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WALK IN LOVE

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“And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” (Ephesians 5:2 NKJV)

 

Christianity is essentially a call to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. It is contradictory to claim to believe in Jesus Christ and not follow His examples.

The believers are called to be followers of Jesus Christ. The believer’s goal must be to walk just as Jesus had walked.

The Scripture states, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” (1 John 2:6 NKJV). 

How did Jesus walk while in the world?

Simply put, Jesus walked in love!

All the Lord Jesus said and did while He was in the world was a clear revelation, expression, and demonstration of God’s love towards all men.

Contrary to the self-righteous religious leaders’ style, mindset, and expectations of His days, the Lord Jesus sat and ate with sinners. While in the world, the Lord Jesus was rightly referred to as “a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” (Luke 7:34 NKJV).

The Pharisees were perplexed to see Jesus sitting and eating with sinners because they did not understand why Jesus, who said He was the Messiah (the Son of the Most Holy God), would be a friend of sinners (Matt. 9:10-11).

When the Lord Jesus went to dine with Zacchaeus, the self-righteous religious leaders complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.” (Luke 19:7 NKJV).

Not only did the Lord Jesus sit and eat with sinners, but He also allowed sinners to touch Him and did not condemn sinners when they came to Him. He even rescued a woman caught in the very act of adultery (John 8:1-11). 

Jesus demonstrated God’s unconditional and unfailing love towards the undeserving people through His life and ultimately revealed God’s love towards all men by His suffering and death on the cross as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2, 1 John 3:16, 1 John 4:9-10).

The Lord Jesus Christ is undoubtedly the Perfect Model and Example of love for the believers (John 13:13-15, 1 Pet. 2:21). A call to follow Jesus is simply a call to walk in love as Jesus did. It is a call to love others as Jesus has loved you.

Ephesians 5:1-2 – NKJV

1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.

2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

John 13:34-35 – NKJV

 34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

 35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

How can you walk in love just as Jesus did while in the world?

First, you cannot walk in God’s kind of love (agape) without having God’s kind of Life and Nature.

God’s pure, sacrificial, selfless, unconditional, unfailing, and eternal love is strange to our human, fallen, and depraved nature.

Every one of us was born with a sinful and selfish nature. Therefore, until you become a partaker of God’s holy and loving nature through spiritual birth or regeneration, you cannot walk in love as Jesus did (John 3:6, 2 Cor. 5:17).

Second, you cannot walk in God’s love without firmly believing in God’s love for you and receiving an outpouring of God’s love in your heart.

You cannot give or share what you don’t have. It takes you knowing, receiving, and experiencing God’s love to walk in love as Jesus did.

You cannot begin to walk in God’s love until you are first rooted, grounded, or established in God’s love for you.

The Lord Jesus was undoubtedly rooted, grounded, and established in His Father’s love for Him. He confidently and publicly declared to the Jewish leaders who hated him often that His Father loved Him deeply and completely.

John 3:35 – NKJV

35 The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.

John 5:20 – NKJV

20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.

John 15:9 – NKJV

9 As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.

You must also be confident in God’s unfailing and everlasting love for you (Jer. 31:3). You must believe that God loves you deeply and completely, even as He loves Jesus (John 17:23).

Today, some believers are not walking in love simply because they are not rooted, grounded, or established in God’s love for them.

Without having a personal revelation or practical experience of God’s love, you can’t walk in love as Jesus did. It takes you experiencing God’s love to express it to others. It takes you knowing God’s love to make it known to others. It takes you receiving God’s love to share it with others.

God’s love is infinite and inexhaustible; the more supply you receive, the more it will flow in and through your life. You cannot walk in love beyond the depth of your revelation and experience of God’s love.

The deeper you know, receive, and experience God’s love, the better you will manifest God’s love effortlessly. The more you focus and meditate on God’s love for you, the more God’s love will flow naturally through you.

Lastly, you cannot walk in love just as Jesus did without renewing or resetting your mind.

You were born with a carnal mindset on pleasing yourself above anyone else (Rom. 8:5). Therefore, unless you consciously and consistently seek to renew, sanctify, or reset this mind, it will hinder the outflow of God’s love which the Holy Spirit has poured out in your heart at the new birth.

When you begin to renew your mind according to the teaching of Christ, your mindset will be progressively changed from self to Christ, and you will start to place others ahead of you in all things, just as Jesus did (1 Cor. 10:24, Philip. 2:4-5).

Beloved, when you begin to focus and meditate more on the words or teachings of Christ and let His words, thoughts, values, principles, and teachings saturate, dominate, and preoccupy your mind, you will begin to walk in God’s love just as Christ did.

The more you spend quality time with Christ daily, reading, studying, imbibing, and meditating in His Word, the more your mind will be renewed, and God’s love will flow through you to others.


Prayer:

My Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for loving me deeply, completely, infinitely, and unconditionally. Dear Holy Spirit, help me increase the revelation knowledge of God’s love for me in Christ, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Our mandate is to preserve the faith of the Apostolic Generation 

Eniyekpemi Fidelis Oyinpreyebi.

AWH, Blogs.

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