Sit, Walk and Stand Based on Grace and His Finished Work (5)

Ephesians 5 begins with Paul encouraging us to 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.” (v1,2 NKJ) In this post, I shall be sharing on :

b) Walk in Love
Paul says we are to walk in love “as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us…” In another words, we are to love one another as Christ has loved us. Why is is so important to love one another? In Romans 13:8,9, Paul gives us the reason : “ Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (NKJ)

He who loves has fulfilled the law! “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14 NKJ) Under the Old Covenant, the Ten Commandments stipulated that “You shall not, you shall not” but under the New Covenant of grace, when we love one another, we do not want to do those things that the Law commanded us not to. Under the Law, we should not but under grace, we do not want to! When we walk in love, the requirements of the law have been fulfilled without us even attempting to fulfill them. Therefore when we love, we will not want to bring harm to others. This is the reason why Ephesians 5:1,2 which tell us to walk in love immediately follow with “But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.” (v3,4 NKJ)

Under the New Covenant of grace, we love BECAUSE He first loved us : “ We love each other^[a] because he loved us first.” (1 John4:19 NLT) When we know how much God loves us, we will love others out of that overflow. This brings us back to the importance of sitting well which we talked about in my earlier posts. When we are securely seated and rooted in Christ’s love for us, we cannot help but love one another. It is not out of self effort or an artificial manufacturing of something that is not there in the first place, but we love from the position of having received much love from Love Himself for the Bible says God is love. “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NKJ)

Romans 8:35 tells us that nothing shall separate us from His love : ”Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (NKJ) When we know with all certainty of Christ’s love for us, love will be a fruit in our lives. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,” (Galatians 5:22 NKJ) 1 Corinthians 13:13 says “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (NKJ)

What is love then? 1 Corinthians 13 says : “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.” (v4-7 NKJ)

Therefore, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” ( 1 John 4:7 NKJ)

-------------to be continued----------------