all things are possible? (Mark 10:27) with our actions to refuse to be faithful to God’s commands. That’s what happens when one or both covenant spouses feel it is impossible to continue to love the other until death ends the covenant relationship. Study 1 Corinthians 7:39, Romans 7:2-3, et al.
This Valentine’s Day, let’s give the real thing—our heart to love our spouse, our children, our friends and relatives, and those around us:
- with a sacrificial love;
- with no-strings-attached forgiveness;
- to extend our love to Jesus by obeying and sharing Biblical commandments;
- to commit to find ways to extend the priceless gift of charity to others and obedience to God all year long.
Study First Corinthians 13, focusing on verses four through eight:
- Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
- Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
- Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
- Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
- Charity never faileth. I Corinthians 13:4-8
You can become a disciple for Jesus by restoring and strengthening your family and all broken relationships through following God’s guidelines for charity: to love one another; and most of all, to love Jesus:
If ye love me, keep my commandments.
John 14:15
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