Happy Valentine’s Week: Love Everyone Unconditionally
In America, we "love" everything. We love pizza, babies, puppies, ice cream, springtime, vacations, movies, and on and on.
Isn’t it amazing with the wealth of words we have at our disposal in the English language, we use the same term to describe our feelings about a restaurant as we do to describe our relationship with our spouse?
Most of the time, we use the word “love” to describe anything that makes us feel good at a given moment. With that definition, it’s no wonder we fall out of love with people at about the same rate as we fall out of love with certain music.
As we head into Valentine’s Week, this may be a good time to reflect on how we approach the idea of Love.
This much we know: A man named Valentinus was was a temple priest who was beheaded on February 14 in the third century A.D. by the emperor Claudius II for helping Christian couples wed. But when it comes to details about the life of St. Valentine, legend often supersedes fact. Enough confusion surrounds the true identity of St. Valentine that the Catholic Church officially discontinued liturgical veneration of him in 1969.
It is most likely that the medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer actually invented Valentine’s Day.
Chaucer often took liberties with history, placing his poetic characters into fictitious historical contexts. I love to read historical fiction novels. Apparently, even in the 1300’s, people loved to read historical fiction, too. The fact is, no record exists of romantic celebrations on Valentine’s Day prior to a poem Chaucer wrote around 1375.
In his work Parliament of Foules, he links a tradition of courtly love with the celebration of St. Valentine’s feast day–an association that didn’t exist until after his poem received widespread attention. The poem refers to February 14 as the day birds come together to find a mate:
“For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.”
As you celebrate this Valentine’s Day, take the opportunity to share some real truth about real Love... Real truth shared by Jesus himself that goes way beyond our modern romantic holiday.
Jesus calls us to something more. As His followers, we are called to love the way He does: Unconditionally and with no limits.
In Jesus’ day, the Jewish people in general, and the religious leaders in particular, were quite clear on who were their neighbors and who were their enemies - and how they should treat each. While the admonition to “love your neighbor” appears in the Old Testament, the conclusion “and hate your enemies” may not be overtly stated, but is a mere extrapolation by many, and not God’s design. In the book of Matthew, we find Jesus setting the record straight that His followers are to love both neighbor and enemy...
Matthew 5:43-47 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?
Most of the world operates by a single premise: Love those who love you. In this world-view, people only get into relationships for what they can gain from them. Every relationship is self-serving; so if a relationship ceases to give you what you want, you simply move on to the next one.
The kingdom of God doesn't work that way. It’s not enough merely to claim to love those who might be unlovely; it requires a profound action. Love is something you do.
Jesus offered one example of what love would do: Pray for those who persecute you. Everyone would admit that this is a lovely idea...until someone actually persecutes you.
In Jesus life and ministry He repeatedly demonstrated and taught that when you boil Christianity down to its essence and remove all the peripherals, one thing remains: love.
If we only love those who love us in return, that’s easy.
Jesus calls His followers to a harder kind of love. He wants us to put ourselves out there, risk rejection and ridicule, and then do it all over again - with no thought of reciprocation.
I’m reminded of a quote from the Tom Branson character in the British television series, Downton Abbey. He said to Lady Mary…
“There’s no such thing as safe love.
Real love is giving someone the power to hurt you.”
That’s the hard kind of love Jesus is talking about here. Paul pointed this out to us in Romans 5:8: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Had God only loved those who loved Him, you and I wouldn’t be here today and would have never known His love, for we were “still sinners,” (His enemies) when Jesus died for us. Each believer’s life serves as a striking testimony that God did not practice the restricted love those who love you.
The fact that Jesus used tax collectors as the epitome of conditional and limited love highlights their negative image among Jews at the time. It was as if Jesus were saying to them: Congratulations, you who love only those who love you in return; you’ve achieved the spiritual maturity of a cheating tax collector.
To see the value only in those who share your ethnicity, doctrinal convictions, political views, and so forth is perfectly ordinary. That’s what non-Christians do. So, once again, congratulations, you who love only those who are like yourselves.
Luke’s parallel quote of Jesus brings it home:
Luke 6:33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.
As we begin to live and love like this, we become complete in life and love, and portray a fuller and more accurate reflection of God.
It’s OK to love ice cream. And puppies. And chocolate hearts. But don’t confuse all that love with God’s love - the love He calls you to walk in. God loves you. Now, go and love people.
💖 Happy Valentine’s Day! 💘
