One of the things that I always enjoy about the month of February is Valentine’s Day.  It is a time to remember the people we love, especially those we are closest to: a husband, a wife, children and friends.  As a part of our celebration of Valentine’s Day we always need to remember Jesus’ call to love: “A new command I give you, love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35).  Note what Jesus says here – not only are we to love one another because Jesus calls us to do so, but we are to love one another because it is an example to others of what it means to be a disciple.

Needless to say the church has not always found this easy to do.  John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, had to remind the early church of Jesus’ call to love: “And this is His command: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us.  Those who obey His commands live in Him, and He in them.  And this is how we know that He lives in us: We know it by the Spirit He gave us.” (1 John 3:23-24).  We love because He first loved us.  If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brothers or sisters, he is a liar.  For anyone who does not love a brother or sister, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.  And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brothers and sisters” (1 John 4:19-20).  Just as the early church found it hard to love, sometimes we find it hard to love one another, particularly those closest to us.  We are sometime like Linus in the Peanut cartoons: “I love all mankind, it’s just people I can’t stand!”  Of course having a sister like Lucy would make it hard.

John also reminds us that true love is not just words, but results in practical action directed toward the one we love: “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18).  Gary Chapman in his book The Five Love Languages points out that people perceive that they are being shown love in a least five different ways.  Too often we want to show love in our own way, by “giving gifts” for example.  For some people that is their “love language,” but for others it is “words of affirmation,” or having the person they love spend “quality time” with them, for others it is “physical touch” and for some it is “acts of service”.

This Valentine’s Day and throughout the year think about the people you love and then determine how you can show them love in one of the above five ways that is their “love language”.  The question is: “How can you show someone you love them in a way that they will best receive it?”  Then do something practical to show that person how much you love them.  I pray that this is a great year for love for you and those you love.

--Munn Hinds, Jr.