Many people, when asked to give a one-word theme for the month of February, would quickly reply 'Love.' We hear and use the word 'love' all the time, but do we really know what love is? Like the old country and western song, many people are 'looking for love in all the wrong places.'
Christians have a great advantage when it comes to knowing and understanding love: 'this is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.' (1 John 3:16) We know the right places to find love. The first place to find real love is in the manger: 'for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.' (John 3:16) The second place to find real love is on the cross: 'greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.' (John 15:13). The third place to find real love is in the lifestyles of believers.
In the Old Testament God's command was to love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18). In the New Testament Jesus gives a new command: not new because He tells us to do something different than what God said in the Old Testament, but new because Jesus used a new example of love. Instead of loving our neighbor as we love ourselves (and honestly, self love does not always result in healthy choices and living) Jesus tells us 'love each other as I have loved you.' (John 15:12). Loving others just as Jesus loves us is a visible mark of discipleship ('by this all men will know that you are My disciples if you love one another') John 13:35.
So rather than watching others look for love in all the wrong places, let us lead others to find real love in the manger, on the cross, and in the lives of Christians. May each of us be a living example of real love!
GLY & SDI!
Pastor Bob Allmann
LVCCM Spiritual Director