As Christ Has Loved

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 savor.

Ephesians 5:2

We learn how to live as Christ, by observing how Christ lived.  As Paul is teaching the Ephesians the practical outgrowth of what it means to be ‘in Christ,’ he says that they, and therefore we, should be ‘imitators of God.’ This will, in a de facto way, bring us to the imitation of Christ.  As Paul tells the Ephesians ‘to walk in love,’ the example he uses is Christ, Himself.  He says, in the verse which serves as our text for today, that we should ‘walk in love as Christ has loved us and given Himself for us….’  Here is the heart and soul of the Christlike life.  Everything that is sinful is of self and selfish.  We see the result of the selfishness in the wanton destructiveness of sin to those whom it affects.  The person perpetuating the evil cares nothing for the havoc it wreaks upon those hapless souls who are on the receiving end of the evildoing.  By contrast, Christ, ‘Who did not sin’ only ever did good to all with whom He came in contact.  What we observe in Christs’ life becomes the behavior we imitate.  As we imitate His behavior, we find ourselves doing good to those with whom we come in contact.  As we do them good, we demonstrate that we ‘walk in love.’  So therefore, love is patient; love is kind; love does not seek to advance itself; is not conceited, along with all the other characteristics which Paul cites in I Corinthians 13.  To walk in love, as Christ has loved us, is to look to Christ as the pole star to show us the way to walk as He walked.

Our Wise and Wonderful God,
we rejoice that You have given unto us the privilege,
of seeing the example which Christ has set before us.
We praise You, that by Your Spirit,
we may imitate Him and thus grow to be like Him.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning