You can borrow money. You might take money out of your savings account and plan to put it back; but with time you can’t do this. If you do not make the most of the opportunities that you are given for God’s glory, then it is wasted and can never be paid back.
God is love, therefore “all of God’s action is loving.” God works are by His love. We should love one another because God has loved us. This is hard for us to understand at times.
If we are in Christ, then we are beloved children of God and we should imitate Him. We do this by walking in love, light, and wisdom.
We have an innate desire to want to be loved. The Apostle John reminds us in this passage that we have been loved by God and God placed us in His family to be loved. We are doubly loved. We are loved by God and loved by our brothers and sisters in Christ. God has placed His children in a loving family, a family that loves because God loves them. I don’t know about you but that is something I want to be a part of.
We were darkness but now we are light in the Lord (5:8). The text does not say we were in darkness but rather we were darkness. Our lives were characterized by sin and ignorance of God’s truth. But that is not who we are now. Now we are light. We are holiness and we have been given knowledge of God’s truth.
Prayerfully, we can continue to grow in our knowledge of God’s ultimate purpose, plan for the believer, and revealed will. If we know these and trust God’s good character, we can function as faithful followers even amidst the soul-wrenching chaos of life’s circumstances.
“A love that costs nothing will accomplish nothing.” We are to imitate God by having love drive our imitation of Him. If our love for others never costs us anything, we are not truly loving that person.
First, it is important to pause and notice that Paul wants us to fix our gaze on “him”, which in the context means the Father. What Paul wrote in 3:14-19 and what he writes in 20-21 is all about God. When we get to the next lines of the verse, it is not about what God might do through us but about God’s work.
“The finish line of faith cannot be measured in distance but character change.”
Did you know that one of the most popular Christmas carols was not written for Christmas? Joy to the World was written by Isaac Watts; who did not celebrate Christmas but loved the truth of the incarnation.