Love God then one another

"Dear friend, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love." 1 John 4:7-8 (NIV)

This week is the celebration of Valentine's Day. The day in which we celebrate and give our sweetheart some symbol of our love for them, if we are teenager or above. Younger children exchange Valentine's cards that express care and concern for one another. The day is to be a time of sharing and celebrating the love that we have in our heart for special people.

While the intention of Valentine's Day is a grand thought, it makes me question the love that we have for one another. I realize that Valentine's Day is more about romantic love than it is about love for our fellow man, but even romantic love seems as if it is on the decline. Just look at the divorce rate. When half of all marriages end in divorce, is that a sign that romantic love is alive?

Is there ever a night that we can turn on the news and there is not a story about some terror attack, or someone that has gone into a business or school and injured or killed someone? I do not remember the last time that I watched the news either local or national and all the stories were positive and good, with nothing negative. Where every story was about humanity loving one another and doing good to each other. Do you remember the last time the news was like that?

The Bible is clear that if we do not love then we do not know God. The Scriptures are full of verses that talk about love and loving one another. God first loved us the Scripture tells us, and we are to share that same love with others. Jesus in fact said the greatest commandment is to love God with our entire being and to love others just like we love ourselves.

Why is it so hard to love? Why do we have difficulty loving others? There may be a thousand different answers to these questions, but I believe only one really matters. I believe that we are looking out for number one and for no one else. In short I think that we are selfish people.

We only care about ourselves and look only to ourselves and make sure that we are taken care of and then we will try and get around to others. We like things the way we like them and we want things the way we want them and that is that.

We start with loving ourselves first, instead of loving God first and then loving others comes along if we have time and energy. Love starts first by loving God, then ourselves and loving others just as we love ourselves. If we love in any other order we get it wrong and it shows in the selfish love that I have for me.

Therefore as children of God, let us be about following God and loving Him first and then loving others as we do ourselves. We can make it a different world if we live like that.