Lesson 22 - Walking In Love
Read Ephesians 5:1-33 - https://www.bible.com/bible/59/eph.5.esv

Our next way of walking is to walk in love. Verse 1 says we are to imitate God in this. Have you noticed how children imitate their parents in so many ways? They do it because they want to be like their mother or father. God wants us to be like that – like “beloved children” who imitate Him. Children don’t always understand why Mom or Dad does something a certain way – they just watch, and then imitate it. We may not always understand why God does something a certain way, but imitating Him will never be a bad thing to do.

The second thing we need to know about “walking in love” is how much we are to love – the same way Christ loves us. How much does Christ love us? Enough to give His life for us so we can come to Him. Are we really willing to love another person this much? We might say “yes” for our families, but what about someone who is our enemy? “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” (Romans 5:8)

Then God reminds us not to misunderstand what true love is. We use the word “love” for many things, and what we mean by that love is usually not what God designed.

One very corrupted idea of love is how many people view sex. God created us to love intimacy, but He intended it to be a wonderful gift between a husband and wife alone. Some people think they can have sex with anyone they want, and much of our music culture glorifies the wrong understanding of physical love, which bears no resemblance to how God created us to enjoy it.

Another incorrect view of love is the feeling we attach to things we want. God calls this covetousness – wanting things that may not be good for us. He reminds us in Matthew 6:33 that we are to seek His kingdom and righteousness first, then all we need will be given to us by God.

The final wrong idea of love is when we hurt a friend and call it having fun, saying it was just a joke – but God calls it filthiness because we’re being insensitive. God warns us about “just joking” in Proverbs 26:18-19 and says it’s nothing but playing with fire and death.

Verse 5 is a sobering verse to remember – the person who considers sexual immorality or covetousness more important than God is probably not a child of God’s. If we find these things in our lives, we must repent immediately – that means forsaking what we have been and return to Him. Verse 6 should be our warning bell – if someone tells us things like, “God will forgive you, you can do whatever you please,” those are presumptuous and empty words. They bring God’s judgment as surely as He lives!

A reminder again – we can do all these things, but if we’re doing them without trusting in God to help us make this a part of who we are from the inside out, the Bible says we’re just a clanging cymbal – see 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. Only God can make walking in true love – Himself – a real and permanent part of who we are, and only when we willingly agree to let Him make those changes in us.
*How much are we to love?
*What does it mean to covet?
*What does it mean to repent?