Self-giving Love

With St. Valentine’s Day approaching, our thoughts turn to love. Many thinkers have offered opinions on the subject. Ambrose Bierce said it is “a temporary insanity.” Jeremy Taylor described love as “friendship set on fire.” It is “a hole in the heart,” wrote Ben Hecht. John Ciardi said love is “the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the middle-aged, and the mutual dependence of the old.”

It is “not getting, but giving,” said Henry Van Dyke. Peter Ustinov described human love as “endless forgiveness.” Ralph Waldo Emerson said love is “a synonym for God.”

Perhaps Emerson was alluding to the New Testament where we read that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). Love may be the most basic of the moral attributes of God by which we understand and define him. Love is God’s eternal self-giving, self-sacrificing action.

I believe that the love of God is one of the best evidences for the Trinity, or the tri-unity of God. Love, to be expressed, must have an object, or recipient. So in eternity, before time and creation, God was love. The Father loved the Son and the Spirit. The Son loved the Father and the Spirit. The Holy Spirit loved the Father and the Son. Each of the persons of the Godhead reciprocated in the giving and receiving of pure, joyful, eternal love. For this giving and receiving God needed nothing and no one outside of himself. God was love before there were any created beings.

The act of creating the heavens and the earth was an act of self-giving love. “The earth is full of his unfailing love. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made. . . . He spoke and it came to be; he commanded and it stood firm. . . . But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love” (Psalm 33:5-6, 9, 18).

To say that “God is love” is not to say that “love is God.” Love is much more than abstract thought or mere emotion. C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “The words ‘God is love’ have no real meaning unless God contains at least two Persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, he was not love.” Lewis went on to describe the eternal love of God as “a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance.”

The giving and receiving we call love is possible for and in us because God loved us first. “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. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought to also love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

“This is how we know that we live in him and he in us; He has given us of his Spirit And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us” (1 John 4:9-16).

There it is, the self-giving, sacrificial love of the Trinitarian God. The act of sending his Son Jesus into the world to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins was an act of God’s self-giving love. Those who receive his love in receiving Jesus Christ, are said to be capable of giving Christian love to others. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

On St. Valentine’s Day as we give and receive expressions of love, let’s remember where love originated.

Pasto Randy Faulkner

Love Grows by Expression

In case you hadn’t noticed, today is St. Valentine’s Day. This day is observed all over the world as an occasion to express feelings of affection. It is named in honor of St. Valentine, a third-century Roman martyr who died on February 14 around the year 270. He is said to be the patron saint of lovers.

Many traditions are associated with him. One my mother told me when I was a boy had to do with his imprisonment. He sent messages from the jail on heart-shaped ivy leaves to a friend on the outside. This story gave rise to the practice of sending similar messages on heart-shaped greeting cards, called “valentines.”

Whether or not this legend is true, the greeting card manufacturers make sure we see their displays of valentine cards in every store we enter. Even convenience stores and gas stations sell flowers to remind us of the day. We buy the cards and the flowers because we want to communicate love with tangible expressions. These gestures touch the heart of their recipients.

The first letter of John says a lot about how we may love God. What touches his heart is more than words. “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18). God sees it when we put our love for him into action by loving others in tangible ways. “And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister” (1 John 3:21).

Love grows by expression. The more we show our love by serving others, the more our love for them, and for God, will grow. The famous Bible teacher Dr. John Mitchell used to say, “Love is sincerely wishing the other person God’s very best and taking whatever action is necessary to see that accomplished.” It’s true for marriages, workplaces, neighborhoods, churches, and anywhere else love is needed.

I read a story about a man who was standing in the greeting card section of a store. He was having trouble picking out a card. A clerk asked if she could help.

He said, “Well, it’s our fortieth wedding anniversary but I can’t find a card that says what I want to say. You know forty years ago it wouldn’t have been any trouble picking out a card. Back then I thought I knew what love was. But we love each other so much more today. I just can’t find a card that says it.”

I thought as I read this, “Here is a married couple who have shared forty years of unselfishness, forgiveness, companionship and taking care of each other.” That is love. It has grown and grown because it has been expressed ‘in actions and in truth.’ No wonder he couldn’t find an appropriate card!”


    –  Pastor Randy Faulkner

Contact

 

 

 

How to Know and Show Your Love for God

I remember how my grade school teachers reminded me to ask my mother to purchase Valentine cards to give to everyone in the classroom. I dutifully signed my name to all the cards the night before the school Valentine’s Day party. Sometimes there was one particular card for one particular person to which I added a particularly personal greeting.

No one was excluded. Were our teachers trying to teach us to be friends? Was this an experiment in unselfishness? By exchanging greeting cards were we being encouraged to love one another? As I think about it now there is something tender in that memory, however awkward it felt then to send a Valentine to the playground bully or to the pretty girl across the room I was too shy to talk to.

I confess I feel awkward sometimes when I remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 22:37, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”

My hesitation is rooted in uncertainty, or rather, the certainty that I have fallen short and I have not kept this greatest commandment. I must repeat the church’s confession and make it my own: “We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us…”

I do want to love the Lord. I really do, in ways that are meaningful to him. Is there help for my awkward faith and inconsistent love? I believe there is. Scripture suggests the following ways for me to know and to show that I am actively loving God.

  1. Love others.

Jesus in Matthew 22:39 connects loving our neighbors with loving God. Elsewhere the New Testament explicitly teaches us to love our spouses, our fellow-believers, strangers, and even our enemies. This is a way for me to show my love for God; this is the starting point. “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 5:11-12 NIV).

  1. Obey Jesus.

This is discipleship: learning, following and obeying the clear teaching of the Lord Jesus. He tells his followers, “If you love me, keep my commands… whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.” Then he adds an astounding truth, “The one who loves me will be loved by my Father” (John 14:15, 21 NIV). If I want to live in the love of God, I must obey the commands of my Master Jesus. That is how I show my love for him.

  1. Pray.

Regular communication is a sign of love. Love grows cold if creeping separation creates emotional distance. God gives his Holy Spirit to help us communicate love for him in prayer. “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5 NIV). “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father“(Galatians 4:6 NIV).

  1. Be grateful.

The act of thanking God is an expression of love. This is illustrated in the beautiful story of the sinful woman who in gratitude anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume and washed them with her tears. Our Lord said of her, “Her many sins have been forgiven — as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little” (Luke 7:47 NIV). How can we not love God for all that he has done for us in Jesus Christ? “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15 NIV)

How may I be sure of my love for God? By my active and purposeful response to his love.  If I choose to love God by loving others, by obeying his Son’s commands, by prayer and by thanksgiving, my tentative emotional response can be transformed into certainty. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NIV).

Happy Valentines Day!

    –  Pastor Randy Faulkner