On Valentine’s Day, people express their love. Jesus said right before his return, “because evil shall abound the love of many shall wax cold.”

We are seeing more of the opposite of love, which is selfishness. Most people whose life isn’t centered on Jesus become too self-centered to love anyone.

C.S. Lewis said, “Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin and decay. But look for Jesus and you will find him, and with him everything else thrown in.”

Christians have the best example and understanding of love. Love is best seen in the self-sacrificing love of Jesus on the cross to pay our sin debt.

Lewis wrote, “Nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians.”

In the Christian sense love is an action, not a feeling. When you love someone you live it.

God says if you love me keep my commandments. Lewis said, “Don’t waste time bothering whether you love your neighbor (or spouse), act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the greatest secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”

Psychologists say the feeling of being “in love” last on the average two years. Love in the Christian sense doesn’t mean an emotion. Feelings come and go but, ceasing to be “in love” shouldn’t mean ceasing to love. Christian love, either toward Jesus or toward others, is an act of the will. Jesus will give us feelings of love if he pleases.

The thing to remember is, though our feelings come and go, Jesus’ love for us doesn’t. A bumper sticker said it well: “Jesus loves you, and I’m trying!”

D.D. NAVE

Elizabethton