This better be your greatest ambition. It is what God wants.
Is it My Ambition to Actually be an Imitator of God?
Ephesians 5:1-2
Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible ChurchPlease turn to Ephesians 5. We are starting in Ephesians 5:1-2. While you are turning there, I will take a moment to review our doctrines for living that Paul has been spoon feeding us from this beautiful banquet table called Ephesians. We always need to keep with the flow of thought of the menu, so that we can get the big picture concerning the overall feast. Paul starts out our whole dining experience, explaining that, in God's amazing love, you were elected. In 1:3, we see that were elected, in the Son, since before the foundation of the world for the purpose of setting us apart. We were predestined to loving adoption according to 1:5. The adoption is in Christ, through Christ. We are forgiven in Him 1:7. We have obtained already, an inheritance, 1:11. The Holy Spirit was given as a pledge of our future inheritance of eternal glory, 1:14. We, as His church, are His body. He is the head, and He fills all of us, in all of us, 1:22-23. At one time, we walked according to death. It was the course of this lost world, 2:1. We walked completely according to the lusts of lost flesh, 2:3. But while there, God in His amazing love, saved us by His own manufacturing hand, 2:8-11. According to this amazing love of our God, He made Israelites and Gentiles into one new man in Christ, 2:11-20. Further, the church, which is the body of Christ, is the temple of the Holy Spirit, 2:21-22. Paul's prayer, as scripture, is that we would truly comprehend the deep things that God has revealed to us, 3:18; especially knowing the huge, and beautiful love of Christ, which actually surpasses knowledge 3:19. And this is what we have been doing in our verse to verse study of these precious truths. And so we recognize that this knowing the love of Christ is so that we may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Based upon all of these rich truths, we need to walk in a manner worthy of our Christianity. It is a manner worthy of our calling, 4:1. It is a walk of humbleness, gentleness, patience, and showing real tolerance for one another; but Paul clarifies. Paul presses the "L" word again. We are to walk in humbleness, gentleness, patience, and showing tolerance for one another in love. Love is the great "L" word. Love is the key. Love is the essence of your Christian walk, folks. It is the main course. It better be. It is supposed to be. And there is more. Because, in love, we are to be extra hard workers for preserving the unity of the Spirit in the bond of tranquil, peace, 4:2-4. Why?; because there is only one body, and only one Spirit, and only one God and Father of all, who is over all of us, and through all of us all, and in all of us all, 4:3-6. So, we absolutely must be recognizing how important our unity is--our oneness is in God's perspective. Remember, We are reviewing the great banquet table that Paul has already set for us, and so continuing our survey, we see that in God's great love, God has made sure that He has gifted us with men of God. He's gifted us with His word. He's gifted us with these things because He wants to make sure we accomplish this unity, 4:7-11. He has equipped us with these means, so that we would do work. It is not the equipment for being lazy. It is not a pillow, or a hammock. Our equipping is for work of service, where you and I, are in the construction business of building up each other to grow into the maturity of Christ as our blueprint, 4:12-13. We are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the Head of all of us who are His body, 4:14. In this way the body builds up itself, but it builds up itself in that amazingly beautiful word, once again. Remember it? It is love, 4:16. So, we are not to walk any longer as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 4:17. We did not learn Christ in the way that they walk, 4:20. We learned Christ differently. What we learn, is to throw off the old man in respect to sins. In the great manifestations of Christian love, we are not to lie to, or slander, each other. According to Christian love, we are not to steal, but, rather, work. In the legacy of true Christian love, we are not to let any unwholesome words come out of our mouths. In love, we are to only speak words that edify for the moment. Governed by love, we let anger, clamoring, and divisive talk, and malice toward each other, be put far, far, away from us. We are to be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven us in His great demonstration of His great love, 4:25-32. These things bring happiness to our Father, and they keep us from grieving the Holy Spirit. OK, I said all of that, because all of that brings us directly to our passage, where Paul continues to instruct us. Please read it with me now,
"Therefore be imitators of God, as dearly loved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." Ephesians 5:1
The theme of the sermon this morning is, the great question that each of us must answer biblically, and we must answer according to God's will,
"Is it My Ambition to Actually be an Imitator of God?" [prayer]
Whether people are in the body of Christ, as children of God, who have the mind of Christ, or whether they are lost in the world, and walking according to the futility of the Gentile mind, people will seek out and emulate other people as role models. There are various role models in the culture of the world. People naturally lean toward finding role models to be like, or to associate themselves with. Even rebels, who pridefully think they have no role models, emulate, and associate themselves, with, other rebels. Christians, who are wise, and who are seeking spiritual maturity, according to God's word, by not fellowshipping with evil people, or who are seeking not to walk according to the futility of the Gentile mind, are constantly in the process of emulating stable, and mature, Christians, as people who are achieving a high standard of spirituality. I am talking about wise Christians, who are abiding in wisdom. But, in saying that, the wiser Christian, who is seeking to achieve spiritual maturity according to God's word, is seeking to emulate godly men and women that God has recorded, or described for us, in the Bible for us to have as examples.
