I hope you all had a wonderful “Valentine’s Day” and were able to spend the day with that some one special in your life. I was curious as to the day’s origin, so I did some research online. I found a plethora of possible origins of the day. Found this little tidbit on History.com.
“On February 14, when we share chocolates, special dinners, or doily cards with our loved ones, we do it iin the name of Saint Valentine. But who was this saint of romance?
Search the internet, and you can find plenty of stories about him—or them. One Saint Valentine was supposedly a Roman priest who performed secret weddings against the wishes of the authorities in the third century. Imprisoned in the home of a noble, he healed his captor’s blind daughter, causing the whole household to convert to Christianity and sealing his fate. Before being tortured and decapitated on February 14, he sent the girl a note signed “Your Valentine.”
Some accounts say another saint named Valentine during the same period was the Bishop of Terni, also credited with secret weddings and martyrdom via beheading on February 14.
Unfortunately for anyone hoping for a tidy, romantic backstory to the holiday, scholars who have studied its origins say there’s very little basis for these accounts. In fact, Valentine’s Day only became associated with love in the late Middle Ages, thanks to the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. In fact, until Chaucer, we have no evidence of people doing something special and romantic on February 14.”
“The two stories that everybody talks about, the bishop and the priest, they’re so similar that it makes me suspicious,” says Bruce Forbes, a professor of religious studies at Morningside College in Iowa.”
So, regardless of the origin of Valentine’s Day you choose to believe, there are many to choose from. However the real source of love cannot be denied; The Apostle John stated this in his epistle in 1 John 4:8-10 (ESV)
“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Since the Greek language has several different words for “love”, it’s important that to exactly define the love John is writing about. The word John uses to define God’s love is the word “agape” (ἀγάπη)! It means to sacrifice and prefer another without expecting anything in return for sacrifice offered; (agapáō) in antiquity meant "to prefer". The Apostle Paul includes this truth in his epistle to the Romans in Romans 8:10 (KJV)
“Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another;”
The church rarely reaches this depth of love because we still relate to each other by theology, doctrine and revelation, not sacrificial love. I believe this will change by the transformative work of Holy Spirit in the future. We will live in continual, sacrificial “agape” love. The needs of the harvest will be so great it will only be this kind of love, “God’s love” that will be effective in the days to come.
Its amazing to think about John and all he experienced on the Isle of Patmos and the incredible glory of God he experienced. Yet all he could describe God is being “love”. In fact, tradition suggests that after his experience on Patmos, he lived out the remainder of his days at the church of Ephesus where Timothy was pastor. The younger men would carry John to meetings. Tradition says that he would constantly be exhorting the church to “love one another”. We can read this in 1 John 3:23 (ESV).
“And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.”
This theme is a constant them of the whole New Testament. Even Jesus introduced this a new commandment in John 13:34-35 (ESV).
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Incredible! It’s not only about what you believe, it’s about how much you learn to love! The church at Ephesus had lost its first love around the time of John’s revelation according to Revelation chapter two. In fact, they were about to have their lampstand removed if they didn’t repent then return to their first love. Jesus said that loving God and your neighbor as yourself was the foundation of all the Law. Not giving love to receive some benefit but loving sacrificially and expecting nothing in return.
I believe we can accelerate the next move of God if we practice sacrificial, agape love. God cannot resist the body that loves sacrificially. He will fill it with His presence and glory. I close with this exhortation from the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Corinth, 1 Corinthians 13:1-10 (ESV)
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.”
“Lord, fill us with the power to love one another like you loved us. I’m thankful for the future you have given us. Let us not become weary in doing good but let us love as you instructed us!!’ In Jesus name!