Submitted by Pastor Kailea Nauman, Rock Port First Christian Church

We just celebrated Valentine’s Day – the love day as we call it. The day we shower the people we love with gifts, affection, flowers, and, of course, chocolate. It is the day that the retailers love because it is a day they can capitalize on. Their ads are geared towards young love, old love, friendship love, and parent/child love. They really know how to market love. But the problem with this day for those who don’t feel loved is they often hate this day; it is a day they want to avoid.

Love is a complex thing, and we have so many ideas of what love is. When we talk about love it is overtly for those who we also like, but the Bible talks about love in such a different way and as people who belong to Jesus Christ our love must be different as well. We should see the people who feel unseen, unloved, and unwanted. The marginalized, the outcast, those who feel like they don’t belong. This would be a day I think that we should really shine the brightest because the love we give should not be like the world gives but as Christ gives.

Jesus had much to say about love. When questioned by the Pharisees, they asked Him what the greatest commandment was and this is His response, from Matthew 22:37-40: “Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and Prophets.”

So, Jesus tells the Pharisees and those listening the Commandments are not different. Love God first and then love your neighbors and that sums up the entirety of the Law and prophets. But that isn’t all that Jesus had to say about love. In Matthew 5:43-46 Jesus says this, “You have heard it said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?”

I think those are hard words to live by but when we keep our eyes on the Cross it becomes easier, because Jesus, as He hung on that cross, showed the ultimate act of love. He didn’t curse those who nailed Him there. He prayed for them. If we live like Jesus, we can begin to love like Jesus, understanding that God wants none to perish and all to come to know Him. So let us take this month as an opportunity to share the love of Christ, not our love, but His life, His light and His love.