LESSON 6
Ephesians 5
Walking in Love, Light, Wisdom, and Worship
Ephesians Chapter 5:1-20
Paul’s style in many of his letters was to begin by climbing the heights of theology, then descending to level of everyday life/application. Nowhere do we see that more eloquently portrayed than in Ephesians:
a. He has taken us to be seated in heavenly places in Christ in chapters 1-3
b. And now in chapters 4-6 He is going take us into the street, the job, and the home.
Ephesians 5:1 – Therefore (used 15 times in Ephesians, 141 times in Paul’s writings) be imitators (a mimic) of God as dear (beloved) children.
5:1 Mimic God; you are His offspring. Mirror Translation
Eph. 5:2a – And walk in love,
5:2 This is how, let love be your life; equal to the love of Christ in the way He abandoned Himself to us. His love is contagious, not reluctant but extravagant. Sacrificial love pleases God like the sweet aroma of worship. (Resembling the holy anointing oil and the pure fragrant incense of spices, the work of a perfumer, to be burnt on the golden altar of incense in the inner court of the tent of meeting. Ex.37:25-29.) Mirror Translation
NIV – LIVE A LIFE OF LOVE, literally means to receive the benefits of God’s love, bask in its blessings, and then to express the same kind of love ourselves to others.
Now he says, “Walk in love.”
a. The worthy walk is a walk of love
b. Love is the fulfillment of the law
c. Love is the fruit of the Spirit
d. If we are walking in the Spirit, we are walking in love, &
e. If we are walking in love, we are walking in the Spirit.
Galatians 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
3 kinds of love: (Gk)
• Eros- erotic, romantic love
• Phileo-brotherly love
• Agape’- unconditional, God’s kind of love
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.8 Love never fails.
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
LOVE OF – Love of Christ for men- attributes
Unchangeable
John 13:1 Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. Divine John 15:9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. Self-sacrificing John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Inseparable Rom. 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Constraining
2 Cor. 5:14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;
Sacrificial
Gal. 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Manifested by His Death 1Jo 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Eph. 5:2 b & c as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
5:2 b-c Sacrificial love pleases God like the sweet aroma of worship. (Resembling the holy anointing oil and the pure fragrant incense of spices, the work of a perfumer, to be burnt on the golden altar of incense in the inner court of the tent of meeting. Ex.37:25-29.) Mirror Translation
Related Scriptures:
Leviticus 2:9 ‘Then the priest shall take from the grain offering a memorial portion and burn it on the altar. It is an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.
Exodus 29:18 “And you shall burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord; it is a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord.
2 Corinthians 2:15-16 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?
Hebrews 13:15-16 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Since we are made in the image and likeness of God, I am Love, you are Love! WHAT???”
1 John 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
One thing that really helped me realize the truth of who I am was by comparing and contrasting what I understood about the concept I was taught of a God and what I knew and had experienced about Love. From the perspective of a human being God is always something outside, separate, and above you. This God is always connected with judgment and causes the one who believes in him to tremble in fear. Love on the other hand, which can be compared to the Father’s love, is completely different. This Love is a life-giving Spirit. It is the very life within you.
This Love understands it brought you into being by giving you its very life within. Love knows you as itself. He is in you. He is Love and you are Love.
And to answer, “how are we love”? We are love by knowing who God is and who I am. He is Love; that is all and all. We are ALREADY enough. We know as we are known and the more you get to know someone by the Spirit of Love, the more you bear witness to the truth.
Since we have the love of God inside and are love, act accordingly.
We will continue with Lesson 6 next week.
The blessings of the Lord are upon you whether by blood, adoption/sonship or assignment. The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. Prov. 10:22