Ephesians 5:2
2 And [kai] walk [peripateo] in [en] love, [agape] as [kathos] Christ [Christos] also [kai] hath loved [agapao] us, [hemas] and [kai] hath given [paradidomi]
himself [heautou] for [huper] us [hemon] an offering [prosphora] and [kai] a sacrifice [thusia] to God [theos] for [eis] a sweetsmelling [euodia]
savour. [osme] KJV-Interlinear
2 and
walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an
offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. NASB
And so the word ‘love’
comes along and unfortunately most people have no clue as to what the bible is
talking about.
Most match this term to
emotion, to feeling good about life and things, to treating others with a
turning of the cheek, to cowering down in the face of bullying, to being
sincere, to doing good works, to having good intentions.
And then these feelings
turn to social justice by mans definition, justifying the taking of one persons
possessions and giving them or redistributing them to others, of negotiating
with children rather than training them, of lowering the social standards so as
to please or at the very least to not offend others.
And, they are all wrong,
and miss the point of the spiritual life entirely.
That is why most
believers fail, and why society fails miserably, and wonders why.
We are to love as Christ
loved. This does not say to love as Christ loved and give of ones self as
Christ gave of Himself.
This verse says, as far
as you are concerned, to love as Christ loved.
It goes further and
states that Christ loved and gave of Himself in the context of that love, which
means that you too, must form your life around love. But then most folks get the definition of
love all mixed up with their emotions and moral values as defined by society, as
stated above.
So, love here is ‘agape.’
This is the love of
principle, not of emotion, not of intimacy, not of friendship. Those last three use different words to
describe them.
But the love of principle
means the content of the scriptures, or Bible doctrine.
God made a promise and He
kept that promise. God is righteousness
and that is perfection, not compromise, not looking the other way at
times. God is justice, which demands the
cleansing away of the filth of crime, of sin, of human good.
Concepts of principle
mandate that you be honest, truthful, honorable, have integrity, be fair and
not show favoritism or take short cuts at the expense of others, to not take
advantage. Concepts of principle demand
that you live your life in truth, and not in fiction. That means you must be saved through faith,
you must grow up in doctrine in the spiritual life, the life of discernment, not
in the carnal life, the life of blindness and disorientation.
God deals with humanity
through a policy of grace and grace is the sum total of righteousness plus
justice which equals holiness, and then adding love or doctrine, which makes
grace which is the policy of God.
Christ lived in accordance
with this, and so too, you are to live your life in the same fashion. But you cannot do that if you do not learn
doctrine, which by the way, means that you must study daily in order to learn
and receive your daily diet of spiritual food.
No one can live from day
to day without eating food, and no one can grow up or live the spiritual life
without their spiritual diet. And, God
defines the diet, not you.
All self-defined diets
fail and that is true in the spiritual life. Only Gods defined plan and procedure for spiritual
growth, will work.
And that is the sweet
smelling savor which God accepts.
Christ went to the Cross
in accordance with Gods plan. Christ
lived His life in doctrine in accordance with Gods will. Only that which God approves, will produce an
acceptable aroma to His liking and acceptance.
All that man can do on
his own, will produce only the stench aroma of decay and rot, and that will
never be accepted by God.
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