It’s almost February, and my mind immediately thinks of two things: the shortest month of the year and Valentine’s Day. Well, there is a third thing every four years…leap year. But I suppose the main theme that is on everyone’s minds in February is romantic love and how they will demonstrate that love to their “significant other” on Valentine’s Day.
As Christians, we often downplay romantic love and say that the greatest form of love is God’s love and that love was much more than feelings, it was a selfless act of God’s will when He sent His Son to be our sacrifice for sin.
But I think we miss the point that God’s action in sending His Son was prompted by something much deeper than just His will. We would never think that our human love could ever be something that is just a cold, willful action. When we think of love we think emotion before anything else. So, how could God’s love be merely something of His will and not be just as deep and emotional as the love we experience as humans?
After all, we are created in God’s image and likeness, so if love is a deeply emotional experience for us then it must be a deeply emotional experience for God too.
I did a topical search on “the love of God” and came up with words like: sovereign, great, abiding, unfailing, unalienable, constraining and everlasting. And I’m thankful for all those qualities! But we seldom describe God’s love the way we describe our romantic love for each other: warm, passionate, exciting, desirable. When we fall in love with someone, we feel something! We don’t simply decide that we will selflessly give ourselves to them as a pure act of the will…we feel it.
God has feelings for you! He is not a distant God who decided to save you from sin and punishment and give you a home in heaven just because it seemed like the right thing to do. He did it because He has deep, passionate, romantic feelings for us! Romantic? Yes! Webster’s on-line dictionary defines “romance” as: “a relationship between two lovers; an exciting and mysterious quality.”
God is our “lover”? Well, consider what Ephesians chapter 5 has to say about a husbands love for his wife: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” God’s Word likens the romantic love of marriage to the love Christ has for His bride, the church! Husbands and wives should have a real, tangible, passionate, physical, warm love for each other! And Jesus wants us to understand that His love for us is just as deep and warm and passionate as anything a married couple can experience.
As you celebrate love and romance this Valentine’s Day, remember to take time to deepen your relationship with the One whose feelings for you are deeper and more passionate than the human heart can even begin to comprehend!
But don’t keep that love to yourself… “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11).
As Christians, we often downplay romantic love and say that the greatest form of love is God’s love and that love was much more than feelings, it was a selfless act of God’s will when He sent His Son to be our sacrifice for sin.
But I think we miss the point that God’s action in sending His Son was prompted by something much deeper than just His will. We would never think that our human love could ever be something that is just a cold, willful action. When we think of love we think emotion before anything else. So, how could God’s love be merely something of His will and not be just as deep and emotional as the love we experience as humans?
After all, we are created in God’s image and likeness, so if love is a deeply emotional experience for us then it must be a deeply emotional experience for God too.
I did a topical search on “the love of God” and came up with words like: sovereign, great, abiding, unfailing, unalienable, constraining and everlasting. And I’m thankful for all those qualities! But we seldom describe God’s love the way we describe our romantic love for each other: warm, passionate, exciting, desirable. When we fall in love with someone, we feel something! We don’t simply decide that we will selflessly give ourselves to them as a pure act of the will…we feel it.
God has feelings for you! He is not a distant God who decided to save you from sin and punishment and give you a home in heaven just because it seemed like the right thing to do. He did it because He has deep, passionate, romantic feelings for us! Romantic? Yes! Webster’s on-line dictionary defines “romance” as: “a relationship between two lovers; an exciting and mysterious quality.”
God is our “lover”? Well, consider what Ephesians chapter 5 has to say about a husbands love for his wife: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” God’s Word likens the romantic love of marriage to the love Christ has for His bride, the church! Husbands and wives should have a real, tangible, passionate, physical, warm love for each other! And Jesus wants us to understand that His love for us is just as deep and warm and passionate as anything a married couple can experience.
As you celebrate love and romance this Valentine’s Day, remember to take time to deepen your relationship with the One whose feelings for you are deeper and more passionate than the human heart can even begin to comprehend!
But don’t keep that love to yourself… “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11).
