WALK IN LOVE
Eph. 5:1-2
Morning Meditation 1/30/2014
Verse 1-2 says, “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.”
Many Christians are brought to the place where they say, “I am ready to serve the Lord. Where do I start?” These two verses will help to answer that question for those who are ready. First I call your attention to,
THE CHALLENGE
Paul says, “Be ye therefore followers of God . . .” The word “therefore” takes us back into the last chapter where words of reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness are given to the Church in Ephesus. So the first step in the challenge is to cease to grieve the Holy Spirit and confess known sin and correct wrong attitudes.
The next step is to act on Paul’s challenge. The word “Be” translates “ginomai” and means, “to become, i.e. to come into existence, begin to be, receive being.” It is a verb and is a present tense middle voice and imperative mood. What this means is that Paul is challenging them to BEGIN NOW to act in response to his instruction. The middle voice is where the subject (the Ephesian Christians and us) acts and is benefited by the action. The growth in grace and the effective witness will be the result of this action. The imperative mood is a command expressing urgency. God’s commands always appeal to our willing obedience. The Christian life is not passive. It is active. We must act on the truth and the truth in this case is to become followers of God. Keep in mind that Paul is not instructing unsaved people on how to be saved. He is challenging saved people to be followers of God. The first step is confess known sin and get rid of it. The second, is to begin by acting on the truth. Faith without works is dead. Next,
THE GOAL
The word “followers” translates “mimetes” and means, “to imitate, be an imitator.” Our word mimic is a transliteration of this word. Paul says to mimic or imitate God is the goal that I am talking to you about now. We have a Role Model and He is Jesus. Jesus is God manifest in the flesh (2 Cor. 5:19) and is therefore the Model of which Paul speaks.
This same idea is what Hebrews 12:2 has in mind: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” The race course is the illustration in verse 1. We are to run with patience the race that is set before us. Verse 2 is presenting Jesus as the coach. We are to look to Him as our Coach. He is very familiar with the track and knows all the winning plays.
Most of us are going to have a role model. When we put too much stock in a human role model and that person lets us down it can be catastrophic to our Christian faith. I have seen it happen too often. Jesus should be our main role Model. I will assure that He will never let you down. If the human role model does, remember, he/she is only human. My wife USED to read books published by a certain christian lady who was a speaker in national women’s conferences all across the country. I even read some of her books. She was an outstanding writer and speaker (I also heard her on tape). Her main theme was the family. She got a divorce and married another. It was a shock and was a total disregard to all she had taught. I don’t need to tell you that we were hurt and disappointed. But my wife did not have her as a role model though she did read the woman’s books and enjoyed what she had to say. Jesus was my wife’s Role-Model. So it never checked her pace in the race. Disappointed? Yes. Quit or slow down? No.
Paul says that we have a Role-Model, let’s follow Him. Next,
THE DEMONSTRATION OF WHAT WE ARE
Paul says in verse one, “. . . as dear children.” It is not “that we might become His dear children.” We ARE His dear children. Note the following four things:
1. We are children of God by faith in Christ. Galatians 3:26 says, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”
2. We are assured that we are children of God by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”
3. We are children of God by birth. 1 John 5:1 says, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.” Just as a child has a natural relationship to his father, we have a supernatural relationship to God as our Father by the New Birth.
4. We are children of God by adoption. Romans 8:15 says, “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” The adoption gives us a legal relationship to God as His children.
We are God’s dear children and as such our actions should declare it. “In the middle Ages it was not uncommon for parents to send their children—especially their daughters—to the convent when they were still very young. In some instances, they insisted the decision had been made by the children themselves. Such was the case of Edburga, a tenth-century nun, who was sent to the convent when she was only three years old. When she was only a toddler, her father was determined to let his daughter make the decision that would change the course of her life. On one side of her he set religious objects, including a Bible and chalice, and on the other side worldly objects, including jewels and precious metals. ‘Without hesitation she reached out for the religious objects, and with that sign, her exuberant father placed her in a convent under the care of Abbess Etheldreda.’” We should without hesitation commit ourselves to a life worthy of the precious name we wear as children of God. Next,
A REASONABLE RESPONSE TO GOD’S LOVE BESTOWED
Paul says, “walk in love.” We are loved of God in Christ (John 3:16). He commended His love toward us when we were His enemies (Rom. 5:6-10). His love is so unearned that it is totally unreasonable. No one is worthy of that love. God would have been justified had He completely abandoned us, but as reasonable as that would have been, He reached down in His infinite love and lifted us our of an horrible pit and set our feet on the solid Rock and made us His children. Psalms 40:2 says, “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” Someone hold my mules!!! Hallelujah!!!
Walking in love is a reasonable response to His infinite and undeserved love. I heard Dr. Charles Weigle sing the song he wrote, No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus, after he was ninety years of age:
I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus
Since I found in Him a friend so strong and true;
I would tell you how He changed my life completely,
He did something that no other friend could do.
All my life was full of sin when Jesus found me,
All my heart was full of misery and woe;
Jesus plac’d His strong and loving arms around me,
And he led me in the way I ought to go.
Ev’ry day He comes to me with new assurance,
More and more I understand His words of love;
But I’ll never know just why He came to save me,
Till some day I see His blessed face above,
No one ever cared for me like Jesus,
There’s no other friend so kind as He;
No one else could take the sin and darkness from me,
O how much He cared for me.
I believe Jesus looks from the lofty heights of His place at the right hand of the Father and looks with longing love upon us and anticipates the day He will come to take us to the place He is preparing for us. It is only reasonable that we “walk in love” as we wait for the great day of His coming. Next,
THE MODEL TO FOLLOW
Paul says, “as Christ also loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” This means that:
1. Christ is the model to follow in walking in love. We see it demonstrated in the forgiveness of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11).. We see it demonstrated in the restoration of Peter after his denial (John 21:15-19). We hear it in His utterance from the cross recorded in Luke 23:34: “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”
2. Christ is the model to follow in walking in love as He willingly suffers for the good of others. One cannot walk in love without enduring pain. We shrink from pain especially when the pain can be avoided and is unappreciated. Jesus died for us when we didn’t care. Not only did we not care but we contributed to the pain He endured for us. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him ENDURED THE CROSS, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Caps mine for emphasis).
May the Lord help us to walk in love toward one another and toward those for whom Christ died as a demonstration of our love for Him.
In Christ
Bro. White
