LOVE INDEED Valentine Message 2025
I John 4:7-21 (Weymouth New Testament WNT)
Dear friends, let us love one another; for love has its origin in God, and every one who loves has become a child of God and is beginning to know God.
8 He who is destitute of love has never had any knowledge of God; because God is love.
9 God's love for us has been manifested in that He has sent His only Son into the world so that we may have Life through Him.
10 This is love indeed--we did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Dear friends, if God has so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever yet seen God. If we love one another, God continues in union with us, and His love in all its perfection is in our hearts.
13 We can know that we are continuing in union with Him and that He is continuing in union with us, by the fact that He has given us a portion of His Spirit.
14 And we have seen and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15 Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God--God continues in union with him, and he continues in union with God.
16 And, as for us, we know the love which God has for us, and we confide in it. God is love, and he who continues to love continues in union with God, and God continues in union with him.
17 Our love will be manifested in all its perfection by our having complete confidence on the day of the Judgement; because just what He is, we also are in the world.
18 Love has in it no element of fear; but perfect love drives away fear, because fear involves pain, and if a man gives way to fear, there is something imperfect in his love.
19 We love because God first loved us.
20 If any one says that he loves God, while he hates his brother man, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother man whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21 And the command which we have from Him is that he who loves God must love his brother man also.
From our reading tonight, we read that God loves us and He wants us to love one another. If truly you are a child of God, you are supposed to love. And tonight we are even talking about the love for your spouse.
Love originates from God. When you are talking about real love, about love indeed, then God is the originator. Love indeed comes from God.
And what did God do to prove His love for us, the Bible says He sent His only begotten Son to this world, not to be comfortable, not to come and enjoy Himself. If I want to send any of my children to anywhere now, the first thing I will do is to make sure that he or she is comfortable wherever he or she is going, to make sure he or she enjoys the place.
When my daughter was going to the college for the first time, I left everything to follow her to her college, I visited Walmart/Sam’s Club about seven times to make sure that she will be comfortable and enjoy her stay in the college. God could do that, but He did send His Son to come and enjoy this world and be comfortable.
Because we are sinners, what we deserved were judgement and punishment. But God did not send His Son to come judge us and punish us for our sins. There are so many things that God could have sent His Son to come and do, to reign over us, to come and curse us, but He did not do all these, rather, He sent His only begotten Son to come and suffer and die, not because He wanted it, not because He loved it, but He did it because that was what we need. That is the only way we can receive mercy from Him. That is the only way left for Him to use for us to be reconciled back to Him. That is the only way, the hard and very bitter way for you and I not to go to hell. But because of His love for us, He did it. 9 God's love for us has been manifested in that He has sent His only Son into the world so that we may have Life through Him.
10 This is love indeed--we did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Our Lord Jesus Christ too, He could have changed His mind, Satan gave Him the opportunity to change His mind, He offered Him the world and everything that is it, so that instead of Him to suffer, He would enjoy, but because of His love for you and me, Jesus rejected it. He came and He laid His life down for us, not because He was forced to do it, not because He loved to do it, you will realized that it got to point where He prayed that God should let the cup pass over Him. That shows that it was not an easy thing for Him. He gave his life for us not because we even deserve it, buy because that is what we need. That is the only way to save us and because of His love for us, he died for you and me.
He said in John 15:13 (NKJV) 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
Looking at these 2 examples, if we say we are children of God, then we must love one another.
20 If any one says that he loves God, while he hates his brother man, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother man whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21 And the command which we have from Him is that he who loves God must love his brother man also.
Now two things from what we have read. As I mentioned earlier on, I want to limit the love we are talking about tonight to loving your spouse.
