Valentines Day is named after St. Valentine who was a priest in late second century Rome. Unbeknownst to at first and under the authority of Emperor Claudius II, Valentine assisted in marrying Christian couples and aiding others of the faith in the continuing of their worship. He was eventually jailed and persecuted then stoned, beaten and ultimately beheaded in 269 AD by Claudius for defying the secular rule of Rome. Rome, if you don't know, was given over at that point to all sorts of moral decay and depravity and the once great empire was beginning to crumble under the weight of it's own sin and corruption. Hmmm, sound like any other country you know? Anyway, here was a man of devout faith who professed the love of Christ, supported traditional Godly marriages and love among people who was martyred mercilessly. Killed because Claudius had become angry with him for subverting the excellent rule of Rome and trying to convert him to Christianity. Now, we all know Rome's fate a few hundred years later. You've heard the phrase Rome is burning? Ok, so that chocolate Lindt Truffle doesn't taste as good right now? Well don't worry, I'll fix it. Unwrap another and relax!
Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving have all borne the brunt of attacks by our modern Roman government in recent years through the polarizing over the top political correctness known as secularization. From sordid attempts to abolish Christian symbolism and worship of these most sacred and important holidays, to a campaign to rename and remake the honor of Christ our Lord into the glorification of mans temporal selfishness and materialism, it is doomed to all fail. Why, well, love of course! Because, love conquers all. That is the one human emotion over time that propagated by God the Father and through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ has never lost it's light. In the midst of tragedy, despair, heartbreak, death and veils of tears blooms love. It's ability to heal and restore life and hope is truly magical and supernatural and not of man's own shortsighted volition. Love may lose some battles but will win all wars. Now pop that second truffle into your mouth. All better isn't it? You see Valentine's Day like Christmas and the other days of holy celebration all inevitably come back to one Man who spoke of nothing but love. So when you are out to dinner next Tuesday or picking up some flowers or a special gift for someone you love, remember love is not but for the day but for the seasons. What a difference we would all make in this cold world sometimes if we would stand for love everyday as Christ stood, proclaimed and ultimately died for in His love for you!
1 Cor. 13 1-13
1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
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