Imitators of Love
Scripture: Matthew 24:10-12; Ephesians 4:31-5:2; First John 4:1-6
The title of my message this morning is “Imitators of Love” and the idea for this message came to me from a message my brother Barry delivered a couple of weeks ago at his Church. Barry’s message, titled “As He Is”, talked about how we should be like Christ. In that message he made a statement that struck me and got me to thinking. He said that since God is love if we changed the word “God” to “Love” in some verses in the Bible then it would really clarify what the verse is saying. As I continued reflecting on what he said, this message began developing in my spirit.
If you are not aware of it, based on what you are constantly seeing in the news or on your social media feeds, the Church today has an identity problem. Our identity problem started when we stopped imitating love as was foretold by Jesus in Matthew 24:12. In this verse Jesus told His disciples “And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold.” (Matthew 24:12) When you read the verses preceding this one, you find that what Jesus was saying was prophetic. He was talking about what would happen to most in the Church after His resurrection, which includes us today. He was explaining the signs of the last days and how Christians, His followers, would succumb to the trials and persecutions surrounding them from the “outside” and the apostasies and false prophets from the “inside”. By reason of these trials and persecutions from without, and the apostasies and false prophets from within, most of the Church’s love for Christ, His doctrine and for one another shall grow cold. In Matthew 24:10 Jesus plainly states that many Christians will be openly offended and desert the faith – they will walk away from Christianity and their salvation, while false prophets and teachers will lead Christians to hell and the lake of fire by continuing corrupting the Church with their false teachings (Matthew 24:11). This will lead to many becoming indifferent about Jesus and cause their love for Him, over time, to grow cold. And what is so sad, New Light, is that they won’t know that it is happening to them. These are the days in which we are living, where those who advocate Christianity from a pulpit of hate. Hate is not of God and if His Church is espousing hate, they have lost their identity! Turn with me to Ephesians chapter four.
Let’s begin reading at verse thirty-one and continue through verse two of chapter five. “(31) Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. (32) And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. (1) 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.” (Ephesians 4:31-5:2) In verse thirty-one of chapter four Paul tells us to put away those things that are not of God: bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking and malice. For more clarity of what Paul was saying, I want to read this verse from the Amplified Bible. It reads, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor [perpetual animosity, resentment, strife, fault-finding] and slander be put away from you, along with every kind of malice [all spitefulness, verbal abuse, malevolence].” (Ephesians 4:31) You see how it describes clamor and malice. Clamor is the perpetual animosity, resentment, strife and fault-finding that some Christians have refused to put away – to take off as a piece of clothing and remove it. It’s a description of the person who is not yielding to the love that Jesus placed on the inside of them when they accepted Him as their Lord and Savior. The same applies to malice which is described as spitefulness, verbal abuse and malevolence (unkindness, wickedness, evil and nastiness.) Can you understand why Paul says that this behavior must be put away from us? It is not of God! Then he tells us what is of God; he tells us how we are to treat our brothers and sisters in Christ. He wrote in verse thirty-two, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” These are the descriptions of behaviors that are displayed in the person who has a relationship with God. The Amplified Bible reads this way, “Be kind and helpful to one another, tender-hearted [compassionate, understanding], forgiving one another [readily and freely], just as God in Christ also forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)
What I really want us to focus on this morning is verses one and two from chapter five. But before I do, I want to talk with you briefly about unforgiveness and how living with it can cause a Christian to forfeit their eternal life with Jesus. We see this clearly in Matthew 6:14-15. “(14) For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (15) But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” I also want you to see these verses from the Amplified Bible. It says “(14) For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (15) But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses.” I used the Amplified Bible so that we would see that when someone does us wrong on purpose, we must forgive them on purpose and mean it if we expect God to do the same for us. New Light, this is how we are to treat our brothers and sisters in Christ. If anyone under the sound of my voice, or who will read this message afterwards, is holding unforgiveness against someone because of what they have done to you, you need to forgive them. And you need to do it today because where you spend eternity is at stake.
Now turn with me to the book of Ephesians. In Ephesians 5:1-2 Paul tells us to “(1) 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.” I also want to read these verses from the Amplified Bible. It says, “(1) Therefore be imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father]; (2) And walk in love [esteeming and delighting in one another], as Christ loved us, a slain offering and sacrifice to God [for you, so that it became] a sweet fragrance.” (Ephesians 5:1-2) Paul tells us to be imitators of God and then immediately he tells us how, “And walk in love…” We imitate God in how we walk in love. Now I know that you have heard hundreds of messages and/or bible study lessons about love and how we are to walk in love, but with all of those lessons and sermons can we honestly say that we are doing it?
