Celebrate Love
‘Tis the season to celebrate love. Stores are full of hearts, flowers, and chocolates, all begging us to let them help us express our feelings for someone special.
We’re to love our neighbor as ourselves, so this season of love is a good thing. Right?
I’m not so sure. Lately, I’ve wondered if we’re celebrating the right thing. It seems our culture doesn’t understand what love is. We’re chasing fraudulent counterfeits of love, which promise to fill the void within, but lead to more emptiness and pain instead.
There are a couple of primary differences between fraudulent love and genuine love.
1. The Definition of love:
- God provides the definition and the example for righteous love. (See 1 Cor. 13)
- Man defines what worldly love is and strives to attain it.
2. The Expression of love:
- God’s love is characterized by sacrificial giving to others.
- Worldly love seeks self gratification, often at the expense of others and often leading to personal compromise.
For example, I wonder sometimes if social media provides an empty substitute for love.
Extramarital sexuality has certainly become a culturally approved substitute for genuine love and caring. A Christian woman declared to her doctor that her adulterous relationship made her happy, so she was sure God approved of it. Such rationalization and denial are common for people who are trapped in worldly “love.”
It is counterfeit. Studies show that casual sex is associated with a higher incidence of depression, conflict in marriage, divorce, and substance abuse of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs. While the need for love is real, the counterfeit increases the void rather than filling it.
With those “rewards” of fraudulent love, as we celebrate love, it’s to our advantage to understand and pursue righteous love. Since, God is love, and His love is pure, we can learn from Him.
- God so loved the world that He gave (Jn. 3:16). Righteous love gives to the good of others rather than seeking self gratification.
- God gave His only beloved Son. Godly love gives sacrificiallyand from the heart.
- God’s love does not discriminate. The sun shines and rain falls on the just and the unjust.
- God’s love is unconditional. He loves us when we’re good or bad–even when we’ve really blown it. True love never fails.
The list goes on. I Corinthians 13 tells us more, but this short list highlights plenty to celebrate about God and about love.
It’s also enough to challenge me.
If I love my neighbors—i.e. the world—as I love myself and as God loves me, maybe they wouldn’t be so drawn to a counterfeit love that leaves them empty, injured, and always searching.
What about my special Valentine? He appreciates a card, but I’m sure that if I’m consistent in loving him unconditionally, that would mean even more. Cards are nice, but patience and kindness that bears all things and endures all things beats a card any day.
Celebrate?
- I celebrate God’s amazing love.
- I celebrate the Lord’s faithfulness and patience as I stumble in my attempts to love.
- I also celebrate His goodness to keep a spark of love alive in me–in spite of the self-centeredness that battles with my desire to show genuine love.
- In addition, I celebrate the Lord’s willingness to love through me when I let Him.
- Furthermore, I celebrate the man who has faithfully loved me for 44 years of marriage—in spite of my shortcomings.
What do you celebrate this Valentine?
You can leave a comment by clicking here.