Matthew 19:4-5: “And He answered and said to them, ‘Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’”
As the age-old story goes, on Feb. 14 around the year 278 A.D., Valentine, a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed. Claudius the Cruel, as he is now called, led Rome in many unpopular and bloody campaigns. The emperor needed to maintain a strong army, but was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. The foolish Claudius believed that Roman men were unwilling to join the army because of their strong attachment to their wives and families.
To get rid of the problem, Claudius banned all marriages and engagements in Rome. The godly priest Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Valentine was arrested and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off.
The sentence was carried out on Feb. 14, on or about the year 270.
Legend also has it that while in jail, St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer’s daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it “From Your Valentine.” For his great service, Valentine was named a saint after his death.
So to celebrate Valentine’s Day is to celebrate the keeping of God’s commandment of a godly marriage. There are those today who, like Claudius the Cruel, would do away with marriage as God established it. But we must be like Valentine and continue to preserve marriage as God revealed it at the very beginning: Hey Adam. I have a help-meet for you. And Adam’s reply: I think I am in love! Hi, Eve!
Here is my paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 7:3: Let the husband give to his wife the love signs (flowers, poems, cards and, most important, time) due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.
It is unfortunate that being successful or maintaining that success has again taken not only the men, but now the women of the home, away from time with each other and the children. Satan the Cruel has tried to convince many that sacrifices in the home for worldly success are OK because of the money that flows. But with divorce and suicide among teens on the increase, love and marriage and godly children seem to many, a pipedream. Is there any way to not fall into this trap?
Jude 1:12: “Now unto him that is able to keep you fromfalling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”
God wants us to live in joy, and outside Satan the Cruel’s trap. And He is the One who supplies that joy. We realize, however, that by our own actions we often fall, or fail at living as He directs.
When that happens our joy may fade to a mere flicker.
We may also be blinded to the first phrase of our Jude passage B, now unto him that is able to keep you from falling. Keep us from falling. Now there’s a concept.
Most of the time we make statements like, “Well, we all will fall, but we can get back up and keep going.” In this statement we see a lot of me doing the falling and getting up. But the Scripture states that it is the Lord who will KEEP us from falling. And if He keeps us from falling then WE won’t need to get ourselves back up. Now if we do fall because we have run away from His keeping power, then it is the Lord who will restore us to the upright position, and restore our home with love and family togetherness. He is the One to lift us up (The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. Ps 18:2). WE can’t pick ourselves up by the bootstraps. Only the Lord can set us again in His high tower.
Since God is in the keeping business then God is also able to present us faultless before His presence with joy. We certainly know we are unable to present ourselves faultless anywhere, let alone before Him. But He is able. All we have to do is show up for roll call every morning and He will run us through the necessary faultless baths to make us presentable. Then the home that God created with Adam and Eve will be restored, and love and joy will live in the relationships kept by God.
Valentine’s Day celebrates love and marriage in the face of cruelty. Satan’s cruelty is still trying to draft us into the war against God (in all the forms it takes), but we, and each member of the family, can meet with God each morning and receive His keeping power. Then each opportunity to celebrate love and marriage will be enjoyed in the presence of those we love.
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Editor’s note: Jim Duncan is the pastor of Mountain Bible Church, Mountain, Mo. He may be contacted at P.O. Box 146, Pea Ridge, AR 72751; or by telephone at 417-341-8504; by e-mail at james.
[email protected]. His Web site is www.jamesduncan-writer.net.
Church, Pages 2 on 02/13/2013