By Tom McCormick
Romantic Love has always been a good topic for ESL conversations. It is of universal and very personal interest, and remains something of an ideal that touches the core of our humanity. No wonder! God is Love (1 John 4:16, etc.) and humans have been created male and female in His image (Gen 1:27; 5:2). It is not so surprising, then, that the two Great Commandments— which summarize God’s law—have to do with LOVE: LOVE for God with all that we are and LOVE for our neighbours as ourselves. Nor should it be surprising that of the three great virtues—faith, hope and love—Paul highlights in the great love chapter (1 Cor 13), “the greatest of these is LOVE.” Nor that the mystery of the romantic love of husband and wife is very great, while actually referring to God’s love in Christ for His own people (Eph 5:32).
And yet, though we might heartily acknowledge all that, we also no doubt acknowledge that we fall short, both of loving as we know we ought as well as being loved in the deeply satisfying ways for which our hearts long. Some have called this humanity’s ‘deep love-wound’. It is indeed the human condition: we fall short of God’s standard, whether we think of that as His Glory (Rom 3:23) or His glorious LOVE. God’s law, after all, shows us our shortcomings (Rom 5:20, Rom 7:7, Gal 3:18), and LOVE summarizes that law.
And so, Valentine’s Day may just provide a very special occasion to share some of the deepest desires, needs, and challenges of being human, no matter the cultural background.
Of course we do so in the light of the love of God and the hope which is ours in Christ Jesus: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16), showing us exactly what that love involves and requires: “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16).
May we all be refreshed by that love, and encouraged by this hope, so that we too may love others as He has loved us:
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.… Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
—1 John 3:1-3
* This devotional is a reprint of the devotional in the ESL Link, Volume 8.1 (2017).