(Note: For those of you outside the U.S., Valentine’s Day, February 14, is simply a day to express your love for friends and family, and especially romantic partners.)
So … God’s Word doesn’t directly address Valentine’s Day but there is a great verse to put into practice not only on Valentine's Day but every day of the year, going beyond love for just friends and family:
Luke 6:35: But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great.
I won’t sugarcoat this verse … it is a HARD one to put into practice: do good to your enemies … lend to them without expecting to get anything back. The closest I have come to that, I think, is something that happened to me while living in Hawaii back in the 1970s. I had a Volkswagen van that I had put a nice radio in. Running some errand, I parked in a fairly secure parking garage – there was an attendant on duty. Yet when I returned, I found that someone had broken into the van and stolen the radio. While this wasn’t a pure “lending” situation, the radio was gone. My reaction? I still find it hard to believe that I responded this way but I did: I simply said to myself, “well God, I guess someone else needed that radio more than I did.” No yelling, no swearing, just a simple straightforward acknowledgement that really all that I have is actually His.
Do you remember the song by Matt Redman, Blessed be Your Name, that contains this phrase?
You give and take away, you give and take away;
My heart will choose to say Lord, blessed be Your name.
So … whether you lend something to someone – especially an enemy – or that unknown enemy just decides to steal it, what does Luke 6:35 say? Don’t expect to get anything back. Remember that all we have is not only His, but also to be used for His glory. Rarely do we really know His ultimate will and purpose – we are simply to follow Him and allow Him to utilize those things that He has entrusted to us for His glory. That may mean that He has put them in our hands for our enjoyment. But it could also mean that He wants to use us and those things to have an impact on His Kingdom in some way.
So … love your friends, love your family but also utilize His love flowing to and through you to even love your enemies, to do good to them. And rejoice because this is not a one-way program; recall that the latter part of the verse says – and remember that Jesus is saying these words so it is a guarantee – “then your reward will be great.”