“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:11
Yes, on Valentine’s Day, and every day, for followers of Jesus, our brand is love! God started it – he loved us first in the sending of Jesus to die for us. Now, he looks to us to finish it by the way we interact with others every day. It is not always an easy thing, to love. With the Season of Lent beginning next week, we have a 40-day reminder of how painful it was for Jesus to love us to the full by his agonizing death on the cross. That being so, it is good for us to pray for the “strength to love” as Martin Luther King, Jr. once put it and as Soren Kierkegaard prayed it:
“Father in Heaven! You have loved us first, help us never to forget that. You are love so that this sure conviction might triumph in our hearts over the seduction of the world, over the inquietude of the soul, over the anxiety for the future, over the fright of the past, over the distress of the moment. But grant also that this conviction might discipline our souls so that our hearts might remain faithful and sincere in the love which we bear to all those whom You have commanded us to love as we love ourselves.” (The Prayers of Kierkegaard)
Yes, our brand is love and we pray today and every day to live to make it known to the part of the world we are meant to touch.
Valentine’s Day is a great reminder of a Christ Follower living to touch his part of the world with the love of Jesus. Yes, Valentine’s Day is rooted in the story of the 3rd Century Christian church leader who lived in the days of the Roman Empire. His name was Valentinus and he was killed by Emperor Claudius II because he secretly married Roman soldiers in defiance of the Emperor’s order. Claudius (“the Cruel”) had trouble recruiting soldiers because they were unwilling to leave their loved ones because they were required to serve for 25 years. So, Valentinus secretly married couples until he was caught, imprisoned (where he continued to be a witness for Jesus) and later killed. Valentine’s Day is a day we remember a courageous servant of the church who loved Jesus very much and who believed that marriage was God’s idea and not to be restricted by an Emperor.
We have more freedoms in our day than Valentinus had in his. Nevertheless, we are equally challenged to courageously follow our Lord Jesus to love our neighbors because he loved us first and shows us how to bring his love to bear upon our world!
In the Love of Jesus,
Tony Tench
PS – A Note to Parents: When it comes to Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Christmas, the folks at Voice of the Martyrs have written three wonderful books for children that explain the stories of Valentinus, Patrick and Nicholas all of whom were followers of Jesus and who stood for the Lord in the face of opposition. Check out these great books as you are looking for things to read with your kids around these holidays available at www.persecution.com:
The Story of St. Valentine: More than Cards and Candied Hearts
The Story of St. Nicholas: More than Reindeer and a Red Suit
The Story of St. Patrick: More than Shamrocks and Leprechauns