When Love Spoke Our Language
Easter is coming quickly. If you are a Christ-follower, you know Easter as Resurrection Day. The early church would loudly proclaim each Resurrection Day, "He has Risen. He has Risen Indeed!"
Easter meant more to them than just Easter eggs; it was about eternal life and the promise of heaven. Easter is the time when Love rose from the dead. Resurrection Day shows us that we are not human beings going through a temporary spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings going through a temporary human experience.
Have you heard of Gary Chapman's book The Five Love Languages? The central theme of this book is that everyone experiences love uniquely. That's why it's easy to miscommunicate when showing others we care. The Five Love Languages helps us give and receive love more meaningfully, which enhances our relationships with loved ones. The book reveals five distinct love languages and how people respond to them in different ways.
Here are the five languages: 1. Words of Affirmation. 2. Physical Touch. 3. Quality Time. 4. Acts of Service. 5. Giving Gifts. It’s interesting how often couples assume the language they use to respond to each other is the love language their spouse or friend responds to.
Let’s say one partner loves to receive affirmation, so they shower their partner with affirmation. But affirmation isn’t that important to the other partner. Acts of service are what flips their switch. Get the idea? Miscommunication on steroids. Once you discover and speak the other person’s love language, communication begins to flow. Now, you are both speaking a language that each of you understands. Aha!
Here’s an example of how this love language concept works that you can’t miss, at least where I live in Phoenix, Arizona. It’s called The Five Love Languages of Tacos. Here goes. Words of Affirmation: “Your tacos are delicious.” Acts of service: “I made you tacos.” Receiving gifts: “Here’s a taco.” Quality time: “Let’s go out for tacos together.” Physical touch: “Let me hold you like a taco.”
If your partner’s love language is Acts of Service, say this, "I made you a taco." If you are the recipient, your love language to your partner, whose love language is Words of Affirmation, should be, "Your tacos are delicious." That's communication. I tried this example on my social media. They went 'el taco loco.' At this moment, you must be thinking I am one taco short of a combination plate.
Did you know Jesus spoke all five love languages to us while He was on earth and still does today?
Consider His Words of Affirmation about his disciples in John 17:26 when Jesus is praying to God. "But I have known You, and these disciples know you sent me on this mission. I have made your very being known to them, Who You are and what you do, and I continue to make it known so that your love for me might be in them, exactly as I am in them…” Let me paraphrase what Jesus said. “God, these disciples know You’re a God of love, and You sent me on a mission of love to fill them with love, to go into the world with love. They were born for this and ready to go.” Jesus believed in, loved, and affirmed His disciples in this prayer.
Consider Jesus' Physical Touch with the Apostle John in John 13:23: “One of the disciples, the one Jesus loved dearly, was reclining against him, his head on Jesus' shoulder." John leaned into love and was touched by love. Can you imagine what that must have been like? The original language used the word agape for love, which means pure and moral love, as God loves us.
Consider Jesus' Quality Time when He raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus was far and away when He heard that the friend whom He loved, Lazarus, had died. When the time was right, He walked for two days to reach Bethany, the burial site of Lazarus. When Jesus saw the situation, He wept. Even Jesus’ critics were amazed, “…Look how deeply He loved him.” John 11:36. Jesus changed His itinerary and gave Lazarus, Mary, and Martha intense quality time right in time. When Lazarus came forth from his tomb, love came forth from the tomb.
Consider Jesus' Acts of Service when He said, "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down one's life for one's friends." John 15:13. Jesus performed the most extraordinary acts of love and service for humankind. He died for our sins on the cross. God poured all our badness into Jesus and all of Jesus' goodness into us. When he died, all our sins died. When he rose, we rose. Three nails plus one cross equals four-given.’
Finally, consider Jesus' Giving of Gifts. “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. God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world but rather to ensure that the world might be saved through Jesus. John 3:16-17. Because God loved, He gave us the Ultimate Gift, Jesus Christ. We didn’t deserve God’s love. We didn’t earn God’s love. All we need to do is receive it.
Regardless of your love language, God has expressed it to you through Jesus. My advice is to believe it and receive it. Is your palm up or down this Palm Sunday weekend? The best answer is yes.
Ed Delph/April 6, 2025/CCC