Valentine's Day: What Is Love?

"...Who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant..."

Valentine's Day is about love and love in the human sense can be sweet and sincere but sometimes it is fleeting, or mistaken for other emotions, and on occasion downright disappointing. Who was the greatest Lover of all?  I would say Jesus, Who was fully God and yet humbled Himself and died on a cross because of His love for you, His love for me. That is the sincerest form of love, a servant's heart and a willingness to place everything aside for those He came to save.

Jesus was asked by the teachers of the Law, of all the commandments, which is the most important?" This question caught my attention because certainly Jesus' answer is important and here is His reply: "...love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength..."  I am sure over the years I have read this scripture dozens of times but I decided to break it down and try to determine what heart, soul, mind, and strength actually mean. After all, Jesus said this is the GREATEST (most important) commandment of all. It seemed to me that this is foundational to being able to follow or obey the other commandments.

Here are some of my thoughts and ideas from my studies about heart, soul, mind, and strength. Heart...here is the seat of our affections, our longings, our desires. Our hearts carry powerful emotions that color the way we see everything. So how do we set our hearts towards loving God? Jesus says, "If you love me you will obey me." So when I am tempted to sin, I make a choice to obey God which demonstrates my love for Him and He notices. How much do I love God? It's simple...how often do I choose to obey His word? That is my barometer.

The power to choose to obey is part of the awesome dignity God gave humans when we were created in His image. We are not animals, or descended from animals, acting merely out of animalistic instincts and uncontrollable urges. Choosing to obey God is an awesome act of love toward Him and it never goes unnoticed by Him. He is moved by our desire to love Him with all our heart and when we demonstrate this love by obeying His Word, His Spirit pours out God's love in our hearts, therefore our capacity to receive and give love increases.

Another thing to remember is NO ONE but you can love God like you do. Another demonstration of God's awesome creative ability is the unique, specific characteristics that make us individuals and that specialness was given to us by God. My love for God is love that only I can give Him, as yours is love that only you can give. God chose to give me, Lisa, life so I could love Jesus in my own special way. Love for Jesus is costly and rare. Don't deny Him the love only YOU can give Him.

What is my soul?  I believe that it can be defined as my personality.  Two important aspects of my personality are my attitudes and my speech.  Am I humble? Do I live to serve others? Do I put others ahead of myself? Jesus certainly did all of these things! And if He is my example, if His Words are my blueprint, then theses attitudes should be present in me.

One of my pet peeves is when people judge the actions of others too harshly. I know there is no bottom to the evil, worldly, flesh-driven side of me.  One reason I know this is because the bible makes it very clear (Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:10, John 3:19 and on and on) Humans, apart from the redeeming blood of Jesus, are no good. Yes, there are degrees of "badness" from a human standpoint but compared to the perfection of Jesus there is no comparison.

So it upsets me when people look at another's sins and feel all high and mighty and judgmental as if to say "I could never do that!" Oh yes you could. Oh yes I could. We would have to walk in that person's shoes and experience how their personality developed and know what fears and darkness their actions were based on but we all start as sweet precious babies, innocent and full of potential for turning to God or turning away.  I believe that apart from Jesus, anyone is capable of anything.

Another part of my soul is my speech. Speech clearly indicates my inward attitudes. The bible says a lot about speech and the book of James says the tongue is a fire and it corrupts the whole person (James ch.3)  A soul that loves God renounces speaking out when wronged by others, resists negative talking, slander and gossip, and recognizes that out of the abundance of our heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34)  Our speech is a clear indication of what dwells in our hearts  Is it love and service and the building up of others or is it bitterness, division, and the tearing down of others?

Loving God with all my mind requires me to continually feed my mind the truth. Where is the truth? The pages between the covers of my bible. To me that is ALL the truth in the world and the ONLY truth in this world. I must renew my mind continually and remove wrong mindsets constantly in order to love God with all of my mind. To me this can be the most difficult arena to control because my mind is constantly barraged through all my senses by the world and its desires for me. I admit I am a devotee of pop culture, icons, rock stars, and pretty imagery of sex, drugs, and rock and roll.  I have many conversations with myself about where to draw the line and frankly if I am questioning the lack of godliness in a TV show, or picture, or imagery it is probably already clear I should turn away. But often I do not and the loss is all mine.

The language of the mind is imagery.  "Image"ination is given to us by God. He desires we visualize His truths in our lives and seek Him in a deep and personal way.  Whether good or bad, there is always a movie going on in my head, and in your head. We are always thinking about something. What movie is playing in your head? What conversation are you having in your mind? Those thoughts, those images, lead to actions. The mind can be a very dangerous place if it is not fully engaged in loving God. And I don't mean only dangerous in a serial killer, evil kind of way but also in a passive, dry, meaningless sort of way where live passes you by and you never live up to the plans God intended for you. To die ON the vine (Jesus is the vine) is a terrible, wasted  place for a Christian and sadly  I have been there at times in my life.

We can supernaturally replace wrong thoughts and replace the bad movies in our heads with new ones. The Word of God renews our minds and redirects our thoughts.  Reading the word regularly puts Jesus in His proper place, as our first thought, not an afterthought or the lifesaver we cry for when  crisis arises in our life.  Jesus becomes our escape from sin and temptation through the washing of His word as we learn to flee TO Him rather than from Him. To love Him with all of my mind is to stop dreaming of anything that is not based on His truth and taking the time daily to read and agree with God's word.

We are also called to love with all our strength.  I believe these strengths include giving of our money, our talents, and our service to others. Don't forget prayer is a service to others and requires time and strength and commitment.  Fasting also requires our strength and this is a discipline I have never experienced but I am beginning to study. Forgiving our enemies requires strength and turning away from pleasure time to study the word and pray requires strength. Loving with all our strength includes giving from all of our resources:  time, service, forgiveness, and energy. All of our strengths are gifts from God which are mightily restored as we give in love as evidenced by obedience.

So Happy Valentine's Day and may we all experience love in the truest, deepest sense of the word!