The longest love letter ever written was by a citizen of Paris. It was written by Marcel de Leclure and written to Magdalene de Villalore. The letter contained only three words, "I Love You," written 1,875,000 times, a thousand time the calendar year of 1875, the year in which it was written. Leclure did not write it himself, but hired a secretary. However, he so loved saying those three words that he repeated it verbatim and had the hired secretary repeat it after him. Therefore, the phrase was spoken 5,625,000 times. What an investment of time and effort! Of course, saying, "I Love You" thousands upon thousands of times does not mean that one truly loves an individual. The Bible admonishes us to love by our deeds more than by our words.1

February is the month for Valentine's Day and many of us will be sending cards to that special person in our life and/or buying a loving gift for that person we "love." Have you heard some people say, "I love everyone." There are radio and television preachers who talk about "loving you" as one of the members of the viewing or hearing audience. The truth is, such comments speak about a very superficial kind of love, a love that has never been put to the test and shown itself by action or investment. It has been well said, "It is no chore for me to love the whole world. Our only real problem is my neighbor next door."

Have you every felt guilty about the fact that you don't love some people or a specific person. In fact you might well say, I like the person, but I do not love them. In English, the word "love" is used for a broad range of emotional expressions. We talk about loving our wife or husband, loving our children, loving ice cream, and loving a book. All those expressions of love are vastly different. In fact if some loved their wife or husband as much as ice cream or that book, some families would be the better for it.

In the Bible days the Greeks had four words to describe love. They understood, in that culture, that the word "love" had different meanings. When the New Testament was written it was written in the Greek language. Two of those four Greek words were used extensively in the Bible. One of those Bible words ("agape") means "sacrificial / serving" love and the other word ("phileo") The word "phileo" is known to us because we have a number of English words that use that as a prefix. The word "Philadelphia" comes from this word. Philadelphia is called the city of brotherly love. The word "philosophy" means "a lover of knowledge or truth." The basic meaning of "phileo" speaks of an emotional attachment. This kind of love involves our feelings, our heart, our passions. When we send that special card to that special person, when we underline certain words and/or add our own words, we are exhibiting "phileo" love.

God knows that there is a love we ought to have for all people, a sacrificial and a serving love, a helping love, a charitable love. Whether or not we have the emotional feelings of love for another, we ought to be willing to sacrifice and serve others. We ought to be able to help others and do what is in their best interest. However, there is a special emotional attachment that we also have for certain particular individuals. There is an emotional attachment that we have for our family members and a very small circle of longtime friends. We are not being unloving because we do not have those emotional feelings for all or many other individuals. The Bible acknowledges, by using two words to describe "love," that we are not being unloving if we do not have that emotional attachment for another person or many other people. You see it is okay not to like everyone or a particular individual. However, we are called upon to love all people, to be willing to engage in acts of "charity", acts of sacrifice and serving, acts that show others that we are concerned about their best, even if we do not specifically and particularly like them.

At this time of the year when our thoughts are turned to "love" we can reflect that sacrificial love by helping someone, by serving another, by doing what is best for a neighbor or a stranger, by giving to others. We need to give our time, our energies, our talents, and our treasure for the good of others. Love is sharing part of yourself with another. That is the kind of love God expects of us all!