Start loving

‘LOVE is in the air’ or at least that is the message that Valentine’s Day proclaims to the world every February 14.

For many that is not their experience. Instead it is more often about anxiously waiting for cards that never come, leaving people feeling desolate or humiliated. For others, cards come, but their anonymous nature means you have no certainty from whom they come. You hope that it might be from someone you want to develop a relationship with, but fear it might be from someone you would run a mile from!

All this is a long way from the myths and legends surrounding St Valentine, Some legends say St Valentine signed a letter ‘from your Valentine’ to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended and healed from blindness. Another common legend states that he defied the emperor’s orders and secretly married couples to spare the husbands from war. The most likely truth is that he was a Christian who loved the Lord, and who was put to death for telling others about Jesus.

Far too from Jesus’ words, who made it clear to his followers that the badge of discipleship, the identifying mark of a Christian, would be their love for one another.

It was such love that he commanded his disciples to practise. It was not a feeling to be worked up but an action to be taken. For Christian love is not a victim of our emotions but a servant of our wills.

His new commandment was given on the night Jesus was arrested. He was sharing what was to be an unforgettable meal with some of his closest friends. However it was not a relaxed affair. You could have cut the tension with a knife. They had been wrong-footed by Jesus at the beginning, when he took the initiative and got down on his knees and washed their feet. They had been distraught when he told them there was a traitor among their number. Peter’s self-confidence would be punctured when, despite his protestations of loyalty, Jesus warned him that the next few hours would not be good ones as far as Peter was concerned.

Even the meal which was set up to remind them of freedom and liberation, was transformed into a reminder of his forthcoming death, something they had tried to airbrush out since he had first raised it.

Yet in the midst of trying to comfort them, to reassure them they would not be abandoned and left as orphans, he gave them a new command. On top of the call to love God and to love their neighbours (and even their enemies) he called on them to love one another. They would need one another to get through what lay ahead. We still do. Their love for one another would make an impression on outsiders. It still does.

In the Christian life love takes centre stage. It is never to be marginalised. It is practical, self-effacing, and sacrificial. It enabled Peter to find acceptance after he had failed. It reassures others that whatever they face, they are not alone. Too often we justify putting love on the back burner while other things impact our attitudes. Be very careful about such special pleadings. We divide Christ’s church at our peril.

Valentine’s Day will come and go. Jesus’ command is our daily duty. In a lonely world, love makes connections. In a divided world, love brings healing and reconciliation. Love bridges the generations, it communicates across cultures and brings wholeness and wellbeing in its wake. Don’t wait to be loved, start loving and start today!

The Rt Rev Colin Sinclair is Moderator of the General Assembly in 2019/20 and is minister at Edinburgh: Palmerston Place.

This article appears in the February 2020 Issue of Life and Work

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