Does it ever feel like God is tugging at your heartstrings? It seems, that when God wants to send a message, He sends it every way He possibly can: through songs, scripture readings, Sunday School lessons, sermons, emails etc. In Sunday School, my class is currently going through the book of Ephesians. This past Sunday, we discussed the beginning of Ephesians 5 and we talked about being imitators of Christ.
What does it mean for you and me to be imitators of Christ? How do we do that? I think back to all the stories I've heard throughout the years, read for myself and watched through TV and movie portrayals of the life of Christ. In each of those images, Christ is a loving God, a God full of mercy and compassion.
As I travel my faith journey, I am constantly reminded of John 3:16 and the price that was paid for us. He gave so much. What do we give? Christ gave sacrificially, everything He was and is to save us. How selfish I seem measured up against my Lord and my Savior. I admit, I'm not very good at giving up things that mean a lot to me. I think if we were all honest with ourselves, as humans, we all can be selfish at times. But Christ, He humbled himself “by being obedient to death” (Phillipians 2:8).
As imitators of Christ, we too should humble ourselves and love one another just as Christ loves us.
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” 1 John 4:7-12 (NIV)
Be First to Comment