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Valentine Cards - Red Hearts – Chocolates – Diamonds –
Roses – All in celebration of Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day is mostly about
love, in a highly advertised and marketed sort of way (even worldwide). The
Bible is also about love, but a different type of love. Is there any Biblical
relationship to Valentine’s Day? Probably not, but there are various stories
about the origin of Valentine’s Day. The most likely story is that the St.
Valentine of Valentine’s Day was a priest who lived around 270 A.D., and became
disliked by the Roman emperor Claudius II. Valentine was eventually martyred for
refusing to renounce his Christian religion. This sacrificial type of love is
definitely the type of love spoken of in the Bible. However, Valentine’s Day
today is not particularly a celebration of Christian love, or love between man
and God, but rather of worldly love between individuals.
While we can give cards, candy, flowers, and gifts to
express love to each other, how do we know that God loves us? After all, the
world is full of suffering, sadness, pain, natural disasters, disease, crime,
war, terrorism, and hatred. How could a loving God allow good and innocent
people to be subjected to unfair and painful situations beyond their control;
situations that they did not deserve?
The answer to these questions have been answered by
God, in the Bible. God does love us, and He has expressed that love to us in
ways that go far beyond cards, gifts, and flowers:
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At Creation, God formed a perfect world
and created man after His image. He placed man in a world free of pain and
suffering, and free of disease and death. Man was given a purpose in the
world, and he was to live in eternal fellowship with God.
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However, man was not created to be a
mindless robot; he was given free will and the ability to make choices. When
Adam and Eve knowingly disobeyed God in the Garden, sin entered the world,
and so did death, pain, and suffering. Because of man’s sin, not God’s, the
world changed and was cursed. Man could no longer live forever in the
eternal paradise that God had created for him. But in spite of man’s sin,
God still loved man, and wanted fellowship with man.
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Throughout history, God has reached out
to man in love so that man could restore his relationship with God. God gave
man the Ten Commandments not out of oppression, but out of love, so that man
could know how best to live to be fully fulfilled and content. While
following rules and laws was never meant to be a means to achieve salvation,
God did say that He would “[show] love to a thousand generations of those
who love me and keep my commandments.” (Deuteronomy 5:10)
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What else does the Bible say about God’s
love toward man?
God is abounding in love and faithfulness, and is forgiving:
“The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger,
abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and
forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”
- Exodus 34:6
God’s love is eternal:
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love
endures forever.”
- 1 Chronicles 16:34
God loves those who trust Him:
“Many are the woes of the wicked, but the LORD’S
unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.”
- Psalm 32:10
Nothing in this world can keep God from loving us:
“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be
removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of
peace be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”
- Isaiah 54:10
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If God has so much love for us, why
doesn’t He try to restore the relationship that we originally had with God,
before man sinned against God? We cannot restore this relationship on our
own, not through good works of kindness, not through trying to be sinless
before God, and not even through sacrificial offerings, as was done in Old
Testament days.
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The answer is that God HAS provided a way
for every man, woman, and child to restore their relationship with him; an
eternal relationship with God. God provided his Son, Jesus Christ, as
sacrificial atonement for our sins. Jesus came to earth not only to teach us
and perform miracles, but also to willingly die for the sins of mankind, so
that our relationship with God could be restored. All that each of us has to
do is to believe in our hearts that Jesus died for our sins, confess that we
are sinners, and make Jesus the Lord of our lives.
God provided His Son out of love for man:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send
his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through
him.”
- John 3:16-17
In accepting God’s loving gift of Jesus as our Savior, we make Jesus
the Lord of our lives:
“Jesus replied, If anyone loves me, he will obey my
teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home
with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you
hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
- John 14:23-24
It is only by and through God’s loving mercy that we are saved:
“We love because he first loved us.”
- 1 John 4:19
We do not deserve this free gift of God, and we can never earn it:
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
- Romans 5:8
Let us turn our lives over to Jesus:
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer
live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith
in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
- Galatians 2:20
We were as good as dead, when God reached out in love and gave us
Jesus as our Savior:
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is
rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in
transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”
- Ephesians 2:4-5
Christ willingly died for us out of His love for us:
“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved
children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself
up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
- Ephesians 5:1-2
Thank you, Jesus! Praise God!
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on
us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
- 1 John 3:1
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God’s relationship to us in love, and our
relationship to God in love is summed up by John:
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because
God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and
only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not
that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning
sacrifice for our sins.”
- 1 John 4:8-10
If you have never accepted this free gift of love from God, why not do
so today, right now!
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