Walk in love
Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. (Ephesians 5:1-2).
Paul closes Ephesians chapter 4 with the words, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). Then chapter 5 begins by encouraging us to continually imitate God as children. What characterises the children of God? Kindness, tender-heartedness and forgiveness. These are very attractive words, but at the same time, very testing words. They describe in detail what the Lord meant when He gave us a new commandment to love one another as He had loved us. It is through this love that people know we are His disciples (John 13:34-35).
The Holy Spirit describes love most poetically and powerfully in 1 Corinthians 13. The beauty of God’s word always touches our hearts. But in doing so, it never loses the sharpness of a two-edged sword. You will not find more extraordinary poetry than 1 Corinthians 13, but you also find the most profound challenges to the expression of love in our lives:
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). In these verses God has given us very beautiful and powerful statements against which to compare our love. And Paul gives us the highest reference point of all – the Lord Jesus. “Walk in love as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us.”
For a couple of years, whilst I worked on a project, I had to stay regularly in hotels close to Heathrow Airport in London. In the hotel rooms there was often a free copy of a business magazine. Inside, it listed the world’s wealthiest people. In those days, Bill Gates was always at the top of that list. I think he was worth then around 50 billion dollars. But all the people on the list had one thing in common: their wealth could be measured. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” We can never measure the richness of Christ, nor do I believe we will ever know the depth of His poverty. But we know His grace and the love that led Him to give Himself for us.
God’s love for the world is expressed in John 3:16 and in 1 John 3:16, John writes, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.” We imitate and walk in the love of Christ by laying “down our lives for the brethren.” Then in verse 18, John challenges us as the children of God, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”
