Title: Love’s Greatest Demonstration
Scripture: 1 John 4:9–10
Today the world celebrates love with flowers and chocolate, yet the calendar’s fluttering hearts can never rival the beating heart of the gospel. John writes not with sentimental rhyme but with blood-earned certainty: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The apostle anchors love not in human affection but in divine action—the cross is God’s Valentine to a wayward bride.
We are prone to define love by what it gains: admiration, romance, reciprocation. God defines it by what it gives—His Son. While we maneuver to protect our hearts, the Father purposefully broke His own, opening a way for enemies to become beloved. The manger and the cross together form the truest love letter ever penned, signed not with ink but with iron, sealed not with wax but with wounds.
Therefore, Christian, rejoice today not because you feel lovely, but because you are loved in spite of your unloveliness. Let every rose, every candlelit dinner, every exchanged card become a parable pointing to greater romance: Christ cherishing His church. Let husbands love wives and wives love husbands as reflections, never replacements, of covenant grace that will never divorce us.
But let us also weep—for neighbors who trade eternal passion for paper hearts, for friends who seek soul-satisfaction in passing pleasures. Carry this gospel-love loudly and gently. Buy the flowers, share the chocolate, but speak the news: the greatest Lover has already come, and His embrace outlasts every earthly bouquet.
Prayer: Triune God, whose love is stronger than death, captivate our hearts again today. Make every token of affection a reminder of Your costly, pursuing grace, and send us bearing the fragrance of Christ to a love-thirsty world. Amen.
