Love!

Love!

Ephesians 4:2 AMPC

[2] Living as becomes you] with complete lowliness of mind (humility) and meekness (unselfishness, gentleness, mildness), with patience, bearing with one another and making allowances because you love one another.

Paul was writing to the church in Ephesus, and as we always point out, the audience defines the demand and the direction. In this case, Paul was writing to people who had been divinely called by God to a life that was different from what they had always known. This is the first message: if the call of God does not challenge you to a higher and nobler walk, check it again. God does not meet any man and then leave him the same way He met him. There will be a change first on the inside of that man, that will definitely manifest on the outside. The question for me today, which I must find an answer to, is if I have had an encounter with this God.  

Am I still used to the same old measures, or is there an insatiable desire for God burning on the inside of me? The answer to that question will define the rest of this devotion. As the verse just before the one above makes clear, there is a calling we all have received by virtue of the death and resurrection of Jesus. He did not pick and choose those who would enjoy the benefits of what He offered; all of us have access to the grace of God available in Christ Jesus. At the time Jesus died and rose again, none of us was alive so none of us can claim superior advantage or higher access to the benefits over any other person. It has been freely given to us all. 

I note the words in that preceding verse: a summons to God's service. That is what the call of God upon a man's life is. Remember: God will not demand from me that which He has not first supplied sufficient grace for. If He says I should live or love in a particular way, it is because He knows I have been given the grace to so do. After all, God does not call a man and then leave him to figure out what to do or how to walk; He holds the man up and guides him on a constant basis. He will supply the information required to take good decisions, and to live in line with the dictates and demands of this new life. Remember also that it is the life of God in me; the One who owns the life is the One who will help me live it the right way. 

That is the thrust of the verse above: I must live as it reflects my ownership and allegiance as men must know whose I am. That which is inside of me cannot be hidden; that which is of God cannot be limited. If it is the life of God, it has to find expression in and through me. Humility is not normal for the natural man, and meekness is strange to the man who is not yet broken. The natural man will push himself forward, and wants to heard and seen at all times. The man who has had an encounter with God seeks to make God known at all times. Love by God's standard becomes the norm, because the One who lives on the inside is able to flow unhindered to bless lives. Do I have Him, or do I need to really get Him? You cannot fake His presence; if He is in, it will show. God's time of favour is here.