The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ephesians 5:1-2,
"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
As Paul asks his readers to be imitators of God, what follows, as he illuminates what that looks like, is going to be a reflection on what Paul knows about God. Since I love to find out what my God is like, to discover him as he is revealed - to know him the best I can, this passage grips my heart.
The first thing that strikes me is that God must be one who loves greatly. The very first thing in Paul's thoughts of living a life that imitates God is to "live a life of love". He provides an example of this in the love Jesus Christ manifested to the world when he gave himself up for all of us as a sacrifice to appease his Father's justice for the sins we have committed. John speaks to this in 1 John 4:9-10, "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." Paul tells us, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8.
Jesus said of himself to Nicodemus, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." John 3:16-18.
When Moses met God on Mt. Sinai, as God revealed himself to Moses he said, "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin." Exodus 34:6-7.
Surely God loves greatly from his own god-sized heart! From time to time I think of what life might be like were we to discover that God was not loving. I shudder the thought! How thankful I am he is just the way he reveals himself to be... and that he does love greatly!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment