What is Your Love Language?

What is Your Love Language?

Good Morning Friends,

In a week it will be Valentine’s Day so I wanted to plant some seeds in advance to give them a chance to sprout, for loving one another and God is more difficult than one might think. It takes time. It takes all our heart, mind, soul and strength to do it. So today we explore a tool for helping to love one another as we have been commanded to do. You see we all need to feel loved. We need to experience a Jesus who perfectly embodies love through words of affirmation, spending quality time with God and those dear to Him, receiving and giving gifts, engaging in acts of service and touching the hearts of others. Jesus communicated all five of these means of grace but each of us has unique preferences and abilities so to do it well we ask a question. What is Your Love Language?

7Scripture:
⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Acts 2:4 (NRSV)

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world. ¹⁵God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.

1 John 4:7-15 (NRSV)

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NRSV)

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Luke 6:38 (NIV)

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

2 Corinthians 9:6 (NRSV)

Words satisfy the mind as much as fruit does the stomach; good talk is as gratifying as a good harvest. Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.

Proverbs 18:20–21 (The Message)

Message: Understanding love languages takes time. And people are so different. Mary is different from a Martha. They give love and receive it so differently. So
this next week do not get caught up in the commercialism unless the person you hope to love better really enjoys getting the gift of things. Understand that commercialism is an unintended consequence of the day that has been set aside to honor the patron saint of lovers…the martyr who chose to marry couples in Christian ceremonies defying the orders of Emperor Claudius. You see, before St. Valentine, pagans were picking names at random to match couples. That process has changed somewhat but at the cost of St. Valentine losing his head. I would imagine that St. Valentine would be surprised as to how the customs have changed and in some ways how they have remained the same. Claudius might also be surprised how his strategy to keep a big army, by curtailing marriages, eventually turned out. But instead of continuing to explore history we look today on how we might become better lovers by learning the languages of love. First we learn that all love languages flow from God’s love. The Bible is filled with words of affirmation where God verbalizes His love to us. He gave us the greatest gift of all when He sent His son. Yes, God is a great gift giver. And can you think of a greater act of service than Christ paying our penalty of the cross. Friends, follow the life of Jesus and you can see Him speaking the love language of physical touch. And for all who want it, God is ready to spend quality time with you. Turn your thoughts toward him and you will find his thoughts are already on you. God is love. He speaks all five languages fluently. Friends, love is the cornerstone of Christianity and people have an enduring interest in it. So let’s get better at it. Think how much better things would be if we were able to communicate more clearly. Then when our spiritual love cups are full, love should exude from our lives, it should overflow.

Pray we realize that we have the moral responsibility to love well.  Pray we experience the indescribable gift of Jesus. Pray we offer and receive words of affirmation. Pray we spend quality time with God and those we love. Pray we receive and give gifts. Pray we are engaged in acts of service. Pray we touch the hearts of those we love. Pray our love is filled to overflowing so we might love the unlovable. Pray we take the time to learn each other’s love language. Pray we learn to love more effectively.

Blessings,

John Lawson