February is the month of love, and we celebrate Valentine’s Day on the 14th because the patron saint of love, young people, and happy marriages died a martyr’s death on that date in 269 AD. Forecasting His own death, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends”, so it’s not as strange as it may seem to hand out valentines on the day a martyr died.
Yes, February is the month of love, but we didn’t wait till then to begin talking about it We’ve been talking about love for quite some time on Sundays and Wednesdays. We’ve been discussing The Love Chapter on Wednesday nights for the last couple of weeks, and studying the writings of the Apostle of Love for
over two years on Sunday mornings.
One of the most quoted chapters of the Bible, one written by the Apostle Paul, is no doubt I Corinthians 13. It’s found between two chapters on gifts of the Spirit, and as we recently noted in Bible Study, it makes clear that the first fruit of the Spirit is even more important than the gifts.
The Apostle John is often referred to as the Apostle of Love, and for good reason. He’s the author of John 3:16, and he used the word love or loved 100 times in his inspired writings. I know because I counted them. According to my NASV Exhaustive Concordance, love can be found 30 times in his gospel, 36 times in I John, 4 times in II John, 2 times in III John, and 5 times in Revelation. Now let me tell you why I counted them.
Two weeks ago, after my sermon God is Love, Carter met me at the door with a question. “Grandpa, how many times do you think you said love in your sermon?” I had no idea, so he proceeded to tell me
that he and Luke, Anna’s boyfriend, had counted them. The total was 103.
No, that doesn’t make me the new Apostle of Love, or even a saint, but I do hope Carter had it right. “I think they got the point.”
God Bless, Rick
P.S. According to Levi, love was in last week’s sermon 114 times!
Chatham Christian Church 