Ephesians 5:1-6 — Walk in Love

Ephesians 5:1-6 — Walk in Love

In Ephesians 5:1, Paul uses the word “walk” for the third time in this letter admonishing the Ephesians on how to conduct themselves.  As children of God, they are to walk (live) in unity (4:1-16), in holiness (4:17-32), and in love (5:1-6).

Our culture is obsessed with the idea of love. We see this word being used everywhere. It is used in secular entertainment and sacred literature; in church and the nightclub; in our private conversations and public discourse; and in our artistic expressions and scholarly pursuits. The use of the word "love" is ubiquitous and pervasive. Yet, it is clear that people mean different things by that simple word. So perhaps, it is not simple. So what is love then?
 
According to the Beatles in the 1960s: "All you need is love."
According to Marvin Gaye in the 1970s: It is to get it on.
 According to Tina Turner in the 1980s: "What's love but a second-hand emotion?"
 It did not get any better in the 1990s. In the lyrics to his 1993 hit song with the title "What is love?", the vocalist, musician, and apparently philosopher and theologian Nestor Alexander Haddaway asks that question in, what seems, a rhetorical sense. His song goes like this:In 2015, Mr. Haddaway said to Flavorwire magazine:Excuse me! WHAT? While Mr. Haddaway ought to be commended for recognizing the virtue of trust, honesty, and dedication in a loving relationship, the lyrics to his song betray that notion. His definition of love is strongly linked to sensual desires. I must also mention that if everyone defined words "by his own definition", language will cease to facilitate communication, as it has become apparent in Western culture in recent years. In our relativistic culture, the typical portrayal and expression of love, as in this popular song, ranges from the trivial, banal, tasteless, and superficial to the bizarre, crude, demeaning, and debased.

Here are some more definitions of love from our culture:

• Love is in the wind.
• Love isn't something you find. Love is something that finds you.
• Love is like fireworks when you kiss.
• Love is when she still pulls the strings.
• Love is having you all to myself.
• Love is when I see you everywhere I look.
• Love is a memory that burns forever.
• Love is sometimes having to forget and move on.
• Love is never having to say I am sorry.
• Love is blind.

This is not love. This is self-gratification. What's common to all those statements? They are all statements made by someone who is self-absorbed. This is the kind of love that takes but never gives. Or gives in order to get. It is a love that is consumed with self. A love that may even hurt the object of its desire to fulfill its passion and lust.

But that's not what the Bible refers to when it uses the word "love". The Bible says love is the highest virtue. Our love is supposed to reflect the character of God who demonstrated His love "in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
 
So then. . . if you are in Christ; if you have been regenerated; if you are born again and you have experienced the love of God, then that love, according to 2 Corinthians 5:14, compels you. It urges you. It controls you. It constrains you. It rules in your heart. It compels you to love as Christ loved us. How did Jesus love us?  He loved us sacrificially. So, this is a sacrificial love.

So what about you?
Do you have your own definition of love?
More importantly, how are you loving God and your neighbor?
Do you love your spouse, your family, your church family, your neighbors like Christ loved us?
Could you say that your life is being offered as a sacrifice with a sweet-smelling aroma to God?
Or are you walking in covetousness? In foolish talk? In fornication?
 
You can only answer these questions biblically when you are willing to walk in love as Christ has loved us.