Remember what I told you at the beginning about my brother’s sermon and how he said some verses in the Bible could really become clearer to us when we understand that where “God” is use we substitute the word “Love” because that is Who God is? I want to demonstrate this to you with a few verses. But first, remember that John wrote, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (First John 4:8) Because we know that God is love, let’s read a few Scriptures and make the substitution from God to LOVE. Let’s start with the Gospel of John. John 1:1-4 rephrased says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with LOVE (God), and the Word was LOVE (God). (2) He was in the beginning with LOVE (God). (3) All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (4) In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Now let’s look at what is recorded in Genesis 1:1.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) Rephrased it would be, “In the beginning LOVE created the heavens and the earth.” LOVE created the heavens and the earth. Everything that has ever existed started with love. LOVE was the creator and love was the instrument and motivation behind all things that were created. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are also LOVE so the entire Trinity is LOVE and everything They do is based on Who They are – LOVE! We are all here today because in the beginning the Trinity of LOVE began and completed the creation process. Once that process was completed and man was given dominion, it was not love that led to man’s rebellion, but hate. Satan hated LOVE and everything that LOVE loves. Because he is filled with hate, it was and is his desire that hatred should rule over LOVE – that is what caused him to fall in the beginning. Hate influenced man to turn his back on LOVE and then LOVE responded. Look at what is recorded in John 3:16, a very familiar verse of Scripture to all of us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) So when we rephrase it reads, “For LOVE so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” LOVE created the world and everything in it. When hate corrupted what LOVE created and attempted to end it all, LOVE gave His Son because He loved greatly what He had created. We did not deserve it, but LOVE, true to His nature, acted as only He could and found a way to save us!
I want to pause and paint a picture for you. We know from both the gospel of John and the book of Genesis that it was LOVE that created everything. Genesis also tells us that it was hatred, Satan’s hatred of God and everything He created, that led to man’s downfall. If love represents God’s kingdom and hatred represents Satan’s kingdom then it would make sense to the average person that as children of God we should imitate and/or represent LOVE, our Father. Proverbs 10:12 says the following, and I want you to expand your thinking of this verse. It says, “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.” We know this to be true in our daily lives, but if we think about this spiritually from the viewpoint that God is LOVE and Satan is hatred, then this verse could read, “Satan stirs up strife, but God covers all sins.” Spiritually, this is all that Satan does right? He is constantly stirring up something, but look at God! God covers all sins when we repent and ask forgiveness. Now I want to ask you, when you read this verse in this manner, who are we representing? Who are we imitating?
Remember what we read earlier in Matthew 24:12 where Jesus said in the last days because of what is happening in the world that the love of many Christians would grow cold? One of the things He mentioned was the false prophets rising up and deceiving many. We are seeing that today and John told us how to recognize them and our response to them. This is what he said, and again, I will substitute Who God is “LOVE” for His name in these verses. First John 4:1-6 says, “(1) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of LOVE (God); because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (2) By this you know the Spirit of LOVE (God): every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of LOVE (God), (3) and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of LOVE (God). And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. (4) You are of LOVE (God), little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (5) They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. (6) We are of LOVE (God). He who knows LOVE (God) hears us; he who is not of LOVE (God) does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” Everything that John tells us is that false prophets will not be walking in love – REGARDLESS of how appealing their false doctrine might sound. If the love is not present that should be the first major give-away to their non-relationship with Christ which will then be supported by their false doctrine. All we have to do is pay attention and listen. And this brings us back to where we started with the first two verses of Ephesians chapter five.
Ephesians 5:1-2 rephrased from the Amplified Bible says this, “(1) Therefore be imitators of Love (God) [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father]; (2) And walk in love [esteeming and delighting in one another], as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a slain offering and sacrifice to Love (God) [for you, so that it became] a sweet fragrance.” As children of God we are to be imitating LOVE! How do we imitate LOVE? By doing exactly what John says, “…walk in love [esteeming and delighting in one another.]”
Paul wrote that we should be imitators of God and that is impossible to if we are not willing to walk in love in all things. We cannot imitate God today and Satan tomorrow based on how we choose to interact with our fellow man. Our choice to walk and live by love is the defining decision as to where we will spend eternity. When Jesus was questioned about the greatest commandment, this is what He said, “AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ This is the first commandment. (31) And the second, like it, is this: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31) Also, John wrote “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. (17) Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. (18) There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. (19) We love Him because He first loved us.” (First John 4:16-19)
Who are we imitating today? Are we imitating LOVE? When our enemies come up against up, do we imitate LOVE? When we have the opportunity to help someone who despises us, do we imitate LOVE? When someone hurts us and we are struggling with forgiving them, do we imitate LOVE? When we are angry and have a strong desire to strike back, do we imitate LOVE? When we see the homeless person on the street, do we imitate LOVE? When someone approaches us the wrong way, do we imitate LOVE? When we are tired, worn out and frustrated, do we imitate LOVE? We have many opportunities during the day to imitate the One we serve, do we take that opportunity to do it?
Do people know us by our love? I will leave you with what Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” I hope you know me as a child of God; as a servant of Christ; not because I preach the gospel, but because Christ’s love flows from me.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
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