areliablefaith

I am not a fan of crass commercialism.  The true meaning of holidays, or Holy Days as they originally began, is often subordinated under the lesser purpose of making a buck.  It’s not that giving gifts is a bad thing, but it is not necessarily the best thing.  Valentine’s day is an excellent example.  To give my sweetheart a gift on this day as a token of my love and devotion is a fine thing, but if I do it simply because it has become the societally acceptable act then it rings hallow.  Alternately if my love is simply the romantic type of love or what was refered to as Eros in the Greek of biblical times, then it falls short of the deepest and purest of love, Agape.

Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to capture what true love looks like in the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians.  He states it so much better than I can.  Take a few moments a let this Valentine’s message saturate your soul.

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but to not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; hen I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Here’s wishing you and your loved ones a happy, Agape-filled Valentine’s Day.