Valentine love is temporary (once a year) and fleeting (gone). God’s love and true love are enduring. Love never fails, I Cor. 13:8. “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth,” I John 3:18. Love is a verb, a word of action—not just affection. The POWER of real, godly (agape) LOVE is seen in I Corinthians 13:1-8.
First and most importantly we should love God; and secondly we should love others, Matt. 22:36-40. We love God because He first loved us, but we cannot love God and hate our brother, I John 4:19-21.
We are also to love God’s word. “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in His law doth he meditate day and night,” Psalm 1:2. “Great peace have they which love Thy law…” Psalm 119:165.
We are to love our family. “Husbands, love your wives…,” Eph 5:25, 28-33. The older women are to “teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,” Titus 2:4.
We must love the lost (compassion), Romans 10:1-3, and love the church, Eph. 5:25. Don’t forget to love yourself. Remember, Matthew 22:39 tells us to “love thy neighbor as thyself.” We are to even love our enemies, Matt. 5:44. Love is everyone’s responsibility. KEEP YOURSELF IN THE LOVE OF GOD, Jude 21!
How many ways can you love…and how many people can you love—AGAPE? There is a book titled 10,000 Ways to Say “I LOVE YOU.” Practice one a day and the ideas in this book will last 27 ½ years. Do the loving thing. Jesus said, “If you love Me keep, My commandments,” John 14:15. Serve—do active good. God did! “God so loved…He gave…” John 3:16.
-Ivy Conner