St. Peter's Lutheran Church

Pastor's Message -  February 2026

“And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and greatest of these is love.”

                Corinthians 13:13

Focusing on love is a great thing any time of the year, but February seems to be an especially apt time. Of course, this is due to the scheduling of Valentine’s Day, which society has expanded way beyond the feast of St. Valentine. The world seems to be always taking church things and making them into something else (although it is hard to be mad about something that involves chocolate and roses). And it is never a bad thing to prioritize love. I would just like to celebrate love in many different forms and not just romantic relationships. Love is so much bigger than that.

The world wants Valentine’s Day to be about romance, but it started out as a feast day of an early church martyr, who wrote letters of encouragement to other Christians afraid for their lives. He would write notes reminding people that God loves them. In this day and age, none of us has to fear being literally fed to lions like the early Christians, but I know that many of us may be going through some tough things. And whereas romance can be nice, I think the challenges of our world require something more. We need love in Godly proportions.

The Bible is full of beautiful passages on love. Passages that can remind us of God’s love and passages that encourage us to love others. In fact, there are more than enough to read verses every single day in February. Maybe this month, the love of God could go viral instead of misinformation, hateful speech, and toxicity.

What we learn from the Bible is that God is love (1 John 4:8), and if we are going to be imitators of God and Jesus, then we will also be characterized by love. With that in mind, let us continue to pursue showing love to each other and to our neighbors. And if we learn anything from the parable of the Good Samaritan it is this: we are the good neighbor to everyone. Neighbor is a term that describes us, not the people around us. We should strive to be good neighbors to all, especially those who find themselves powerless to provide or fight for themselves.

So, this month and every month, let everything that we do be done with love.

With much love,

Rev. Perucy N. Butiku - Coverage Pastor