By Mercy Oluwaniyi

“Valentine is coming. Where is your boyfriend? You are sitting at home…”

I’m sure most of you have the rest of this song occupying a very comfortable space in your brain. I’m sorry, but this post isn’t about Valentine’s Day. All the same, I wish you all the best out there, both the hooked and single pringles like me.

Rather than discuss Valentine’s Day, which has gradually been stripped off of its true meaning, I’ll prefer to talk about the actual substance of pure, unadulterated love, just the way God will have it.

Every passing day, the world seems to have a new battle against something, be it terrorism, bad governance, fuel scarcity, kidnappers, even swindlers🌚. All these are pointers to the fact that humanity is in dire need of the greatest weapon ever. It is a unique weapon that doesn’t mar but make, it doesn’t destroy but save, it doesn’t hurt but protect – Love.

Think about it… What else can match up to the weapon of pure, true love? Nothing at all, for, in fact, God is love. It might be difficult to view love as a weapon because the word “weapon” is often synonymous with “breaking” or “destroying”. However, we must remember that life in itself is a battle, and what you aim to achieve at the end of the fight will determine the weapon you choose. Most of us desire to “destroy” hate, bitterness, and all the decay eating us up, but to do that, you can’t use just any weapon. 

For a moment, imagine a plastic plate stained with red oil sauce; you know how hard that can be to wash off. Now, imagine using just water to rinse off the stain. That will do no good. You might as well throw the plate away rather than hope to get it cleaned with just water. And this is because you are using the wrong weapon. To effectively combat the stain, you would need more than just water (this would have been a good time to promote some dishwashing products😁). Similarly, hate (red oil stain) is sometimes thrown our way. Except that we can’t just go about throwing away our lives as we can do with the plate, and we will only worsen the world around us attempting to use hate to combat hate.

To obtain love is to know Love Himself. Great as love is, it is given freely –not to be mistaken for cheap, though. It is free because the price has already been paid in full. To obtain love is to give up your old man and to receive the life of Christ, for if you live the life of Christ, you have the nature of Christ, and the nature of Christ is the nature of love. So, therefore, the love that you manifest is from the God inside of you.

To wield any weapon perfectly will definitely require skill that comes from constant use and practice. In the same way, to become great at loving, you’ll have to start by loving. You begin by allowing the manifestation of what’s already inside of you. You’ll have to make a constant intentional decision to love regardless of the situation. God sometimes helps us by intentionally putting us in certain situations that enable us to engage in love. In engaging it, we keep unlocking new levels of love. Truthfully, it’s not easy as ABC, and that’s because pain is sometimes gain; ask athletes, or better still, ask Jesus Christ. Push yourself beyond your current limit of love and see yourself grow in love.

Thankfully, you have a coach, an added advantage, a Love tutor, a helper in the person of the Holy Spirit. He is always ready to enable you, equip you, correct you and ignite the desire to love in you constantly. The Holy Spirit bears love in you; it’s a fruit of the Spirit. The commandment to love is not a burdensome one. 1 John 5:3 tells us that “the commandments of the Lord are not burdensome”, and so you’re not called to suffer. You’re only called to fully live out the nature of Christ, the nature of love in you. Maximize the Holy Spirit.

Management is a mix of self-assessment inspired by God’s assessment. If you constantly give yourself to being weighed and corrected by the Holy Spirit, and you commit to trusting Him with your life and letting Him run the show, you’ll see yourself express that nature of love in you. I say this because sometimes the world will literally make you look and feel like a fool, all because you choose Love and choose God. But if you remain loyal to your manager (God) and you trust Him with your life, you’ll see that He won’t push you off a cliff. Even if He does, you’ll trust that it was the best decision, and you’re definitely on your way to safety.

The commandment to love is God’s gift to man, a weapon far greater than all of the war the enemy can rage against us. God’s love for mankind brought about salvation, Jesus’ love for people brings healing, Apostle Paul’s love for the churches birthed his epistles. Now, your love for your others should lead you to introduce them to the greatest weapon, love(God). This is to say that if you know the truth about love, do not keep shut about it. Encourage others to love with your speech and actions, such that even when you celebrate Valentine’s day, you have true love in mind… You gerrit?

Finally, 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit”. Keep beholding the image of God in fellowship, stay at His feet, till you look more like Him, till you look more like Love, till you learn to wield the greatest weapon of all time.

Happy Valentine’s Day in advance.

*****

In 2021, Mercy Oluwaniyi worked on a project which she called “The Love Project”. For every day in the year, she shared an Instagram post on Love (about 400 posts in total). It’s literally a feast of Love –the God kind. You can do well to check out the project’s page here.

Connect with Mercy:
Instagram – @mercyniyi