Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (NRSV) - Ephesians 5:1-2

Familiar words to those steeped in the Eucharistic liturgies, those ancient rituals of thanksgiving to God for the abundance of God’s grace and for our salvation through the life, self-oblation, and resurrection of his son. They are one of the standard offertory sentences said by the officiating clergy before our gifts of gratitude are collected and presented to the Lord. An exhortation to a way of Christian life, they direct us to the model of Christ’s way of love and service that we might be encouraged to examine our own lives and continually raise our own love and service to that of a closer and closer imitation of Christ.

In the Hebrew sense that Paul would have had in mind, to walk in the way meant a way of life. It had a strong ethical component which in this case was that of love. Love for God and neighbor and self were to be the guide for how the Christian should live their life. The right way to live, the right way to walk through life, is the way where what we think, say, and do is directed by an ethic of love. Love God, love neighbor, and love self.

This way of love, we are told, is seen most clearly in the life of Christ. Just as he loved us, we are to love others. Again as elsewhere, we find that the word for Christ’s love is agape. Agape is that special kind of love that God has for us and the world. It is the special kind of love Jesus had for his father. It is a selfless, other-centered love. It is love for the sake of the other. It is love that manifests in giving up something of our self for the benefit of another. No wonder the text of Ephesians says “just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” That is the character of agape and it is what we are called to emulate as we walk in the way of love.

I like Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of these verses in The Message. He writes, “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.”

Read the Bible and study the life of Christ. Adopt his ways and be a child of his father as he was, the child imitating and showing the character of the parent. Note his abundant, extravagant, and costly love. Love like that. It is a high calling and one that is a life long journey where we may feel like we are always just beginning. But we know the model and we know the goal and we have a choice to make. With all that we have been given. With all our time, talent, and treasure. Will we strive to walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us or will we be satisfied with something less than doing and giving our very best, something that could likewise be a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God?

God bless your walk,
Fr. Bill