when’s the last time you had one of those “DUUUUUUUDE!!!!” moments while reading the Bible? I totally had one of those moments this week as I read Ephesians 5…and couldn’t get past the first 2 verses. :)
oh my goodness I get so excited when God’s Word comes alive in fresh ways!!! watch out, world!
ok dude – totally grab your Bible right now. I’ll wait. or go to www.biblegateway.com. it’ll be fun, I promise.
if you continued reading and you never grabbed your Bible or went to the website, I have 1 word for you: Revelation 21:8 (yes, that’s 1 word…1 word, 3 numbers, and a punctuation mark…or something).
I just had coffee. and I’m stoked on Jesus. the combination creates quite the energetic, rabbit-on-steroids effect.
ok, ok, I’ll make it easy on you – here’s what Ephesians 5:1-2 (NLT) says:
“1 Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are His dear children. 2 Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.”
isn’t that mind-blowing?!?!
no – ok – I mean yes, it is. but let me explain what I’m finding in these 2 verses.
first off, did anyone notice it calls us to be imitators of God?? what?? and it says to imitate God in everything we do. hokey pete. and why? because we are His dear children. I like how the NIV puts it: it says we are His “dearly loved” children. ok so you’ve got all the who, what, why, where, when’s all answered right in this verse. who? us. what? be imitators of God. why? because we are His dearly loved children. where? well, I guess everywhere, because it says in everything we do. when? …all the time, because, again, it says in everything we do… BAM!
class dismissed.
no I’m kidding, don’t leave yet. there’s more.
so we’ve got all that going on in verse 1. then in verse 2, it says live a life filled with love. the Greek word for “love” in this verse is “agape”. the definition for “agape”, according to my Strong’s concordance, is:
“…usually the action love of God for His Son and His people, the action love His people are to have for God, each other, even enemies…”
the action love! I don’t know if I’ve ever heard “agape” explained as the “action” love. so verse 2 says, “Live a life filled with love [in action], following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered Himself as a sacrifice for us…”
right there it tells us what living a live filled with agape, action-love looks like: it looks like following the example of Jesus, who loved us so much with agape love, that He offered Himself as a sacrifice for us. so what does agape love look like? serving. forgiving. praying. sacrificing my own selfish desires/wants for the good of others – for the glory of Jesus.
living a life FILLED with agape love looks like living out the “one another”’s in the Bible. wash one another’s feet. love one another deeply. forgive one another. pray for one another. everyone who’s up for doing a “one another” study of all the “one another”’s in the Bible, raise your hand!
(my hand’s raised. you can’t see it. but it really is.)
living a life FILLED with agape love looks like following the example of Jesus in everything that we do. in EVERYTHING that we do. and by doing this, we will be imitators of God. dearly loved children imitating their perfect Father.
#bassdrop
did anyone else have a “DUUUUUUUDE!!!” moment??
may our lives be filled with agape, action-love. for Jesus. and for others. even our enemies.
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