By Jonathan Wilcox

Love is in the air...

Culture dedicates February to the topic of love. Every convenience and big box store is filled with hearts in various shades of pink and red, alongside rows of cheap chocolate and cards full of sappy poetry. This commercial emphasis can leave one feeling that to have love, you must have that mooshy-gooshy feeling toward a romantic partner.

For anyone who has been married any length of time, it is evident that this approach to love is insufficient. Basing marriage commitment solely on warm feelings is a recipe for disaster. Furthermore, marriage is not the only way we see love expressed. A great example is Jonathan and David, who shared the love that comes from being the best of friends.

Thankfully, we are not left to cultural feelings or commercialized platitudes to give us a basis or direction for our love. One of the main themes in Scripture is love. Not only does God give us numerous examples and instructions on love, but he also models it for us in Christ and empowers us to love through His Spirit.

Love is a command

When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus goes back to the Pentateuch to cite two verses. First, Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and second, Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

These two commands, along with the explanatory parable of the good Samaritan, are truly humbling. They demand a radical commitment with the whole person that is counter to our sinful, self-centered way of operating. To best understand these commands, we must consider them in terms of covenant. In the context of these commands, God was delineating the terms of His covenant with Israel. As such, the term love implies affection, allegiance, and action. Let me explore each in turn.

There is a passion involved in the commands to love God and neighbor. This passion is much deeper than the gooey feeling that modern culture teaches us to expect. Rather, it is much more akin to zeal. Our heart is to be consumed with God and the welfare of our neighbor.

Our passion for God and our affections in our covenant relationships with other people are not to be fleeting based on how we feel. Instead, they are to be constant. Our only allegiance should be to God, who we commune with in the vertical relationship, while we should be appropriately loyal to our horizontal covenant commitments toward other people. For example, my covenant commitment to my wife trumps every other human relationship, whether a job, immediate family, or another good friend.

God takes covenant loyalty very seriously. In fact, the sins of adultery and idolatry are very closely tied together, especially in the prophets, and both sins are emphatically denounced and have severe repercussions, such as exile.

The last covenantal component of love is action. Our zeal and commitment to God should invariably result in wholehearted obedience to not only the letter of the law but also be in accordance with the spirit of the law. Likewise, since we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, we ought to do the things that promote our neighbors' welfare. This is where the parable of the good Samaritan hits home; it forces us to ask ourselves, “To what lengths will I go to pursue the good of my neighbor?”. If you are anything like me, you are squirming in your seat, realizing how far short of this command we fall. Thanks be to God that this love has been demonstrated to us in the person of Christ and enlivened our hearts through the gift of the Spirit.

Love is a gift of God

The commands to love God and our neighbor are not arbitrary rules that God made up just to taunt us or make us to toe the line. They flow out of His character and are part of His very essence (1 John 4:7-8). God’s love is so deep towards us that He sent His son to live among us as a perfect example of what love looks like and to die on our behalf to restore the relationship that we broke in Eden.

During His ministry here on earth, Christ demonstrated what perfect affection, allegiance, and action look like. His zeal for God is evidenced by his passionate exchanges with the Pharisees and his clearing of the temple. His deep compassion for people’s emotional and physical welfare is plentiful. One instance was the raising of the widow’s son at Nain (Luke 7:10-17). Before performing the miracle, Jesus looks at the woman in distress and has compassion for her. Likewise, He weeps at Lazarus’s death alongside Martha and Mary before raising him to life. Christ demonstrates his allegiance and action toward His Father and His people best in the events leading up to the crucifixion. In the high priestly prayer (John 17), Jesus talks about how He has completed the work the Father gave Him and prays for His people (vs. 4-9). Additionally, Matthew recounts Christ’s complete submission to the Father’s will (Matthew 26:39).

Not only did Jesus fully demonstrate God’s love toward us, but He also gave us the gift of His Spirit to powerfully grow that same love within us (1 John 4:13). It is the Spirit within us that enables us to put to death our self-centeredness and begin to live passionately for God and sacrificially for others.

Tim Keller, in his book Meaning of Marriage, attributes the ability to sacrificially commit to one’s spouse to the radical work of the Spirit in their lives. I thank God that the Spirit effects change in my inner being. Left to my own resources, I often give in to the temptation to accept the status quo, and pick what is easy rather than zealously pursue my covenant commitments.

So, if you also struggle to manifest perfect love towards God or the people God has placed in your life, be encouraged to boldly go before the throne of grace, knowing that His love for you is deeper than you can imagine.

Have a blessed Valentine's Day.