Ephes. 5:1-9 (ESV)
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. [2] And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
[3] But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. [4] Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. [5] For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. [6] Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. [7] Therefore do not associate with them; [8] for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light [9] (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),
Be imitators of God, as beloved children and walk in love.
To imitate God is to walk in love, even as Christ walked in love, a walk that took him straight up the hill to Calgary, the place of the skull where he was crucified for us. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Walk in love. Paul doesn’t leave it there. He begins to describe what that looks like. Let not sexual immorality, impurity and covetousness be named among you! Don’t engage in filthy and foolish talk, or crude joking…
What hath this with love?
So often you hear these foolish things being said, truly foolish things, the types of things Paul here says we shouldn’t be saying. Things like “but we were in love.” The sinners invoke love as an excuse for sin. Doesn’t love fulfill the law? So if I do it out of love, we think, then it matters not what I do it is lawful, it is the fulfilling of the law. Rather than loving we use love as an excuse to sin.
All of the commandments come down to love. Either loving God, which we do by not whoring after other Gods, using his name flippantly or falsely, to bear false witness against God just might register a little higher on the list of 10 for a reason…. And gladly hearing his word whenever we can be it on the Sabbath or a Wednesday night. Then there is loving your neighbor, and this starts with your parents, it works its way down to others. Jesus sums up the second table, love your neighbor as yourself.
I find this insightful. I think the first part of this gets a little hidden. It is at the root of the problem. Too often we don’t actually love ourselves, we don’t even know how to love ourselves, and it makes it near impossible to love our neighbors. Perhaps we rightly see that there isn’t a whole lot about ourselves to love?
Pop psychology, Dr. Phil, and Oprah would pronounce me anathema for saying such things, I imagine. There really isn’t a whole lot of ourselves to love. But there is truth to this. We are the most despicable of sinners, and we too often mistake feeding our sinful appetites with love, but that is just a sadistic narcissism. This is not love of self. Not the kind of love God has in mind for us.
When we treat ourselves as animals, eating when we want to eat, out of boredom, eating as my vet says dogs will eat, till they throw up, just so they can eat some more. We feed on gossip this way. Tearing each other down. Sexually, there is always the temptation to let others degrade us as we degrade them thinking ourselves nothing but animals. Rather than sex being as God intended it to be, an expression of love between married persons, where it is a truest expression of love. We let it become a tool of exploitation. We don’t love ourselves enough to love others. When you can’t marry someone, you don’t trust them, and where there is no trust, there is no love. Whatever else you may call it, it is not love.
But if we love ourselves then we will not abuse others to feed our sinful appetites, that are insatiable, and should be starved to death, crucified, put to death in whatever manner they can be, because if we don’t kill our Old Adams, they will kill us. We can’t afford to feed them, they’ll eat you out of house and home.
But love, love is another matter, it is not arrogant or rude… It is not our narcissistic selves feeding on our souls, but at its core is a self respect, a good heart and a clean conscience. Oh this is what Jesus died to give us. We find love for self, not in ourselves but in Jesus Christ, who despite our ungodly sinful natures, despite the ugliness of our souls, loved us with the greater love, and laid down his life for us. It is there that we find self-worth, it is there we find reason to love even ourselves, that we might love others.
For when we contemplate ourselves, there is reason for self loathing. But then on the cross, Jesus thought you were worth his life, he shed his blood for you, of infinite worth. And there, there is reason for dignity, there is reason for self love. And there is reason to love. Yes Jesus walked in love love that took him to Calgary. It is that love with which he loved us, and now it is that love with which we love. We love our neighbor now, not so much as we love ourselves, but now we love as Jesus loved us. And loving ourselves as Jesus loved us, yes we kill our old Adam, but we do it in a bath of forgiveness, and then, then we shower others in it.
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