Yesterday on The Morning Meditation we looked at the thought Conditioned to Endure. I am sure thankful that the Lord has placed people in my life that were conditioned to endure.
Today let us look at:
WALK IN LOVE
Eph. 5:1-2 “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 sweetsmelling savour.”
Many Christians are brought to the place where they say, “I am ready to serve the Lord. Where do I start?” These two verses will help to answer that question for those who are ready. First I call your attention to,
THE CHALLENGE
Paul says, “Be ye therefore followers of God . . .” The word “therefore” takes us back into the last chapter where words of reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness are given to the Church in Ephesus. So the first step in the challenge is to cease to grieve the Holy Spirit and confess known sin and correct wrong attitudes.
The next step is to act on Paul’s challenge. The word “Be” translates “ginomai” and means, “to become, i.e. to come into existence, begin to be, receive being.” It is a verb and is a present tense middle voice and imperative mood. What this means is that Paul is challenging them to BEGIN NOW to act in response to his instruction. The middle voice is where the subject (the Ephesian Christians and us) acts and is benefited by the action. The growth in grace and the effective witness will be the result of this action. The imperative mood is a command expressing urgency. God’s commands always appeal to our willing obedience. The Christian life is not passive. It is active. We must act on the truth and the truth in this case is to become followers of God. Keep in mind that Paul is not instructing unsaved people on how to be saved. He is challenging saved people to be followers of God. The first step is confess known sin and get rid of it. The second, is to begin by acting on the truth. Faith without works is dead. Next,
THE GOAL
The word “followers” translates “mimetes” and means, “to imitate, be an imitator.” Our word mimic is a transliteration of this word. Paul says to mimic or imitate God is the goal that I am talking to you about now. We have a Role Model and He is Jesus. Jesus is God manifest in the flesh (2 Cor. +5:19) and is therefore the Model of which Paul speaks.
This same idea is what Hebrews 12:2 has in mind: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” The race course is the illustration in verse 1. We are to run with patience the race that is set before us. Verse 2 is presenting Jesus as the coach. We are to look to Him as our Coach. He is very familiar with the track and knows all the winning plays.
Most of us are going to have a role model. When we put too much stock in a human role model and that person lets us down it can be catastrophic to our Christian faith. I have seen it happen too often. Jesus should be our main role Model. I will assure that He will never let you down. If the human role model does, remember, he/she is only human. My wife USED to read books published by a certain christian lady who was a speaker in national women’s conferences all across the country. I even read some of her books. She was an outstanding writer and speaker (I also heard her on tape). Her main theme was the family. She got a divorce and married another. It was a shock and was a total disregard to all she had taught. I don’t need to tell you that we were hurt and disappointed. But my wife did not have her as a role model though she did read the woman’s books and enjoyed what she had to say. Jesus was my wife’s Role-Model. So it never checked her pace in the race. Disappointed? Yes. Quit or slow down? No.
Paul says that we have a Role-Model, let’s follow Him. Next,