Someone shared with me the other day, an example of this wisdom in action. He explained how his wife, her sister, and their daughter, have been memorizing Proverbs 31. They have been doing this for the purpose of gaining wisdom from what God's revelation says about what a godly woman, looks, and acts like. Each night they have been going through Proverbs 31. When asked, about what kinds of things they thought about as they memorized Proverbs 31, his sister-in-law gave a wise and very pertinent answer that is so applicable to my point: She said, that one of the things that she thought about is that God gave her an example in Scripture to look up to. She said that through Proverbs 31, she now knows how a Godly woman is supposed to be. The daughter also said something that illustrates what I am trying to say. She said that she was thankful to God for giving her mom to her to look up to because her mom is like the woman described in Proverbs 31. The point is that it is God's will that we seek to emulate godly examples, and it is wise to do so.
Unfortunately, we find that more, and more, the church of culture, is getting away from this important doctrinal revelation from God, and replacing it with cultural trendiness as the qualifying standard. What I mean concerning cultural trendiness as the qualifying standard, is that contemporary Christians are oftentimes like groupies. They are like groupies when it comes to finding out whether some big named celebrity claims to be saved. The world star can be a sports figure, a movie actor, or a rock and roll icon. The cooler the better. Cultural trendiness thrives on cool. It likes fame. After all, people in the culture of cool have a kind of glory, and so, in giddy deception, Christians of culture think that the glory of the cool, and famous, is somehow going to glorify Christ more. Folks, this is unfortunate, because the true spiritual heroes of our day are not typically very culturally cool. They are typically unknown to the unsaved culture of cool. They don't typically have much in the manner of cultural glory. They don't want it. In fact, the very reasons that they are true spiritual heroes, are the reasons that they are rejected by society as too fanatic, too narrow minded, and too focused upon abiding in the intense white hotness of Christian culture. Intense Christian culture is the culture, where we are spoon fed, by our Father, what God thinks is His trend, which is His high standard of maturity that comes from God's word. So, if you want to be a wise Christian, then you will be seeking to look to the role models that are according to God's word. Unlike trendy icons of our futile culture, such humble, godly, spiritual people, are the true icons of faith. We find some of them listed in Hebrews 11. It is there that we find, what is sometimes called, "the great hall of faith." It is there that we read of such God-identified examples of faith as, Abel, Enoch Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets. They are part of God's revelation of who you, and I, are to emulate. They are our role models of faith.
