What amazing love!

1 John 3:16

16This is how we have come to know love: Jesus laid down his life for us.1

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, people are turning their attention to love:

• Students look forward to the Valentine’s Day parties with the paper hearts and Valentine cards they made or brought for their friends.

• The young couple works hard to make February 14 not just another date, but something special.

• The couple, with years of marriage to their credit, continues to show each other just how enduring their love is.

In all those cases, love is more than emotion. While songs and cards are often focused on the feelings that are fueled by someone else’s action, genuine love is more about my actions than it is about my feelings.

Just as it was for Jesus! “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” The Bible tells me not so much about how Jesus felt, but about what Jesus did! He laid down his life for us! We didn’t do anything to fuel that action. He died, not because we proved our worth. He died, not because our love drove him to respond. He loved because he’s love. He loved because he wanted us to love him, and that meant he had to love first.

And now, we love! The rest of 1 John 3:16 says, And we also should lay down our lives for our brothers. There will be emotion, but love is action. Love like Jesus loved, not only to those who’ve loved us first, but to those who need our love, whether “earned” or not.

Whether it’s February 14 or not, may we not only rejoice in the love we share with others, but rejoice in “how we come to know love!” We “come to know love” through his Word of grace, the washing of Baptism and the amazing Supper he serves. We “come to know love” as we watch and listen to the One born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered, was crucified, died and was buried. We “come to know love” and we grow in our love when we’re fed daily, weekly and constantly with God’s Word.

What amazing love!