GC Valentine’s Day Message: Everlasting Love

By Robin Caldwell

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you.” (Jeremiah 31: 3)

My love for Herman Jones was true or so I thought. He’d grimace and groan whenever he heard my voice or saw my face. His love, needless to say, was not true.

‘Ooooh, Hermy,’ I’d sing.

He’d moan, “Here she comes again,” and run in the opposite direction.

We were in the third grade and Hermy was the Professor to my Nikki Parker; he was my boo. I declared before God and everybody ‘you’re gonna love me, hee-hee.’ And I was right, by fifth or sixth grade, I’d worn him down, and Hermy finally came around.

However, it was entirely too late. I had developed a crush on Nathan Bolden and Derek Character, respectively. So much for true love.

The Bible contains countless verses and passages about love. To fully understand what love means to God, read his word.

First Corinthians 13, the Love Chapter, tells us love is patient, kind, does not act improperly or envious, etc. The Love Chapter is a guideline, a check list of love’s characteristics in which we can gauge our motives and actions. If we are unkind, impatient, etc., then it’s safe to assume we’re not operating in love with a spouse, child, stranger or friend.

“There are three things that amaze me – no, four things I do not understand: how an eagle glides through the sky, how a snake slithers on a rock, how a ship navigates the ocean, how a man loves a woman.” (Proverbs 30: 18-19 NLT)

It is what it is and to borrow from a Percy Sledge song, “when a man loves a woman… If she's bad he can't see it she can do no wrong…” Doesn’t the story of Hosea and Gomer illustrate that point?

In examining Scripture, we will learn that God’s love is a marriage of agape (unconditional), philia (brotherly/sisterly), and Eros (romantic). He loves us deeply and unconditionally; he loves us as his relatives; and he loves us mysteriously as a man loves his woman.

However, God’s love is also corrective, redemptive, ever-present, unchanging, and protective. God’s love is based on doing what he says and promises. God’s love is the standard upon which we’re to model love.

God is love. And the mystery, to me, is in how God, the living and most high God can be an action verb. He is as he does; there is no separation between his identity and his actions.

Isn’t that awesome?

The Bible contains hundreds of names for God, all of which are action verbs or adjectives: Nissi (the standard/banner), Jireh (provider), and Shalom (peace) to list a few. An overview of his names reveals that every one of his attributes is an action and equals love.

Again, he is as he does.

God uses every part of himself to demonstrate love, true love, to us. His love is affectionate, emotional, and thoughtful. He never gets lost in his feelings, he always keeps a cool head, and he never allows his love for us to overshadow his priorities. God, unlike humans, can be in love and totally functional. I like that about him.

But the thing I like most about God’s love is that for all of its attributes, it is everlasting. It is a love that existed before the foundations of the earth and will exist throughout eternity - longer than I could ever imagine.

He doesn’t take his love back. He never gives up on us. He never ever withholds his love. And he doesn’t wait for us to show it first before showering it upon us.

That’s deep.

Cute little, curly-haired Herman Jones couldn’t get that kind of love out of me. I only gave him the best while I had it to give. My love was fickle and fleeting.

True love is everlasting. God’s love spans before the beginning of time and will last throughout eternity.

His love is as he is - everlasting.