WALK IN LOVE (EPHESIANS 5:1-7)

 

WALK IN LOVE

BIBLE PASSAGE: EPHESIANS 5: 1- 7

Picture taken from Google

Lesson Prepared by: Krisha of Solomon’s Wisdom FB page

FEBRUARY 02, 2020

 

MEMORY VERSE

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 sweet-smelling savour.

EPHESIANS 5:2

 

INTRODUCTION:

The late Dr. Albert Schweitzer, famous missionary, medical doctor, and musician, was asked, “What is the best way to raise children?” He replied, “There are three ways: 1) By example, 2) By example, and 3) By example” (cited by Doug Spangler, American Baby [August, 1979], p. 35). He was certainly right. By your actions, your words, and your attitudes in the home, your children learn to follow in your footsteps.

The apostle Paul knew the importance of example in teaching others. He told the Corinthians that he was their father in the gospel and then added (1 Cor. 4:16), “Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.” Later in the same letter, he repeated (11:1), “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” He also told the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 1:6), “you also became imitators of us and of the Lord….” Using the examples both of a tender, nursing mother and an affectionate father, he told them that he had imparted to them not only the gospel, but also his own life (1 Thess. 2:7-11). Jesus told us to imitate God when He said (Luke 6:36), “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” He went even further when He commanded (Matt. 5:48), “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-39-imitating-god-love-ephesians-51-2

 

In Ephesians 5: 1-2 we can see that God wants us to imitate or mimic Him. In doing so, we will walk in love. Before I proceed to our lesson, let me tell you a story:

The story of is told of a girl who regretted breaking her engagement and wrote this letter:

“Dearest Tommy, no words could ever express the great unhappiness I’ve felt since breaking our engagement. Please say you’ll take me back. No one could ever take your place in my heart, so please forgive me. I love you; I love you; I love you! I love you!”

Yours forever,
Marie

PS: And congratulations on winning the state lottery.

When we are asked what is love, what is our answer? When we talk about true love, what comes to our mind or who comes to our mind first? We admit it or not, we don’t think about God. We think about our pains, the time we were brokenhearted or the person we love before or at this present. In our lesson today, I pray we would realize what the point of our love life at this present time.

 

LESSON OUTLINE:

1.  LET GOD’S LOVE FLOW FROM US TO OTHER PEOPLE

How in the world can we imitate the Lord God Almighty even first of all we’re in the flesh? How can we imitate God who is perfect; he doesn’t mean by that that we took going around physically trying to imitate what God would do if he were on earth but rather that our whole spirit and our whole life is to be a likeness to Him. So, he says therefore we are to be imitators (mimic) we are to be like him. Now when we say like him, what does he like? Let’s turn our Bible in 1 John 4:16, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God”, and God in him”. So, when we start talking about imitating or being a follower of Jesus Christ or living the way he lives, the first characteristic that ought to be evident in us is that there’s going to be a flow of God’s love from us to other people so you and I should be characterized if by no other Christian quality, we ought to be characterized by love. People should see us as loving people. Now, sometimes they don’t, sometimes it’s because of their attitude, sometimes it’s because of our conduct or things that we say and they don’t see as this loving people but he 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 sweet-smelling savour.” Now our problem is this, we are living in the flesh and we meet somebody once in a while that’s very difficult to love. How can we be living in this physical body having our personality or other people having theirs? How is it that we can love other people and though sometimes they are so unlovely; their attitude, their actions are so unlovely? Well apostle Paul gives us the answer to that when he says for example in Galatians 5 the fruit of the fruit by whom he says we have been sealed and are in dwelt in the book of Ephesians, the Spirit of God within us will overflow and he says the fruit of the Spirit is what? (Love) The first characteristic and the first evidence of Spirit is love. So that characteristic is the fruit that we have the spirit.  He says, “ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”. So, that makes it possible to answer Paul’s plea in this beginning verse is that you and I are dwelt by the Holy Spirit who will flow through us into other people’s lives and one of the first things they should be able to see as believers is that we’re loving.

