Valentine’s Day is built on an illusion. What began as a historical tradition has become a commercialised spectacle that promotes a shallow, fleeting version of love. The world has taken the idea of love and reduced it to grand romantic gestures, expensive gifts, and emotional highs that ultimately fade. This version of love is unstable, conditional, and transactional. It thrives on infatuation, momentary pleasure, and material displays, but when the emotions wane, so does the commitment. It is a love that requires constant validation through things that have no lasting substance.
The overwhelming majority of music, movies, and literature that explore love reflect this distorted perspective. Love is often portrayed as blind, irrational, or doomed to fail. Songs mourn heartbreak, celebrate obsession, and romanticise dysfunction. The entertainment industry thrives on selling an idea of love that is unpredictable, passionate, and full of extremes. It rarely speaks of love that is patient, enduring, and selfless. The world is saturated with messages that equate love with desire, yet desire is fickle. When people are conditioned to believe that love is merely a feeling, they are left unprepared when reality demands more than just fleeting passion.
In contrast, the pure love of Christ is the highest form of love. It is not based on attraction, sentimentality, or material exchange. It is selfless, sacrificial, and unwavering. This kind of love transforms relationships because it does not seek personal gain. It does not give to receive but rather gives because it is the right thing to do.
Christlike love has the power to solve human problems because it removes selfishness from the equation. Where the world’s version of love breeds entitlement, competition, and disappointment, pure love fosters patience, humility, and true connection.
Romance, as commonly understood, is an artificial presentation of love. It is an attempt to impress, to capture attention, and to create an illusion of devotion. People exchange flowers, chocolates, and carefully crafted words to spark attraction, but the next day, they may raise their voices at one another in anger. This inconsistency exposes the shallowness of romance when it is not rooted in something deeper. A relationship built on romance alone is as fragile as the flowers exchanged on Valentine’s Day. It may be beautiful in the moment, but it withers quickly.
Human nature is messy. People are emotionally fragile, easily influenced, and often driven by self-interest. They seek love but misunderstand its meaning. They crave commitment but resist sacrifice. The world’s version of love is fragmented and contradictory, constantly shifting between unrealistic expectations and disillusionment. True love does not behave this way. It does not need extravagant displays or dramatic declarations. It is steady, enduring, and independent of circumstances.
Perhaps it is time to recognise that Valentine’s Day, rather than celebrating love, reinforces the superficial, materialistic, and transactional versions of it.
A love that is rooted in gifts and performance is no love at all.
If more people understood the difference between the fleeting passion that the world sells and the pure, unshakable love that Christ demonstrated, relationships would not be built on temporary emotions but on an enduring foundation that withstands the trials of life.