Deuteronomy 30:15-20
To love YHWH is to live.
To love is to choose life over death.
To love is the supreme commandment.
To love is to cherish His ways of doing things.
To love is to cherish every little thing about His ways of
doing things.
To love is to flourish.
Turning away from Love,
Paying no attention to Him
Leads away – not into freedom – and means
Turning away from life.
Valentine
“Legend has it that Valentine’s Day originates with a Roman
man named Valentine who was imprisoned and eventually martyred for his Christian
faith. He died on 14 February in the third century, leaving a farewell note for
the jailer's daughter who had befriended him, signing it 'From Your
Valentine'.
Whether or not their friendship had a romantic element is
unknown, but we do know that she was inspired by his faith to express her own
Christian love and that this moved her to action.” (CUF email)
Because of whom was Valentine in prison?
Who kept him there –
in more than one sense of the word?
Who was therefore his jailor?
His Name is Love.
Valentine had been captured by Christ and for Christ’s sake
lost his live
and gained it again and the jailer’s daughter became the Jailer’s
sister.
Matthew 5:21-37
Outward obedience to God’s commandments is not life. To live
is to love. Stopping short of murder and adultery is not yet to love. Not
breaking a marriage or an oath is not yet to express loyal love. The law must be written on the heart (see Jer. 31:31–34, cf.
Deut. 6:5; 10:16; 30:6). The heart is the seat of our motivations, the place
from which our words and actions proceed (see Matt. 15:18–20).
If I stop loving my brother or sister – little by little,
I will cease to love God – little by little.
Turning away from love, I am on the road to perdition.
Collect
Almighty God,
who alone can bring order
to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity:
give your people grace
so to love what you command
and to desire what you promise,
that, among the many changes of this world,
our hearts may surely there be fixed
where true joys are to be found;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