Firstly, to love your spouse may not be easy, but you have to! God loving us was not easy, but He did it anyway. And God created us in His image, in His likeness, so if we say we are His children, we don’t have a choice; we have to love our spouses. It is a requirement, it is the only way just as it was the only way for God and Jesus to love us. God did not love us because we deserve it, He loved us because he had no choice. The same way, we have to love our spouses not because it is easy, not because they deserve it, but simply because we have to follow the steps that the Almighty God followed
Secondly, the only way to show your love to your spouse is to do everything to stay happily married. God did what He could do to see that we are reconciled back to Him. Jesus fulfilled His part to see that we are saved. We are also required to do all we can to stay happily married and in that case you need to forget about your own happiness. The happiness of your spouse should be the priority. Your salvation is the priority of God. God put everything behind and made your salvation the first thing.
People get married because at the beginning they found themselves irresistible; that is love, but as times goes, they lost all that feelings for each other, some even find each other downright disgusting. Tonight, there is a need for you to fall and be in love with one another again. Tonight, there should be restoration of love again.
And I will recommend two ways
In school, there are some teachers that we don’t like because of their ways, wickedness, but there are teachers that we like them and like their subjects because of their ways, considerations and kindness. We like them because of what they do to us and how they relate to us.
I want us to apply the same thing tonight.
I want every husband to ask his wife 2 questions, and the wife too should ask the same questions.
The first question is;
“What can I start doing to make you feel good as from now on?
The second question is;
What can I stop doing that will make you feel good about me as from now on?
In other words, both of you should resolve to start doing whatever it takes to make each other feel good and also avoid whatever will make each other feel bad.
Don’t assume that this or that will make my spouse happy or feel sad. What makes someone happy may not necessarily makes another happy.
I once gave flowers to an elderly woman for her birthday and she held the flowers to her chest and thanking me. That is because she appreciates flowers. I also sent flowers to one of our pastors for her birthday, she did not even acknowledge it until asked her myself after three weeks. She hissed and told me that she actually got it, but she would have preferred money. Asking and doing for your spouse what will make her happy is one way by which you can make the make your spouse happy.
That is one way by which you can restore your romantic love and help one another. Ask your spouse what you could do that would make him or her happier, whatever it is, as long as it is not sinful, as long as you can afford it, please do it. That is love indeed, which is real love. To make your spouse the happiest human being on earth.
If you are the type that is cheating, stop it or if you cannot, leave the marriage. You have a chance to go and try someone else outside and see which one is the best. However, let me remind you that it is not easy living with someone else. Is it easy living with even your siblings?
The bad news about my suggestion is that it is not everyone that knows what would make him or her happy. In a case like this, please give each other time to think about it. This is the middle of the month, give each other another two weeks to really think and say to each other what you want each other to start doing, and what you want each other to start avoiding, so that you can fall in love again. It is a disaster when the two of you cannot resolve to do what can make you happy and avoid what will make you feel bad.
I also need to put in a word of caution that if these two questions are not handled with care, if one or the two of you hate the truth, if one or the two of you are hard hearted, it can even make your marriage to be worse. So if you know that you don’t like to say or hear the truth, you may just forget this advice, it may not do you and your marriage any good.
Another problems is that even when one spouse knows what he or she wants and says it, it is not every spouse that will respond positively, even if they can afford to do it. This suggestion cannot help that marriage as well. It is very difficult, if not impossible to change any human being. So you can only ask for God’s help in a situation like this.
If Moses and Jesus could not help every marriage while on earth because of hard hearts, the devil has taken over the hearts of some people, this message certainly cannot help everyone.
However, I want you to know that if you are willing, God is more than ready to help you with any challenge that you think you are going to encounter if you make up your mind to please your spouse.
Secondly, take responsibility for your actions. When you are wrong, say “I am sorry.” It does not cost you anything to say sorry to anyone. Stop making up stories. Stop justifying anything bad that you are doing.
When Peter betrayed Jesus three times, he had a sincere repentance and three times he told Jesus “I love you.” That is taking responsibility for his actions.
There may be many ways to show, restore and sustain love for one another, but the most important is to do for your spouse whatever would make him or her very happy always and avoid what would make him or her feel sad.
pray that God will help each and every one of us to have real love, love indeed for our spouses in Jesus mighty name.
