Belief and Behavior…Learning a life of love

Years ago, I remember sitting around the table talking with good friends. The conversation was about our kids in school, our work, our church, and other good things with laughter and joking around. As our kids ran through the room to get from one play area to another, our friend stopped his rambunctious son and said, “See their kids, be like them. Do what they do!” We all laughed and I told him my kids where far from perfect. But that was a huge compliment. What we tried to teach our kids, actually, was for Christ to be their example to follow. Don’t be like other kids, but be more and more like Christ. They now seem to be teaching their kids the same.

Paul tells the Ephesians…”Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents.” After spending the first part of his instructional letter telling them in detail to Whom they belong, who they are in Christ and what they/we should be, he now tells us/them HOW to live…specifically. We can’t go wrong here if we focus, truly focus on these words and allow God to transform us from the inside out with new behavior, letting go of the old.

Ephesians 5, The Message
1-2 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

3-4 Don’t allow love to turn into lust, setting off a downhill slide into sexual promiscuity, filthy practices, or bullying greed. Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, those who follow Jesus have better uses for language than that. Don’t talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn’t fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect.

5 You can be sure that using people or religion or things just for what you can get out of them—the usual variations on idolatry—will get you nowhere, and certainly nowhere near the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God.

6-7 Don’t let yourselves get taken in by religious smooth talk. God gets furious with people who are full of religious sales talk but want nothing to do with him. Don’t even hang around people like that.

8-10 You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You’re out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain. So no more stumbling around. Get on with it! The good, the right, the true—these are the actions appropriate for daylight hours. Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it.

11-16 Don’t waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It’s a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.

Wake up from your sleep,
Climb out of your coffins;
Christ will show you the light!

So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!

17 Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants.

18-20 Don’t drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.

What do we learn? Plenty…read over the list again and be blessed, knowing the our Master, Jesus Christ will transform us, little by little, in the person we were always meant to be with the behavior pleasing to Him. He cannot do this alone.

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for specific guidelines for our lives. Thank you for Who to watch and emulate. Help us not to be impressed with the behavior of others, but the behavior of You. We love keeping company with You each morning and living with You all day long and into the night. Yes, Lord, we need and want You every hour. Thank you for Your Holy Presence in our lives as you change us from the inside out.
In Jesus Name, Amen