Being A Follower of The Way

This morning I am reflecting on a couple of verses from Paul's letter to the Ephesians.  These two verses are normally separated by chapter headings, but if you read them together they make more sense.  Here are the verses - Ephesians 4:32 NIV and Ephesians 5:1-2NIV:

[32] "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

[1] "Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children [2] and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God".

Paul is following his statement in verse 32 with additional thoughts (therefore) in verses 1 & 2.  We know that Paul didn't separate the letter into Chapters, they were added for thematic breaks and readability by later scholars, so it is good to learn to read through the chapter breaks.

In this case, Paul is speaking of kindness, compassion and forgiveness to one another as demonstrated by God, and setting them as an example of how we should walk in love.  Make no mistake there is self-sacrifice in kindness, compassion and forgiveness, and that is what Jesus demonstrated.  We are encouraged to unload the burdens from our own shoulders, our bitterness, anger, rage, brawling, slander and malice in verse 31 (Eph 4:31).  It is interesting that pretty much all of those things come from a place of selfishness and self focus.   Instead, we are encouraged to act out of a motivation of love and compassion, empathy and kindness towards each other.  To make that transition we must lay down our self-focus and pick up Jesus' perspective.

Jesus encourages us to do just that in the following verses - Matthew 11:28-30 NIV: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

- and again a similar theme -  John 13:34-35 NIV:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. [35] By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

We are to learn to love the way Jesus loved us.  We are to learn to be kind and compassionate and forgiving even as Jesus was kind, compassionate and forgiving.  If we are to act like Jesus, we need to see and hear like He saw and heard.  We need to lay down our perspective and ask for His.

It is very difficult to love someone when You are angry with them!  We are called to lay down our anger.  We can ask Jesus to help us see the one we are angry with from His perspective, to see them as they really are before Him.

It is more difficult to love one when we harbor bitterness towards them.  In this case, anger has been replaced with deep wounding and offense.  It is almost impossible to see the object of bitterness in any other light.  To move past bitterness, forgiveness must be embraced and offenses must be released.  To do this one must willfully choose to lay down the offense, and where better than at the feet of Jesus.  He will replace the load of bitterness with one of love,  compassion and humility, which will bring peace and rest.  Christ bore no bitterness towards those that betrayed Him, towards those that wounded Him, and even towards those that hung Him on the cross, and in His sacrifice is the strength to walk away from our own woundedness and offenses.  Lord help us!

Back to the verses from Ephesians, Paul reminds us that we are dearly loved children of God, each and every one of us.  When we look at our brothers and sisters, we need to recognize God's love for them as well.  God knows that the children in families do not always get along perfectly, but there must be an underlying understanding of love and relationship that trumps everything else.  We are encouraged to look to that familial relationship amongst each other.  We are called to walk in the "way of love", and ultimately that "way of love" is to be a sign to all of our discipleship to Christ Jesus!  In fact in the early years of the Church, they were called followers of "the Way", (Acts 9:2; Acts 22:4) and I would think that could be short for "followers of the way of Love".

This morning I am encouraged to be kind and compassionate, learning to walk more in the way of Love.  I  am encouraged to lay down anything that was not demonstrated by Jesus and to follow His example of loving kindness, mercy, compassion, empathy and forgiveness.  I am encouraged to let the motivation of love season all of my actions, that others might see and recognize Christ's example in me.  I want to be a follower of the way of love!

Amen!