This month we will celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day. What many may not realize is that Saint Valentine was a bishop who held secret marriage ceremonies for soldiers because Roman Emperor Claudius II had prohibited marriage for young men. Claudius later executed the bishop, but he could not destroy love and marriage.

My wife and I met at the University of Maine. Before meeting her, I had dated others (casually) at the university, but when Connie came along, all that changed. Our relationship had a special quality. Soon we began to date only each other. Then we realized we loved each other. How did we know? How does anyone know? What is it that verifies when two people are in love? We wanted to spend time together (and still do), studied together at the library, and took study breaks together over a Coke. We went for long walks together. (I didn’t have much money for formal dates.) We shared our thoughts and risked exposing our inner selves: sharing our thoughts, feelings, hopes, fears, and dreams. We wanted to make each other happy - trying to please each other, running errands, changing schedules, serving each other.

Our relationship with God should have similar qualities. If we are Christians, we have a personal relationship with Christ. That means we are lovers of God. How do we verify that?

I John 4 provides us with some help. John discusses in vss. 12-16 that we abide in God, and He abides with us. This word “abide” in the Greek has the concept of one person dwelling in the home of another. It speaks of one who does not leave the realm or sphere in which he finds himself. Verse 13 tells us that we have a special relationship with God. “By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” We know we abide in each other because God has given us the Holy Spirit.

Verse 14 discusses that we “testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.” We want others to see what we have seen and know the One we have come to know. Our relationship is one of sharing God’s life and His love. The natural outworking of that which is in our hearts is to testify to such a relationship, to bear witness and to tell others. We begin with the simple gospel truth that “The Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world".

It all becomes personal to us. “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” (Vs. 15) In the original, “confess” means “to say the same thing as another so as to be in full agreement.” Jesus Christ, the Son of God and our Savior, has become our personal Savior. He has saved us from our sins. God abides in us, and it is He that we confess.

By God's grace, we become lovers of God. His love begins to be perfected in us. We begin to experience not only that God is love (vs. 16), but He enables us to love Him. “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.”

A man walked into an auto repair shop and saw a mechanic looking intently at a car that was lopsided. When he asked the mechanic what was the matter with it, he said, “It’s all out of alignment. That is, it won't track. The front wheels will go up the middle of the road, and the rear wheels will go way out on one side.” Laughingly, the visitor remarked, "What difference does that make, except that it would look a little funny?" The mechanic almost appeared a little angry. He answered, "It will make all the difference in the world in the power, because everything in it will be pulling against everything else. There will be a tug of war inside, and the power will be cut in half.”

Once we were lopsided and out of alignment. Through God's love in giving us His Son, we have been brought into alignment. We share God's life and love. He enables us to love Him and abide in Him. The fact that we abide in God and He in us is proof that we are lovers of God.