Walk In Love

“Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” (Eph. 5:25)

*I went to my first ever hockey match in Columbus last week. It was to celebrate my son Eli’s thirteenth birthday –a minor league contest between the Cottonmouths and the Fayetteville Fireants. It was great – the Cottonmouths won, at least five fights broke out, the boys went nuts, and one man in particular with the last name “George” kept getting in the penalty box for fighting and other infractions. I am not even sure what most of the rules he broke were, but he was on the home team, and every time he was released from the penalty box the home crowd would anticipate more action from their star. We sat down near the penalty box, which is basically like a “time out” from the action for a certain amount of time – and I noticed that as soon as a player is released from his time in the penalty box he gets right into the action – he doesn’t go to the showers, he doesn’t go home, he doesn’t go to the stands with the fans or even to the bench with his teammates. He is right back on the ice into the battle – he shoots out of the penalty box, onto the ice, and starts playing (or fighting!) with reckless abandon again. When it came time to leave, we had two “George” souvenir hockey pucks in our pockets. He really stood out from the rest of the crowd . . . . This week’s message is about “Walking in Love”. Now that we have been released from the penalty of sin, forgiven by what Christ has done for us (as we learned last week in Gethsemane the depth of His love for us) . . we now move to the effect that His redeeming love has had upon us. We are much more than just forgiven - we now are empowered and transformed to live the live of love to God and others which we were intended to live. In other words, we are set free from the penalty of sin to be set free and saved also from the power of sin (world, self, flesh, devil) so that we may love as He has loved us. We don’t get in the stands to enjoy the game; we don’t go to the showers or the sidelines, and He doesn’t immediately send us home – we get right into the heat of the battle between two kingdoms and two loves . . . After describing in the first three chapter of Ephesians God’s gift of salvation and His creation of the new community called the body of Christ, we have these instructions: “Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children; 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.” (Eph. 5:1-2) We are called to imitate His love in the following ways: 1. By living a life of holiness, worship and submission in the body of Christ (5:1-21). 2. By displaying the love of Christ in our home (marriage in 5:22-33; parenting in 6:1-2) and 3. The workplace (6:6-9). This week’s message will highlight especially the opportunity to display God’s love in the home through marriage. The wife is to submit to her husband out of devotion to Christ, and the husband must love His wife as Christ loved the church. Enjoy discovering more of the mystery of Christ’s love for the church.

“A Christian marriage is a total commitment of two people to the person of Jesus Christ and to one another . . . it is similar to a solvent, freeing up of the man and woman to be themselves and become all that God intends for them to become. Marriage is the refining process that God will use to have us develop into the man or woman He wants us to become.” (Norman Wright)

*Charles Spurgeon offers the following thoughts on Christ’s love for the church as described in Ephesians 5:25:

1. Special Love: “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world. (John 17:9) It is a peculiar affection. Set upon the church in a way it is not upon the world.
2. Constant Love: He does not vary in His affection. The display may vary, but not the affection.
3. Enduring Love: “Nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ.” Rom. 8
4. Hearty Love: It is fervent, intense. Not lip service, going through the motions.
5. Delighted Love: He prizes her affection and delights in her with sweet satisfaction.

“Believer, you wonder at Jesus’ love; you admire it – are you imitating it? In your domestic relationships, is the rule and measure of your love ‘even as Christ loved the church’?

*John Stott of the meaning of headship in the home: “Certainly ‘headship’ implies a degree of leadership and initiative, as when Christ came to woo and win His bride. But more specifically it implies sacrifice, self-giving for the sake of the beloved, as when Christ gave himself for his bride. If ‘headship’ means power in any sense, then it is power to care not to crush, power to serve not to dominate, power to facilitate self-fulfillment, not to frustrate or destroy it. And in all this the standard of the husband’s love is to be the cross of Christ, on which he surrendered himself even to death in his selfless love for his bride.”

Ephesians 5:1-2; 21-33 Walk in Love

*The effect of His love is to empower us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength . . . and my neighbor as myself. To transform us/ sanctify us to become what God intended us to become. So we may now be in a condition to glorify Him with our lives.

1. Walk in love out of reverence for Christ. (v.21)
a. v.21: Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. (to the church)
b. Phil. 2:3: consider others as better than yourself
c. Take the position of servant of all . . .
2. Walk in love in the arenas of life. (All these are His, a theatre of His glory)
a. Holiness and worship in the church (through v. 21)
b. In home, marriage (v.22-33)
i. Wives, submit to your husbands
ii. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church.
iii. The mystery is of His love for the church!
c. In home, parenting (6:1-4)d. In the workplace (6:5-9) servants

“It is God’s will in every marriage that the couple love each other with an absorbing spiritual, emotional, and physical attraction that continues to grow throughout their lifetime together. It is possible for any Christian couple to develop this love relationship in their marriage because it is in harmony with God’s expressed will.” (Ed Wheat)