Valentine’s Day
Somewhere in time, approximately fifteen hundred and
seventeen years ago, Pope Gelasius marked February 14th as the day to
commemorate the life of Saint Valentine.
The man came to be known as Saint Valentine, was a priest that violated
an ordered issued by the Emperor Claudius II.
The order was that young people were forbidden to get married. I read that one reason he issued this order
to was to keep young soldiers single. They fought better without wives or
children to worry about in his mind.
Valentine violated the order and married young couples anyway.
Valentine was arrested and put in prison. He was beaten and finally beheaded. He died on February 14th.
I don’t know how the day morphed into what we celebrate
now. It does make sense that Valentine
was about love, the kind of love celebrated by two people, but he died for his
Christian faith. His faith led him to violate the law by marrying people against
the Emperors order. The day was set to
remember a martyr.
One thing I read, said when Valentine was in prison, the
Emperor Claudius liked to talk to him.
His big mistake was trying to convert Claudius to Christianity. This is what eventually resulted in his
death.
When the Bible was translated from Greek into English, they
ran into a little problem with the word love.
The Greeks had several words for love and in English we only have
one.
There is “philio” love, which is the love of friends. There is “storge” love, which is the love of
family. There is “eros” love which is
the love associated with sexual attraction and finally “Agape” love which is
the supernatural love, the love that goes beyond natural affection.
We tend to base our celebration on “eros” as the focus of
love is on our sweetheart or spouse. We
even celebrate a little “philio” love when we celebrate with friends. As kids, we sometimes would give Valentine
cards to every person in our school classroom; this is “philio” love.
On this holiday we don’t necessarily celebrate “Agape”
love. I think this is sad. Agape love is the strongest and the best kind
of love. We don’t have to earn it. We don’t deserve it but sometimes we still
receive it. God gives us agape
love. Saint Valentine showed agape love
to the young people he helped marry and died because of it.
Consider this:
John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay
down his life for his friends.”
That is the type of love we should celebrate on February 14th. This is what Valentine did for the young
couples he married. This is what Christ did
for each one of us when he died on the cross.
Amy Grant - Say You'll Be Mine (Official Music Video) from amy-grant on GodTube.
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