Great Love!
Happy (belated) Valentine’s Day! I hope you saw the Valentine letter in the previous blog post. The celebration of Valentine’s Day usually includes candy, hearts, gifts, and a massive use of the word love.
There are several passages of Scripture that speak of love and use some form of the word great in that same verse. For instance, in Mark 12:31 we find Jesus telling us that one of the greatest things we can do is to love our neighbors as ourselves. When we care for and have thoughts for our neighbors like we would care for ourselves, that is a great expression of our love. Your neighbors may not even want you to love them in that way. However, if your heart is in the right place, you are well on the way to fulfilling what Jesus spoke of in this verse.
What do you do if you have neighbors who are mean or have nothing to do with you? Once again, Jesus has helpful words. In Luke 6:35 we find, “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for He is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.” When we express this kind of love, we are expressing to others the kind of love God expressed to us before we had a personal relationship with Him.
Jesus spoke of this great love from God in John 14:28. Just before Jesus was crucified, He said to His disciples, “Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am.” How about that? Jesus spoke of the greatness of our heavenly Father.
In keeping with that, Jesus expressed His love toward us in the greatest way possible. In John 15:13 Jesus said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Without a doubt, Jesus expressed His great love for us by being willing to die on a rugged Roman cross for us that our sin and our sins could be dealt with once and for all.
Quite possibly one of the most familiar love verses in the Bible is the one found in the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Those words go like this – “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” The power of genuine love cannot be matched.
In our sin-filled world, love is often corrupted by evil and scrupulous people. They might use some form of what they call love to manipulate people and hurt people. However, let’s do what we can in the power of God to keep showing people great love.
