February is the month where we express our love to each other with cards, chocolate candy and other gifts. We also hear lots of love songs. In 1985, Huey Lewis and the News’ song, “Power of Love,” was the soundtrack for the hit movie “Back to the Future.”
Some of us will remember Perry Como’s recording of “Love Makes The World Go Round” in 1958. My favorite pop song is from the Beatles in 1967: “All You Need Is Love.” That song says it all.
Looking into your heart, on a scale from 1 to 10, what’s your “power of love” when you rate your relationship with God?
If your love for God lacks luster, it ultimately destroys your relationship with God and others. All loving relationships must continually grow.
Remember the two greatest commandments that Jesus gave us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)
If we all embraced these commandments, our world would be at peace and our families, parish, and community would live in harmony. Our Lord went on to say in verse 33: “to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
If we don’t have love, can we know God? 1 John 4:8 tells us: “Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. Can we have love if we hate our brothers or sisters?” The scripture goes on to say in verses 20-21: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
How do we know what love is? 1 John 3:16-18 tells us: “Jesus laid down His life for us. The way we came to know love was that He laid down His life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him? Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.”
Jesus did not teach what the people wanted to hear, He was a spiritual revolutionary. As we read in Luke 6:35-36: “But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Why should love rule our lives? 1 Peter 4:8 sums it up: “The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and sober for prayers. Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins.”
Turns out, John, Paul, George and Ringo were right when they sang “all you need is love.”
Barbara Case Speers is a writer who lives in Hickory.