The Beloved Who Love

Consider these expressions from God’s book:

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” (I Peter 4:8).
 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1).

We are told to love one another earnestly because that is what it looks like to imitate our Father who is loving us earnestly.

We can only imitate God if we know what he is doing towards us to give us something to imitate.

First, we are “beloved children,” meaning that we are beloved by God, earnestly loved by him. Then we live as “imitators of God”, doing for each other what God is constantly doing for us.

To make sure we do not miss this cause-and-effect relationship with God, his Book clarifies, “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). Why do we “walk in love”? Because Christ has already “loved us and gave himself up for us”.

Or, as another part of God’s Book clarifies, “We love because he first loved us” (I John 4:19).

If any of us are struggling with the, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly” part of God’s will, the problem is in the area of our love-relationship with God. We must know what it feels like to be loved by God, to be his beloved children, in order to know how to imitate him in earnestly loving one another.

Since it is Sunday, pray through these verses from God’s Book and ask God to make both sides of the love-relationship as real in your life as is possible this side of heaven, and then join with a God-honoring, Bible-believing, Jesus-following, gospel-exalting congregation of believers where you can continue receiving the Father’s love, and seek ways to share that same love with others.

© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)