 

There’s a story from David Dykes lesson ‘the debt of love I owe’. Here’s the story

Opal Whetset is a Christian writer. One night she was on a Greyhound bus between Flagstaff, Arizona and Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was a cold February night and the bus stopped in a small Indian community. A young American Indian teenager boarded the bus and sat down behind her. Maybe it was the warmth of the bus or the rocking motion but she could tell by his breathing he was soon asleep. Sometime later he woke and ran down the aisle to ask about a certain stop where he was supposed to get off. The driver snapped back and said, “We passed that stop a long time ago. Why didn’t you get off then?” The young man went back to his seat. She could tell he was anxious and upset. He got back up, walked back to the driver, and said, “Will you stop the bus and let me get off and walk back to where I was supposed to get off?” The bus driver said, “No, it’s too cold and it’s too far. You’d freeze. You’ve got to ride the bus all the way into Albuquerque then catches another bus back to your stop. The Indian sat down in his seat behind Opal. She could tell he was upset. She turned around to this young man she never met before, and said, “Are you afraid? Is there anything I can do to help?” He said, “I don’t know what to do. I’ve never been to Albuquerque, and besides, I don’t have any money. They’re going to make me pay again. I don’t know what to do.” She said, “Well listen, don’t worry, you just stick with me. When we get to Albuquerque, I’ll make sure you get on the right bus. And if they want to charge you, which they shouldn’t do, I’ll buy your ticket.”

Then Opal went up and talked to the bus driver and explained the situation. She said, “Can you make sure the next bus he gets on; they don’t charge him to take him back to where he needs to go?” The bus driver finally agreed. Opal went back and sat down and turned to the young man behind her and said, “It’s all taken care of. Don’t you worry. Everything’s going to be okay.” After riding for about ten minutes in total silence, Opal felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and the young man leaned forward, and asked her this question. He said, “Ma’am, are you a Christian?”

Has anybody ever asked anybody in this room, “Are you a Christian?” Because, when we show that kind of unusual love to people, they know that.

 The man made him asked the person who helped him, “Are you a Christian?”

That question makes me think about the way how I act outside the church: home, work, outside and anywhere. Do they see Christ in us? I had so many bad feedbacks from co-workers about their “born-again friends” (born-again religion). They said how these people posted things very spiritual in Facebook or in any conversation, but their lives are living in darkness. Honestly for me, Baptist is the strictest about Christian living which is good because we follow our flesh and the church is there to help us imitate God; people should see Christ in us so that we may bring them to Christ.

 

Another thing that caught my attention is that love, the biblical love, is the fruit of the Spirit that is in us. This is the evidence that we are the children of God. Therefore, if we always do the contrary, we must be aware of our spiritual status.

 

2.  LOVE AS CHRIST HAS LOVED US

Paul describes the quality of the love we should have. Let’s notice what he 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 sweet-smelling savour.” Now he says just as he loved us; he has loved us unconditionally. It’s endless; It is not loving me if and loving me except. It is an unconditional love. It is a forgiving love no matter what we do; he’s still forgiving toward us. It is sacrificial love, the same term they used when they offered sacrifice and notice what he said “a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma and that is our lifestyle. Our love should be of the quality that our life should be like an aroma before God. Again, he says, “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children”. We have to see ourselves walking in love unconditional, forgiving, sacrificial love and he says in so doing we will be a “sweet-smelling savour”.  Our life should leave an aroma of the gospel of Jesus Christ which is always loved. The basis of who we are in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1-3), this is the way we ought to live. Ephesians 4:1 says,” I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,”. We’ve been called to be lovers; allowing the love of Jesus to be continuously expressed through us. Paul’s plea for us is we should be living as a lover, but he says watch out for the world’s counterfeit. In Ephesians 5:3 says, “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;” (Tagalog: kaya't hindi dapat mabanggit man lamang na kayo'y nakikiapid o gumagawa ng anumang uri ng kahalayan o pag-iimbot) So, Paul is saying here is a perversion of the kind of love that God has implanted in us. All of us who are indwelt Jesus Christ have the pure love of God indwelling us so that all of us have the capacity to love of a people. Now he says for example, here the love of the Lord Jesus Christ is unconditional, sacrificial and that it is a pure love that is the love that is reaching out and forgiving. Now let’s think about the world’s love as you and I hear about and as we see it displayed, demonstrated and portrayed whether it’s in the movies, television or whatever it might be. Is the world’s love unconditional? No! The world says, “I love you if”. 