God has given us other role models in His word. It is pure wisdom to look to the apostles of the New Testament, especially Paul himself, who says,
"Brothers, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us." Philippians 3:17
"9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." Philippians 4:9
"you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, ... but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example." 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9
"16 Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me." 1 Corinthians 4:16
We also find Paul making that grand clarifier,
"1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:1
Could it be any clearer that Paul the apostle is commanding us, by inspiration of God's Holy Spirit, to look to Him as a role model?--to emulate Him as a role model? Could it be any clearer for us to recognize that God is the One that wants this imitation for our spiritual growth? But, Paul, who has received deep insights from God, recognizes that we are all ministers for the body. He knows that one of our reasons for existence is to edify (to build up) the other members around us. So, in a special way, through God's revelation, Paul urged his son in the faith, Timothy, and his faithful friend, Titus, to be role models as mature Christians who are sound in the faith, as we read,
"Let no one look down on your youthfulness, [Paul is talking to Timothy] but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe" 1 Timothy 4:12
To Titus, Paul wrote,
"7 in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, 8 sound in speech which is beyond reproach," Titus 2:6-8
So, a wise Christian seeks to have role models that are spiritually mature, and an even wiser Christian seeks to have his or her role modeled through God's revelation of spiritual maturity in His word. In the passages that I just reviewed for role models, I want to direct us back to something that Paul says of himself. Do you remember where he said, be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ, in 1 Corinthians 11:1? Notice that Paul gives us a high standard, that when looked to, it will manifest the highest level of wisdom imaginable. In other words, Paul doesn't stop at Himself as the highest standard. Paul goes on to say, "just as I also am of Christ." Now we are getting to the height of wisdom that you and I need to attain. In fact, this is the essence of what Paul means in our Ephesians text under study this morning. Paul bypasses any earthly standard, and goes directly to the source. Look at Ephesians 5:1 now, and I want you to notice something. Notice that Paul says,
"Therefore be imitators of God, as dearly loved children;"
This is not only the high standard, but it is also the safety net for being sure that we are walking according to the Spirit in our thoughts and actions. It is a high standard, and we need to ask ourselves something very pertinent concerning it. Essentially what we need to ask is,
Would Paul tell us to be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, if we can not really do it?
Think about this for a moment. What we are talking about here is the mind boggling task of being imitators of the infinite Creator of the universe. I think it almost goes without saying, that God's shoes are very big shoes for anyone else to even attempt to think about walking in--much less to actually try to walk in. Nevertheless, the answer to the question is
No, God is not telling us to imitate Himself, if in fact, we are not really able to do it.
And the reason is, because God is talking about a specific area that we can imitate in imitating Him. In other words, there is something about this high standard that we are to seek to achieve that is attainable, and it is something that reveals even more specifically what Paul is talking about. What I mean is that Paul has a particular focus that he is concerned with in respect to us acting like our Father. It's something that he wants us to know, and comprehend, and then, put into practice. In other words, Paul is not saying we are to be creators of our own universe, or be omniscient, or something like that. Paul is telling us to do something that we can, and must do. The particular focus is in Paul's contextual flow of thought, where Paul says in the full statement,
"16 [Paul prays that God] would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell [in manifested living] in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. ... 24 ... put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. ... 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as dearly loved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you" Ephesians 3:18-19 4:24 and 32, and 5:1-2.
The focus that Paul has, is drenched with the glory of imitating God in the person of Christ. In other words, your new man has been created in the likeness of God, and so from that likeness, that you already are in salvation, where God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit is in all of us, we must be kind to one another, tenderhearted, and forgiving--all manifestations of the "L" word. In fact, in being created in the likeness of God, and in being imitators of God, we must forgive each other, just as God in Christ, Who is God, also has forgiven you. Yes, we really are the body of Christ on earth in a very important and real sense of what the metaphor describes. So, the big, big, clarifier for you and me, in which there is no clever way for our flesh to wriggle out of, is the simple phrase, "just as;"
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other,
[now here comes the clarifier]
just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as dearly loved children; 2 and walk in love,
[now here comes the clarifier again]
just as Christ also loved you" Ephesians 4:32, and 5:1-2.
God wants us to get this right, so looking at the first, "just as" where we are to be like God in Christ in forgiving one other, just as He has forgiven us, you and I are to be the forgivers on this earth, as the children of God, in the body, for the body, as the body, just as God, the big forgiver, has forgiven us, and saved us while we were dead and unable to ask for forgiveness;
"5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, [God] made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)," Ephesians 2:5
The principle we glean, is that we are to be the loving reconcilers, just as God reconciled us while we were despicable enemies who were at war with Him,
"6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ... For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Romans 5:10
This totally upside down way of thinking to the futile Gentile mind, is the right side up concerning what God expects of us in His intense culture of Christianity. Listen, You and I have been saved, while we were disgusting haters of God, and as such, we were saved by unmerited favor, in love. In like manner, we are to forgive one another in unmerited favor, in love. In other words, we don't play favorites, like the culture of cool plays favorites. Whereas, our Father, in love, forgives people who are dead in their transgressions, in love, we are to forgive our brothers and sisters in Christ who are alive spiritually according to that same grace, whenever they transgress against us. You and I must never forget that we have been reconciled in love, by God's unmerited favor, while we were enemies of God. So, in a similar way, as imitators of God, you and I are to put on the new man, created in Christ, and walk as Christ. As Christians, we love all other Christians as an attribute. God makes sure we love the body of Christ, but we do not always manifest that love perfectly all the time. Paul's phrase for manifesting it all the time is, walk in love. It takes humbleness to walk in love. But we need to do it. We need to reconcile with any Christian we perceive to be our enemy. Can you think of a Christian that you perceive to be your enemy? Is it your ambition to actually be an imitator of God? The fact of the matter is that there are no true enemies in the body of Christ. If anything, there are sinful immature Christians that need to repent of their lack of forgiveness of one another, in love. This is to be walking in it. This does not mean that we do not pursue the means of helping our brothers and sisters repent from their sins, but we are to confront sinful behavior in a manner of being kind to one another, and tenderhearted. Which, by the way, is where a lot of us drop the ball. In Psalm 103, God says He has pity on His children. God's love has pity on His children. Do you have pity?; or are you being petty? When you act in God's compassionate love-way then you are imitators of God, as dearly loved children.
