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Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. It’s a day for red roses, love hearts, and cards sent by secret admirers. It’s a big deal for chocolate makers, card makers, florists, and makers of red wrapping paper. Most importantly, it’s a day to remember love and give thanks for those people close to you. Perhaps you received a Valentine’s Card; perhaps you sent a Valentine’s Card.

If you research the history of Valentine's Day, you’ll discover that it was commonly associated with romantic love by the middle of the 15th century in Europe.  The first Valentine’s Day card even exists, on display in the British Museum. It was sent by a French nobleman to his wife while he was a prisoner in London in 1415. Less than two hundred years later, “valentines” were gifts given to one’s sweetheart.

But there’s much more to the tradition of Valentine’s Day. The tradition goes back to a Christian named Valentine who lived about two hundred years after Jesus. One story says Valentine was a pastor who secretly conducted weddings at a time when the Roman Emperor outlawed marriage (the Emperor wanted to recruit soldiers who had no family ties). Another says Valentine was a Christian imprisoned for his faith. He had prayed for healing for his jailer’s daughter – she was blind – and she was healed. But he was still to be executed. The day before his execution, which was February 14, 269, he sent a message to the girl who had been healed. The message was signed, “From your Valentine.”

We don’t know which story is true, or even if there’s another story that is the truth. Yet, the fact is that the tradition of Valentine’s Day is love understood from the perspective of the Gospel – God’s love for us in Jesus.

Whoever Valentine was and whatever he did, he did because his life was changed by God’s love. Listen to words many of us know well from 1 John 4:7-12

Dear friends, 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. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Today, we hear lots of talk about love. But true love, Valentine’s love, is the love of Jesus, who gave his life for us to redeem us, to transform us, and to inspire us to love God, love one another, and love this world.

I don’t know if you gave or received a Valentine’s gift or card yesterday. But you can be a Valentine’s gift to someone today – and every day. You can love others with Jesus’ love even when such love is despised or denied, like the Emperor who despised marriage. You can love others with Jesus’ love, bringing spiritual sight to the blind, even if it costs you everything, like Valentine when he healed a girl only to be executed later. Be a Valentine, a Christlike Valentine, to someone today.

昨天是情人節，是送紅玫瑰、表达愛心和给暗戀的人寄卡片的日子。這對巧克力製造商、卡片、花店和紅色包裝紙等製造商來說意義重大。最重要的是，這是一個值得紀念，愛護和感謝那些与你親近的人的日子。也許你收到了一張情人卡片；也許是你寄出了一張情人卡片。

如果你研究情人節的歷史，你很快就會發現，在 15 世紀中葉的歐洲，它通常與浪漫的愛情聯繫在一起，第一張情人節賀卡甚至還陳列在大英博物館中，它是 1415 年一位法國貴族在倫敦做囚犯時寄給他妻子的。不到 200 年後，“情人”就成了送給心上人的禮物。

但情人節的傳統遠不止於此——這個傳統可以追溯到一位名叫瓦倫丁的基督徒，他比耶穌晚了大約 200 年。一個故事說瓦倫丁是一位牧師，在羅馬皇帝宣布婚姻为非法的時候秘密主持婚禮（皇帝想招募沒有家庭關係的士兵）。另一個故事說瓦倫丁是一名基督徒，因信仰而入獄。他曾為看守的女兒祈求醫治——她是盲人，虽然后来她痊癒了，但他仍要被處決。在他被處決的前一天，也就是公元 269 年 2 月 14 日，他給被治癒的女孩送去了一條消息，消息的簽名是“來自你的情人”。

事實上，我們不確定哪個故事是真實的，甚至不知道是否还有另一個故事才是真的。然而，事實是情人節的傳統是從福音的角度去理解愛——上帝在耶穌裡對我們的愛。

無論瓦倫丁是誰，無論他做了什麼，他所做的都是因為神的愛改變了他的生命。聽聽約翰一書 4:7-12 中我們很多人都熟知的話。

親愛的弟兄啊，我們應當彼此相愛，因為愛是從神來的。凡有愛心的，都是由神而生，並且認識神。沒有愛心的，就不認識神，因為神就愛。 神差他獨生子到世間來，使我們藉著他得生，神愛我們的心在此就顯明了。不是我們愛神，乃是神愛我們，差他的兒子為我們的罪做了挽回祭，這就是愛了。親愛的弟兄啊，神既是這樣愛我們，我們也當彼此相愛。從來沒有人見過神，我們若彼此相愛，神就住在我們裡面，愛他的心在我們裡面得以完全了。

今天，我們聽到很多關於愛情的話題。愛成為我們應該如何生活的指南、動力和目標。“愛至上”、“愛致勝”或“唯愛”等流行語在我們的媒體中佔據主導地位。但真正的愛，瓦倫丁的愛，是耶穌的愛，他為我們獻出生命來救贖我們，改變我們，並激勵我們去愛上帝，彼此相愛，愛這個世界。

我不知道你昨天有沒有送出或收到情人節禮物或卡片，但是你可以成為今天——而且是每天送給某个人的情人節禮物。你可以用耶穌的愛去愛別人，即使這種愛被蔑視或拒絕，就像被皇帝蔑視的婚姻一樣。你可以用耶穌的愛去愛別人，為盲人帶來屬靈的視力，即使这会让你付出一切代價，就像瓦倫丁治癒了一個女孩但後來被處決一樣。今天就做一個情人，一個像基督一樣的情人。

這是瓦倫丁的愛——神的愛！神愛我們，差他的兒子為我們的罪做了挽回祭。

Grace, peace, and love in Jesus

Pastor Callum