Is the world’s love sacrificial? No! “I love you to a point.” Is the world’s love forgiving? No! It’s not forgiving - “you do me wrong and I’ll do you wrong in return” or “If you don’t love me then I don’t love you”. Let’s think about what the world has to offer in the way of love in the next verses. This the world’s counterfeit and Paul was pleading and calling us to allow our lives to be an expression of the life of Jesus which is a life of love; the imitators of the Lord Jesus Christ Walk in love and let that be the characteristic, but he says there’s a different attitude and here’s the world’s counterfeit. The world’s talking about making love and there are different terms use to describe love, but all of these are not love at all. When Young people who feel their minds with the television view of love and magazine view of love begin to date and talk about love and that’s their attitude toward love is. It’s not any wonder that they end up defiling their bodies, perverting their lives, destroying their future with a very clearly given counterfeit view of what love’s all about. Love isn’t what do I want what satisfies me; love is what is best for the other person. So, he says you don’t know the world’s counterfeit like. Here’s the way to describe which is found in verse 3. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Do not let immorality that is fornication- any kind of sexual expression outside of the limits of God is wrapped up in that word “porneia”. Covet someone’s that’s not yours is a character of selfishness. The world’s concept of love is all wrapped up in selfishness. They call it love, affection and they call it many things, but the truth is- most of it are immorality. Born out of a heart of selfishness is a covetous, greedy to have my needs met at the expense of someone else without even thinking oftentimes what that expense may be; that’s counterfeit of love.  Paul was pleading us to “walk in the love” that is becoming to the children of God who know how to reach out and express love thinking about the other person, giving of ourselves or the other person whether it’s in marriage or friendship. Love is always giving. Love is not selfish. Paul plea for us to be imitators of God and walk in love as God has loved us. 

The description of love is mentioned in the 13^th chapter of 1 Corinthians. The problem of us now especially in churches is “accepting the lifestyles” that are totally unbecoming to believers. We’re accepting habits, we’re accepting attitudes, language, music that is totally against Almighty God. The sensuality in music is probably more powerful than just in words because it deals with your emotions, in the rhythm of your body and we need to be very, very careful what we listen to. This may not affect but I can tell you one thing that is appealing to a lot of folks and there’s no way listen to it over and over and without grasping its words and views. Not just suggestions but blatant statement of immorality and this is filthy. Some people say “well, you know after all this is just a new generation”. if that is the definition of love, we need God help to this generation. Music gives us the thinking of what the meaning of love in this world.  It will program the way your thoughts and that will become your concept of love and sex.  One of these days and you’re in a relationship, you thought you love somebody who thought he loved you, but it was all built on the quicksand of the world’s counterfeit of love. Love isn’t just a feeling or emotion.

Ephesians 5:4-5, “Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God”. These things don’t belong in the life of the Christian, but you see we should be thanking God if we know what true love all is about and thanking God that we’ve discovered that no sexual immorality ever meets a need or satisfies anything in the human life. The world offers what is has no power to provide. We see in the life of artists world about this. They can go to bed with anybody and for 50 years they still be crying out deep down inside. There’s something empty inside of them be crying out and what that cry out is… the Spirit of God desiring to fill you with Himself. We can’t be happy until we allow God to fill you with himself. With Jesus Christ, you can be fulfilled.

 

CONLUSION:

We cannot walk in love or do anything good in the sight of God unless we have given over all to Him. part of putting off the old man is repentance. There is no coming to Jesus without repentance. that is what we do when we surrender all to Him. Only then can well come out of our lives through what God does, by His holy Spirit in our lives.

Taking off the old man and putting on the new man involves giving over all to Jesus, the good, the bad and the ugly. Jesus does not want some of us. He wants it all. We do not clean up ourselves to meet Him, we meet Jesus and let Him do all the cleaning.