OK, this leads us to consider our connection as dearly loved children. You and I were adopted in the Son, Ephesians 1:5. And in a few more verses, Paul says that we used to be children of darkness, but now we are children of light. So, the principle is that in much the same way that it is natural to be imitators of our earthly parents, we are to supernaturally imitate our heavenly Father. This leads us to consider the other "just as" phrase. We have already explored the phrase, where we are to
"32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." Ephesians 4:32
Now, we need to look at
"2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. Ephesians 5:1
OK, I think you need to know that I have been building this whole sermon up to this point right here. This is the place that I have been eagerly anticipating for us to arrive in our teaching. All the groundwork laid for staging our great urging as saved people to imitate our Father, finds its pinnacle right here. I'm talking about the walk.
In 2:2, you used to walk according to this sinful world. In 2:10,
God created you to walk in the good works He prepared for you beforehand.
In 4:1, you are implored to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.
In 4:17, you are to walk no longer just as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.
In 5:8 we are to walk as children of light.
In 5:15, we are walk like we are wise, and not a fools. And here, you are to walk in love just as Christ loved you.
These are our marching orders. Now, what we need to notice is that Paul says something that can easily be missed if we don't home in on it. Notice that Paul does not say that you are to walk in love, just as Christ loves you right now. He does not say, Walk in love, just as Christ will love you in the heavenlies for all eternity. Paul says emphatically that you and I are to love others the way Christ loved us in the past. This is where theory moves over to that stark area of practice, and God doesn't leave us slumbering on our pillows on our nice comfortable religious hammocks. This is the arena of real life Christianity folks; where the equipment makes sense. This is the arena of blood, sweat and tears. This is where you and I need to pause, and contemplate the high standard that God is giving us. What I mean is that God wants this from you, and me. If God wants this from us, then we need to recognize what God means. The standard that God has given us is the high standard of Christianity. It is the opposite of the low, fading standards of human love espoused by the culture of the futile Gentile mind. God says that you and I are to love one another in the same essential self humbling--others oriented--self denying--self sacrificing, forgiving way as Christ, who,
"gave Himself up for us, [wretched sinners who always fail Him] an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma."
What this means is that there is no good reason for you to despise another member of the body of Christ; so quit trying to come up with an excuse. There is no good reason for you to be jealous of another member of the body of Christ. There is no good reason for you to hold another member of the body of Christ in contempt. There is not one good reason that you can come up with to diminish another member of Christ by ignoring their importance, or ignoring their existence, or thinking that they do not matter. In fact, there is no good reason for you to harbor any offense at all. In Christ, you love that brother because God puts that love in you, but you need to walk in it. To come up with reasons for those actions, is to totally reject God's dictionary definition of how He wants you to walk in love, in forgiveness. You see, one reason why this verse is so beautiful is because it pierces our hearts--doesn't it? It exposes the hypocrites. It exposes our selfish sin, doesn't it? And last, but not least, it also exposes the fakes--the counterfeits. The way it exposes the hypocrites, is that whenever we try to look at ourselves and think that we are walking in the love of Christ by loving others, and we compare our attitude toward every single Christian we know, with the way that Christ loved us in self disposing forgiveness, then we are laid bare before God concerning whether we have contingencies for how we treat certain people. What I mean is that we are hypocrites if we are sitting around and waiting for people to come up to us and apologize to us for offending us before we are going to love them to the fullest extent of the walk in the way Christ loved us. Folks, they aren't going to do it, so the question is; what are you going to do? We are hypocrites, if we are waiting for Christians to act according to our own standard of what is lovable, before we will walk in love concerning them in comprehensive others-oriented forgiveness with our actions, and not just mere words. Are you a hypocrite? Ask yourself based upon our text this morning,
"Is it My Ambition to Actually be an Imitator of God?"
