1 John 4:7-17

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day; Do you know how this day started? If you do let me remind you; if you do not, let me tell you how is believed this celebration started.

Around the year 250 AD there was a priest by the name of Valentine. He lived in Rome. The Roman Empire was ruled by the emperor Claudius, also called Claudius the Cruel. Valentine and a large number of people didn’t like Emperor Claudius. The reason, he wanted a big army and to do so he needed many men; he was expecting many young men to volunteer but did not happen. Then he realized that the reason for not signing up and not wanted to go to war were their wives and girlfriends.

This made Claudius mad, and he thought if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army. So, Claudius decided not to allow any more marriages. Young people thought his new law was really cruel and Valentine thought it was ridiculous! since one of his favorite jobs as a priest was to marry people. After Emperor Claudius passed his law, Valentine the priest secretly kept on performing marriage ceremonies. Most of the time he had to whisper the words of the ceremony, while soldiers were on the steps outside his church. History says that one night, he didn’t hear when the soldiers came, and he was caught marrying a couple. The couple escaped, but he could not.

He was thrown in jail and sentenced to die. Valentine tried to stay cheerful. Many young people came to jail to visit him. They threw flowers and notes up to his window. They wanted him to know that they, too, believed in love.  One of these young persons was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit Valentine in his cell. They often sat and talked for hours. On the day he was to die, he left her a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, “Love from your Valentine.”

That note was written on February 14, 269 A.D the day Valentine died and started the custom of exchanging love notes on Valentine’s Day. Nowadays, every year on February 14, people remember him. But most important, people think about love and friendship by sending flowers and love notes as a way to proclaim that love is important and cannot be defeated!

The scripture we read from 1 John chapter four speaks about the importance of love. These verses are -I believe- love notes from God to remind us that love is important, and we should show that love by what we do. 1 John 3:18 says, “My children, our love should not be only words and talk” Our love must be true love. Valentine the third century priest backed up his belief with actions. He continued performing marriage ceremonies even though he knew he could die for doing it.

God also shows his love for us with actions. John 3 verse 16 says, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son.” God gave his Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost but have eternal life. He sent His only son to be tortured to death so that each and every one of us could live forever with Him in heaven.  He did this for every one of us, before we were even born. God’s love should remind us that our words have to match our actions if we really mean them.  Romans 5 verse 8 says, “But Christ died for us while we were still sinners. In this way God shows his great love for us.”

Let’s keep that verse in mind, God died for us while we were sinners. The scripture we read in 1 John 4 verse10 says “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” According to the custom in the Greek and Roman society the people on top of the social pyramid were not obligated to love the ones on the bottom of the pyramid. But those on the bottom had to love the ones on the top of the pyramid. A disciple had to love his teacher; a teacher did not have to love his disciple; a slave had to love and respect his master; a master did not have to.

God is on the top of our pyramid; He deserves to be loved. On the other hand, we –because of our sins; because of our failures, are at the bottom and do not deserve to be loved. We deserve the wages of our sins which is death. But because God loves this world in such a way, He change the order of the pyramid and love those who are at the bottom. And he loves us with eternal love as Jeremiah 31:3 says. That is the love we have to think about, because it’s completely different to the love we know and practice. When we love someone it’s because we like her or him or because they’re related to us… son, daughter, mother, father…when we love someone it’s because they’re attractive to us. There is no way we will love someone who has hurt us; there is no way we will love someone who we do not like. That is why John said, the real love is the one God has shown us.

Let’s see what kind of love He has shown: First, He changed heaven for earth, He left a place where He was served, where He received the adoration of millions of angels and came to serve and to suffer just for love. Second, He became a creature. The almighty God creator of heaven and earth became one of us, the fullness of God in a human form, humiliation just for love. Third, He gave everything including his life. He died in the cruelest way a man could die in those times, just because He loves us.

I am convinced that this kind of love deserves to be appreciated, mainly when it’s freely given, and the object of this love does not deserve it. Saint Agustin the theologian of the fourth century said: “If there would have been only one sinner, Jesus would have given his life the same way He did.” That means -I believe- that when we talk about what Jesus did, we must take it personal and say, “He did it just for me” and I, in a personal way, must ask myself “How am I responding to this kind of love? If Jesus changed heaven for earth, am I willing to leave my comfort zone in order to serve Jesus; Am I willing to go out of my way in order to show my love for Him and for whoever and whatever He loves.

Jesus humiliated Himself when He became human. That was the only way to attract people to God; that was the only way to show us God; and that was the only way to bring the Kingdom of God to us. If He did so, what am I willing to do in order to bring others to this Kingdom? Do you know that there are people outside that you are the only one God can use to show them how much He loves them; you are the only one they will listen to. That is why we have to go to them and tell the old, old story.

Jesus gave everything including His life to show how much He loves us, what are we willing to give up to show Jesus, we are grateful for what He did for us? You, know the way we serve Him, the way we worship Him, the way we participate in the life of our church show how grateful we are, show how much love we have for Jesus.

1 John 3:18 “My children, our love should not be only words and talk”. Someone once said that the place where God’s word is broken more often is His temple, His church and as an example he took the third commandment “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”

Every Sunday we sing songs expressing our love for Jesus, every Sunday we sing songs thanking Him for His love; every Sunday we sing songs telling Him we will be faithful to Him, but what we sing does not match what we do. When we sing ‘Oh how I love Jesus” and we do not show it with our actions, we misuse His name; when we sing, I want to follow you and we follow someone else, we misuse His name; when we sing the old rugged cross and we do not show how grateful we are for His blood, we misuse His name. I will finish my meditation asking one question, How big is your love for Jesus?