Ephesians 5
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A Walk Of Love For Christians
Walk in Love
5 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.
3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them.
Walking with the Lord means walking WITH HIM as He would want us to, obeying and following His life.
Do not walk and be like those who are evil and of this world. Don’t follow such people. Walk following what is pure and loving. No evil should be named among believers and followers of Christ. Be careful of your speech, and do not partake with those who live and speak as the world.
Walk in Light
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 14 Therefore He says:
“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.”
We are no longer walking in the darkness of sin, but in the light of the Lord.
As temples of the Holy Spirit, we should be following all that is good and righteous and true. Think of it, we HOUSE the Holy Spirit within our own hearts. There is nothing evil that belongs within our hearts. Embrace and keep only that which is of the Lord.
Christ gives us His Light, and infills us with the Holy Spirit.
May we ever embrace His Light and always house the Holy Spirit within our hearts. Cling to that which is pure and pleasing to God. Live your life in ways that edify others and reflect God.
Walk in Wisdom
15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.
This world is evil. We should be wise.
You know what God wants. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Sing and praise God, thanking Him in all things. Thank Him for Jesus.
Marriage—Christ and the Church
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Just as the church is to obey Christ, wives are to obey their husbands.
Christ leads the church. The husband is to be the head of the home.
We women are to be courted by and marry godly men only. Such a man will be the head of the spiritual home. A godly man is the number one thing that we women are to look for in a husband. It is the only thing that matters. What happens when a man is not obeying and following God? You do not consider him as a husband. That means do not date him, nor spend time with him.
He is not for you.
Let us assume that you married a man that you believed was a godly man, who then backslid and no longer lives and follows God.
You both need to pray together, seek God and forgiveness, and go for counselling with your pastor. If your husband is telling you to obey him and sin, you must follow God instead of your husband. Make your pastor aware of this and PRAY.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Husbands are to love their wives, as Christ loved the church.
Christ loved us so MUCH that HE DIED for our sins. Think of that degree of LOVE.
He took all the pain and humiliation of the cross upon Himself for us. His concern was that we be saved. He was willing to die, and did for us. There is no other love greater than the love of Christ for us.
Men, that is the example you have to follow.
You are to put your wives ahead of your own well-being.
This goes against the inborn protection mechanisms that bear us along day by day.
We feed and cloth ourselves. We patch ourselves up when we are cut and bleeding.
As you care for your body, you now should care also for the body and well-being of your wife. In fact, you are to put her first, just as Christ put us first.
A man leaves his parents to become one flesh with his wife.
Christ and the church are united beautifully as well.
The husband loves his wife, and she in turn, respects her husband.
If he is loving her as he should, how could she possibly NOT respect him.
She will be so blessed by his love, she will only have love for him. To love anyone else in His place is unthinkable.
How could you NOT love Christ with all of your heart, when you truly realize all that Christ has done for you and the vastness of His Love for you, His Church.
Thank you, Jesus, for being our example of perfect love, our Husband to the Church.