So, God's word, here, exposes hypocrisy. It urges repentance. It also exposes our selfishness. It exposes our selfishness, when we recognize that God has a high standard that he wants us to achieve, and we still find that we don't walk in the standard anyway, because we are offended by someone, or we are disgruntled with someone. This high standard makes us recognize our hypocrisy when we recognize that we have not been loving someone to the point that it means self disposal, self sacrifice, and self diminishment, even though we may loathe everything about that other person. Or, your feelings have been hurt, so you don't feel like loving like Christ loves; you know--according to the lame excuse--until I'm not hurting anymore. Aren't we pitiful when we decide we are going to start walking in love in its high standards when we aren't hurting anymore? Christ wasn't hanging on the cross with his back opened up in bloody humility as the God-man, dying for you, and your sinful disgusting self, and saying, Well, I'll start loving people after my feelings quit hurting. You know, we can get all pious, and we can think it is a great concept to imitate God, but something in us wants to say, "Yeah, but, not in this situation." You see folks, Christ's manifestation of love exposes our selfishness. The standard of the way we are to treat our brothers and sisters is one that often requires bumps, bruises, and black eyes to achieve. Listen, the person you are required to love to a high degree isn't getting hurt by your love, but your flesh is, and that is the point. The old man may not like it, but this is a beautiful exposure, because, then, by the Spirit, through God's word, we know that we must constantly be throwing off the old man, and we must constantly be putting on the new man in the love walk, which is the only man that is going to treat others the way God wants us to treat them. It is called repentance.
Finally, this commanded standard to walk in love, that is given to God's children in this verse, also exposes the fakes. What I mean is that if you are thinking about yourself, and you are analyzing yourself, and you are not loving other Christians, as a starting point, then you are not saved. Though we, who are truly saved, do not always manifest our innate love for other Christians perfectly all time, anyone who has no love for Christians is lost. I know that may sound like a drastic proposition in our modern day culture. I also know that the Scripture is clear,
"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved," Acts 16:31
After all, we are saved by grace, through faith, which is belief. We, who are saved, believe in Christ as our sacrificial atonement and propitiation on the cross for our sin. We, who are saved, believe He is raised up from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. We are not saved by our works. We are saved by God's work, and we believe in it as saved people. So, what am I talking about when I say that this beautiful verse that instructs us Christians to walk in love just as Christ loved you, may just be the verse that exposes you as a fake Christian? Listen to 1 John 3:3-6, on exactly what I am talking about,
"3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, 'I have come to know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides [remains, continues] in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked." 1 John 2:3-6
Immediately we see that John is giving us insights concerning knowing whether we have come to know Christ in salvation. This test is perfect. Anyone who is not saved, always fails the test--always. John goes on with the qualifier of how we know for sure. He says that it is made evident that we have truly come to know Christ, if we keep His commandments. John says that the love of God--which is the underlying theme of our subject this morning--the big L word--has truly been perfected in you, if you keep His word, which is His commandment. The point is that if we are not fake, and we say that we abide in Christ, then we ought to walk in the same manner as Christ walked. This is serious role model theology, folks, but there is more to this test that demonstrates our salvation to the world. As we read on, John gives us more revelation concerning what he is talking about. He gives it in the very next verse, where he says,
"Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard." 1 John 2:7
What is this commandment that John is talking about? We need to know what this commandment is, don't we? After all, if you are going around telling people that you have come to know Him, where you claim you believe in Him, but you are not keeping this commandment, then John says, you are a liar, and the truth is not in you. So, you and I best be figuring out what this commandment is. It was taught and heard from the beginning by the Christians of Asia to which John is writing. So, John goes on and explains more about this important commandment,
"8 On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. 9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now." 1 John 2:8-9
Did you notice the clarifier? It has to do with the commandment even though John hasn't quite quoted the whole commandment yet. Nevertheless, John states something that is vitally important about it. He states it in an abrupt way. He says,
"9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now." 1 John 2:9
