Walk in Love

Be imitators of God. Walk in love as he loves. But notice that we are not called to love simply because we see the love of God as admirable, but because we experience his love as children. 

The “therefore” takes us back to 4:32, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” That is already an invitation to imitate God’s forgiveness—forgive, as God in Christ forgave you. Then that is generalised to, “Be imitators of God” in other ways too. We imitate “as beloved children,” and being children flows from being forgiven. Our “adoption” as children is “through Jesus Christ… in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins” (1:5, 7). We were dead in our sins, but God made us alive. He acts because of love, “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ,” (2:4-5). So, we imitate him because we are loved, not to earn his love. We walk as he does because we have become like him, not to try to become like him. He has acted to fundamentally change us.

When we were dead in our sins, our thinking was “futile” and our understanding “darkened.” We were ignorant and hard-hearted. Our actions were driven by sinful cravings—distorted desires informed by lies (4:17-19, 22). But when we encountered the truth of the gospel in Jesus, God changed us. He was at work bringing new life by his power. His truth continues to renew our minds and give us new desires producing lives that are righteous and holy. We are actually enabled to “put off” the old way of living and “put on” the new (4:20-24).

So, “walk in love.” Walk implies a life, a whole life lived in love, all our footsteps, all our thinking, all our willing, all our feeling, all our acting—let it be done in love. 

That love is defined by “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” His love is the model for the love we are to walk in. How did Christ love us? He gave himself up for us, willingly, despite the great cost. He suffered; he knew grief; he died. But he stepped towards it with joy, for our redemption. So, walk in such love—don’t always seek safety and comfort; step towards risk, loss and danger. Give yourself for others. The greatest love is to take others to Christ, in whom there is redemption. Do it because you are confident you are a loved child.

This is worship that is pleasing to God, “a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Jesus obediently laid down his life (Jn. 10:17)—the fragrance of the offering shows us God’s pleasure (Phil. 4:18). In the moment of his greatest suffering, God looks upon him as a Son that is perfectly obedient, and that is infinitely beautiful and pleasing. Similarly, God is pleased when we obediently walk in love, relying on his grace to empower us. 

Madhush.