Walking in Love

johntparishMy favorite book in the Bible is the Book of Ephesians. This little book of only six chapters tells us:

  • Who we are in Christ
  • How to walk out our life on earth
  • How to overcome our enemy, the devil.

This is valuable information to have, no matter who you are or where you live. But that is way too much for one small article. If we limit it to the part about our walk in the life, we notice that we are told to:

  • Walk humbly
  • Walk circumspectly
  • Walk in love

Perhaps for now we should limit our discussion to just one of these – “walking in love.” Immediately we run into a problem. The English language has 4 to 5 million words with only one word for “love”. That one word has to cover the entire range from “Puppy love” to “Divine love”

  • Don’t you just love a beautiful sunset?
  • I love to hear the choir sing
  • I also love German chocolate cake
  • I love my wife
  • I sing, “O, how I love Jesus”

Thankfully the language of the New Testament (Greek) has several words for different kinds of love.

  • Eros – Love between a husband and wife
  • Philed – Brotherly love, friendship
  • Storge – Family love
  • Agape – Divine love, God’s kind of love, the John 3:16 love.

We are told to walk in love as Christ loved us. His love caused Him to die for us. “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) “But God commends His love Toward us, in that, while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) That is agape love. That kind of love only comes from God. He gives it to us when He does a work in our hearts by His Spirit who is given to us.” (Romans 5:5)

When we follow Jesus and are led by His Spirit we can walk in love – the agape kind of love. Love is a fruit of the Spirit. It makes us a lot easier to live with!