Ephesians and Love :)

Hey Everyone!! 😘

So... here is the latest paper I wrote recently on Ephesians. Well - a section in Ephesians. And I agree, it's a bit wordy in places but the words just seemed to flow out of me like water. So, if the Spirit leads, so be it!!

Anyhooo.......

I hope you guys enjoy this, and may it speak something into your life. 😁

Have an awesome day,

- L

“I Love Because I Am Loved”

*Ephesians Assignment

By Lindsay D. Miles

Why do we love? Perhaps we love because someone first loved us. Once the touch of affection deeper than life comes in contact with our inward core it must pattern out like ripples on water towards those around us. This is because we are affected by the giver, and through that long to show that same kindness to those around us, if it is the right kind of love. This is the deepest command that comes to me from the passage I will be examining today. Ephesians 5:1-2, which is as follows; “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” So then, why do we love? Why are we encouraged to? What is the root, the foundation, the heart’s core to this most important command? Well, it is thus: We love, because Christ first loved us, and gave Himself up for us.

There is an earlier passage is Ephesians that mirrors this same exhortation, and it gives the basis further of why we are to love. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.” (Ephesians 2:4-5) We love because of He who did first, before when we were wallowing in our gray and dark lives in sin. He, the Father God and His Son, Jesus, loved us and gave of themselves what was most dear so that we could be rescued into the light and so that we would reflect our redeemer’s face to those around us.

But this is more than just an inward love. Love brings about action. You cannot truly feel an affection for someone and not wish to show it? I love my family more than words can say, and I know that I would give my life for them in a second’s notice. Ask me what I would do for them and I can tell you, anything. But as I love them so much, I also am loved in return. My family shows me love and grace and compassion, many branches of love, and when I am blessed by that it causes me to want to show others that same affection. That same kindness and compassion and desire for happiness that I see in my own siblings and parents, and in myself towards them. But somehow, we lose track of the love that surpasses all understanding, that surpasses knowledge and imagination. The love of a God for His Son, and each for the peoples they created and sacrificed for. “Able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:18-19)

But even then, how does this show itself in our daily lives? And, more importantly for myself, how am I to mirror such a love in my walk, talk, relationships, and connection to God? There are not many dramatic opportunities to show how passionate I am to cherish and protect those I hold dear. No swinging on a vine moment where I capture the one I love and carry them away from danger. Nor am I pinned against a wall and forced to be shot before I will tell where those I love are hiding. It is more than an easy choice, an outward proof as tough as war to show love. What about those who are hard to show affection for or want to see well? What about the person you know who has embittered you in the past, made you angry, or the one on the street that you pass by so quickly. What about that kind of a love? What about a love that seeks no return? I was convicted in reading Ephesians as well as so many other portions of History and God’s word because an actual love that affects actions towards all people is beyond my comprehension. I think of it and say, God how? God, why? God... Must I? God, to whom?


I felt His large hand lay on my shoulder. His carpenter’s arms fold around me. His deep voice and terrible light surround my being. And He says so simply to me, as if speaking to a child…”Lindsay. I have called you to walk in love because I walked in love for you. My hands bear the scars of my devotion, my feet and side bear the marks of my desire for you to be with me and the Father. Can you not see beyond to the core of a soul? It is there that I find true value. It is there that I have placed my name. It is there that you are to love. To see beyond, to find within, to choose to serve ….. As I have shown you. In action, in deed, in truth. I have loved you with an everlasting, unselfish, stalwart love, my child. Can you not try to do the same?”

So here I walk in my steps, faltering here and there. But I remember Paul’s words to the church in Ephesus. To “be imitators of God,” and to “walk in love, just as Christ also loved.” He was the sacrifice, can I not also do the same. Sacrifice my pride, my selfish disdain, my mistrust, my hurt, my fears...to show with my hands and my feet and my lips the love of a man who loved me beyond death. For is that not the greatest command? Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-39. “You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And also, Paul summarizes my revelation as follows; “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13

Finis   (Latin for "The End." What can I say? My Dad and I dig other languages. 😄 Plus, it gave this paper a classy finish. 😜 )

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