The Five Love Languages of Easter

Happy Easter to all of you. If you are a Christ-follower, you know this Sunday (April 21 in 2019) as Resurrection Day. Each Resurrection Day the early church loudly proclaimed, “He has Risen. He has Risen Indeed!”

Easter to them was more than Easter eggs, it was about eternal life and heaven. It was when Love rose from the dead. Resurrection Day shows us we are not human beings going through a temporary spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings going through a temporary human experience.

Have you heard about the book, The Five Love Languages, by Gary Chapman? The idea driving this book is that everyone experiences love differently. That’s why it’s easy for us to miss the mark when it comes to showing that we care. The Five Love Languages helps us to give and receive love in more meaningful ways to each other.

The book reveals five different love languages people respond differently to.
It’s interesting how often couples assume the love language they respond to is the love language their spouse 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 the other’s love language, speak their language, even though it’s not what you would resonate with. Now you are both speaking a language each one understands. Aha!

Here’s an example of how this 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.

If your partner’s love language is Acts of Service, speak 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, that You sent Me on this mission. I have made Your very being known to them, Who You are and what You do, and continue to make it known, so that Your love for me, might be in them, exactly as I am in them.” Let me paraphrase this. “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 to God.

Consider His 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 his shoulder.” John leaned into love and was touched with love. Can you imagine what that was like? The Greek word for used for love here is agape, love as God has love in a pure and moral way.

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 two days to get to Bethany, Lazarus’ burial site. 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, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:13. Jesus performed the greatest act of love and service for humankind ever known, 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 sin died. When He arose, we arose. ‘3 nails plus 1 cross equal 4-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. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. John 3:16-17. Because God loved, He gave the Ultimate Gift, Jesus Christ, to us. We didn’t deserve it. We didn’t earn it. Love is God’s nature, not performance.

So, there you go my friends. No matter what your love language is, God has spoken it in Jesus. My advice is, believe it and receive it. “He (and God’s love language) has risen, indeed!”

Ed Delph  April 15, 2019   CCC