How many times on Valentine's Day have you opened up your Bible to 1 Corinthians 13? Be honest. I can tell you that I have on numerous occasion. It's just natural- February 14th just reminds us of something that can be kicked to the curb in our modern society- love. But love isn't reserved for just your dearly beloved.
37 He said to him, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important commandment. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments."
This passage is from the Book of Matthew (22:37-40). I'm sure you know it. But did you realize that Jesus used the same word here that Paul used: love? We are supposed to love not just our significant other in 1 Cor 13 fashion...but our neighbor i.e. everyone. Oh snap. Let's look this over.
1 If I speak the languages of men and of angels, but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have [the gift of] prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient; love is kind. Love does not envy; is not boastful; is not conceited; 5 does not act improperly; is not selfish; is not provoked; does not keep a record of wrongs; 6 finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for languages, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12 For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Ok, Paul. Let me get this straight. I have to be patient with the people who argue with me? Yep.
I have to be kind to the people who make fun of me? Yep.
I can't hold grudges and get revenge and go off on people when they start it? Nope.
That's what is so crazy- Jesus wants us to take love farther than we even think possible. We must be willing to love everyone, all the time. It's hard, wicked hard. But in order to follow Christ effectively, this is what we must do. Are you doing all you can to love your neighbor? Can you love the unlovable?
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