Here’s a message for Valentine’s Day week: How do you say, “I love you?”
With Valentine’s Day this week and a focus on loving relationships, how to say ‘I love you’ is on the minds of many this week.
Looking at some of the best-known verses of scripture on love will hopefully provide guidance in ways to say, “I love you.”
God said “I love you” by sending his son, Jesus Christ, to be the Savior.
Here are two verses that cover the subject:
*John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
*1 John 3:16: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
Jesus, who was without sin, gave his life for all who have sinned to provide a way of forgiveness and establish a way of right relationship with God. God’s love is the greatest.
We learn to say “I love you” through our commitment to love God and one another.
Here is a verse that speaks of that commitment:
*Mark 12:30-31: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
It takes all of you to love; all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Those who love God will also love their neighbor.
Christians say “I love you” by how we love one another.
Here’s a verse that speaks of how we love:
*John 13:34-35: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The defining characteristic of followers of Christ is to be love.
How we love each other determines how people will understand the love of Christ for them.
What a change it would be if Christians were best known for the way we love.
We say “I love you” best by loving people around us by our actions.
Here’s a verse that speaks of loving by our actions:
*1 John 3:17-18: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”
Love is more than words. It is loving action. Living love is always active love.
We say “I love you” through unselfish relationships.
Here’s a verse that describes unselfish relationships:
*1 Corinthians 13:4-8: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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.”
Love does not have an “I” in it. Love is about caring enough to put others first. That is how relationships last.
A life that is given, commitments, defining actions, acts of kindness and unselfish living are all part of being loving.
*All Biblical quotations from the New International Version
Mike Gray is pastor of Newington Baptist Church in Gloucester.
