Love - Letter From Pastor Evan

Love

This coming Sunday is Valentine’s Day and so I would be completely remiss if I didn’t somehow speak about LOVE (insert romantic orchestral music here). Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to tell that special someone just how much they mean to you by showering them with flowers, chocolates, mushy cards, and dinner for two beside candlelight, while Michael Bolton softly serenades you. After all, nothing says love like these grand, emotional gestures!

Now obviously, I’m being a little bit sarcastic. I love my wife and am glad to show her that I love her, even on the day prescribed by St. Hallmark! However, so often we are encouraged to express our love to one another through grand gestures that appeal to our feelings of love toward someone. While that is not a bad thing, feelings ultimately are not firm foundations that love ought to be built on. Just think of how many couples have ended relationships because “they fell out of love with one another.” Behind this reason, what they are saying is that they didn’t feel “in love” with a person anymore!

Feelings are a terrible gauge for our relationships because feelings change. Think of how you felt on your wedding day…do you feel that same way toward your spouse now? When money struggles, raising kids, job stress, the busyness of everyday life weigh on a relationship, is it easy to still feel in love with someone? If we’re honest, our feelings can waver over the years.

But the Biblical understanding of love is much different than feelings. It is not mushy and romantic. It doesn’t include fireworks, orchestras, and long stem roses. In fact, real love is tough and rugged. It is consistent and unwavering. It is ultimately a commitment. Romans 5:6-8 says, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” There is nothing flowery about love in this verse. Instead, this love came to us while we were weak, ungodly, unrighteous, sinners. There was nothing lovable about us. And while we were “still sinners,” (still in the act of sinning against Him), wanting nothing to do with Him, He endured the cross for us! He selflessly died for us. He gave up everything for us.

God’s love for us is not driven by feelings. It is driven by His promise to save us from sin. This means that He loves us even at our worst! Even when we don’t do anything for Him, He still loves us and gave up everything for us that we might live with Him in His Kingdom forever. Now that is Love.

So, as we celebrate Valentine’s Day, know how deeply you are loved by God and let that love be a model for you to love people around you! But also, maybe get that special someone a card too!

In Christ’s Love,
Pastor Evan