Remember the deep thought of introspection that we must honestly analyze ourselves with. I know that I have been urging you to ask yourself whether it is your ambition to actually be imitating God, but I am talking about that last question. You know, a lot of people who are not saved will tell you it is their ambition to imitate God. Hindus will tell you that. Lost Jehovah Witnesses, and lost Mormons will tell you that. But, they are not even saved. The last question I want us to contemplate is whether or not you are really saved? So pay special attention as John goes on with his point,
"10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light [meaning he is a true Christian brother of another true brother in Christ. John goes on,] and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness [He is in the darkness because he is a fake brother, which is manifest in the fact that he hates him who would truly be his brother if in fact he was a true Christian, but he can not be a true Christian because he is in the darkness rather than in the light. Continuing,] and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." 1 John 2:10-11
The fake brother in Christ, in blind deception, hates the true brothers in Christ. Is this you? Do you hate anyone in the body of Christ? Do you hate a brother or sister in the Lord? I am not talking about being angry, or mad at them. I am not talking about hurting them with your words and attitude. I am talking about true hatred, where you wish that they were cursed to damnation. Now remember, John is making a reference to an important commandment God requires His children to keep. He calls it an old commandment that they heard from the beginning. What John is doing is referencing basic Christianity 101, of which he first wrote about in another book in the Bible--in the Gospel of John. Listen, John understands the belief connection to salvation. He is the one who quoted Jesus in John 3:16,
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that those believing would not perish but have everlasting life."
But John also understands the "L" word connection--which is the love connection. In John's gospel account of Christ's teachings, he goes on to record Jesus giving the New Commandment to His students
"34 A new commandment I give to you, that you [Do what?] love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this [He's talking about the new commandment] all men will know that you are My students, if you have love for one another." John 13:34-35
So, we see that Jesus taught that to love one another as He has loved us, is the evidence that goes beyond merely claiming that you believe in Jesus, but it demonstrates whether you keep this important command. This is what Jesus, and John, are saying is the way anyone will know, including yourself, whether you are truly a student of Christ. OK. now we know what John is talking about in 1 John 2:3-6, don't we? This new commandment of Christ, is the Old commandment that John is talking about in 1 John 2:3-6; if we keep His commandments, we know that we have come to know Him. So, let's get it all straight. What we find is that John proclaims both the necessity of belief, and the necessity of the great "L" word, in one commandment in 1 John 3:23,
"This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us." 1 John 3:23
Amazing passage isn't it! Notice the comprehensiveness of the commandment.
1) is that you believe in the name of God's Son.
2) is that you love one another, just exactly in the same way that Jesus commanded in His New commandment.
This, folks, is what it means to examine yourself to find out if you are really saved, or not, in respect to our Ephesians passage, where we are commanded to, walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us.
If you do not love those who are saved, as Christ loved those whom He saves, then you are not saved. If you are someone who has been raised in the church, but you don't love the body of Christ; you could care less about Christians and their beliefs; you think that there are many paths to god, and that god takes on the shapes of all the various religions out there, and Jesus is just one of many, then according to God's word, you are a liar and the truth is not in you. You are manifesting that you do not love the One true God, and His only true people who claim exclusive salvation among the darkness. On the other hand, God convicts His true children by His Spirit, through His word. He has given us the great law of love in our hearts where we are supernatural lovers of God and His children. Now it is our Christian duty to walk in it according to God's standard. The standard is Himself. And so I urge you to be a fragrant aroma to God. Make it your ambition to be like Christ was a fragrant aroma in His self sacrificing love for you. Make it your ambition to actually be an imitator of the greatest being that is--God your Creator. Be trying to imitate those whom God has given as examples of spiritually mature people in His word. Turn your back on the church of culture, and seek to be the church of Christ in all of its glory, as that which glorifies Christ. To do so, is to make imitating Christ your highest priority. Walk in love. Love like Christ. In this way, you will be a fragrant aroma to God, just like Christ was a fragrant aroma in His ultimate act of love that He had for you.
