Living in Love

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Scripture:

Eph. 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children,
Eph. 5:2 and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Observation:

One sentence — packed full of the holiness message. 

It all begins with Christ and his very nature which is holy love.  His holy love drove him to give himself up for all of us.  He wanted us to become brothers and sisters and this would only be possible by sacrificing his life for all of us.  By giving up his life, he made it possible for us to live a new life, born again into his family.  Living in his family we take on the very nature of Christ — holy love.  Therefore we live in love — in Jesus’ holy love and we desire to be just like him.  That’s why we imitate him, because we are in him and want to be like him. 

Christ’s holiness drove him to die on the cross for us.  We are invited to become partakers of the divine nature, to live in his holiness and this is living in love.

Application:
Holiness must always be defined by our relationship to Christ.  The temptation is to define holiness by behaviors and this becomes easy if we only look at the beginning of this verse.  We are encouraged to be imitators of God and this is a good thing, but it only happens when we are living in God’s love.  When we are living in his love, then we will feel compelled to become more and more like him. 

We have become beloved children of God, and this means we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters.  Siblings tend to look and act alike! 

There should be no fear of holiness, for holiness is God’s desire for all of his children.  Holiness is the result of God’s children living in holy love; being bathed by the Holy Spirit, filled to the point of overflowing and splashing out onto the surrounding world.  As we live in love, the fragrant offering of Jesus is spread to others because we want to imitate the actions of Christ. 

Holy love is all consuming and transforming and results in Jesus’ siblings becoming more and more like him as they walk in the pathway of holiness which he has provided.

Prayer:

Lord, may your holy love consume me today.  Amen.


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