When Does Love Lead to Death?

When does love lead to death? Better question: When doesn’t it?

It is easy on Valentine’s day to say, “I love you.” True love always leads to sacrificial action, as General Giuseppe Garibaldi knew:

“I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor provisions; I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country in his heart, and not merely with his lips, follow me.” General Giuseppe

If love is fearfully hoarded, and not given away to those around us who desperately need the love we’ve been given to share, it becomes self-focused, twisted; something that is far from love.

May we all take our cue the God who created us to love us. He does not need conscripted soldiers. He does not desire fearful slaves. God’s heart has always been clear:

“I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Jeremiah 31:33

“”God is love … There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” 1 John 4:8; 4:18

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:24-26

“‘In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Apostle Paul – Acts 20:35

Who has God placed in your inner circle, someone who is daily within your reach, to share this kind of love with?