The Importance Of Love

The Importance of Love

Well in case you are unaware… today is Valentine’s Day. The origin of the day is uncertain as there are several stories of how this day came into existence, but the origin is not really that important. We do realize that it is big business for greeting card companies, flower & candy shops and more. All around the world people take this day to tell their special people in their life how much they love them.

I remember as a kid that we would give out valentines to everyone in the classroom. You would get a box of comical cards and sit down at the table and put the names of the kids in your class on them and then take them to school. Then you would come home and open your sack of cards and go through them and then throw them away. It was a very special day for me  I grew up in a home with 3 boys… sweet things were not part of the package. Now once I got married I had a learning curve to deal with. I found myself with a wife and 3 daughters and all of a sudden Valentine’s day had a new meaning… and much more responsibility as a dad. Vida had to teach me the importance of day and instructed me that for the rest of my life I would be giving Valentine’s gifts rather I liked it or not… Actually I have always enjoyed giving my girls things to make them smile. But I will tell you it is different with girls than with boys.

I remember some early attempts at being romantic when Vida and I were dating. In the early 80’s MTV had just come on the scene and so watching music videos was exciting. We would hang out at one of our friends house and we would sit there and watch music videos.

(Tell story here)

So I understand about this day of love. But today I want to look at love from another angle or perhaps a different type of love… not the romantic love, but true deep love for one another. Love is very powerful and it is a necessary ingredient, mandatory ingredient in a Christian’s life. Let’s look at a scripture where Jesus is talking about the most important thing of all.

36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” 37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:36-39

The two most important details of our Christian life is our total and complete love for God and equally important is our love for our neighbors, for those around us. Jesus puts this so powerfully and forceful that we must take notice of it. You see these are important because what is important to your heart is important to you. What your heart loves the most is what you protect the most, spend the most time on, think the most about and it speaks to you daily. Our love for God and others when giving the highest priority in our life will speak to us in every other area of our life. Love is the most important ingredient you can have.

It is this lack of love in the world and yes in the church that causes so many troubles and problems. We just do not understand what true love is and we do not practice it in our daily living. Look at what Jesus says in these following verses:

31 Do to others as you would like them to do to you. 32 “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! 33 And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much!

Luke 6:31-33

You see we understand about loving those who love us. We look at what we do for our families and close friends and we think we are so full of love… and this is how they felt and Jesus begin to teach them what love really was. He is saying so what! You love those who love you… you do good to those who do good to you… not a big deal. The sinners of the world does the same thing. Where is that a sacrifice on your part? Where is that costing you anything? Where are you giving anything away there? Then He goes on:

34 And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return. 35 “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. 36 You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. Luke 6:34-36