“Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children.”
“And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor”. When we imitate God we are worshipping the Father. Then we cannot live like unbelievers whose understanding is darkened and affected by spiritual blindness.
“In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them”.
–2corinthians 4:4
We have learnt His word,seen His examples so we must put away our deceitful desires of this world.we should continually renewed in the spirit of God.
“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind“.
–Ephesians4:23
We got our salvation at no cost but at total cost to Jesus. We should speak truth to one another and live as directed by the Head ,the Christ. We should not have anger, bitterness to any one but forgive all. and work hard. Holy Spirit will help us in our endeavor to be godly.
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger,and clamor,and evil speaking,be put away from you,with all malice”.:
–Ephesians 4:31
As children of God we are to be like Jesus His elder son. Jesus showed and taught us to be simple, humble ,gentle ,forgiving, kind, compassionate ,loving , wise ,faithful and so on.We are adopted by God and now it is our turn to adopt the nature of God. This is the way we can offer true and acceptable worship and show our gratitude towards God..we should allow Holy Spirit to point out the areas of our character,attitude and habits that we need to change.
…he hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour”.
–Ephesians5:2 ..
So we need to continually walk in love.Even in our hard times and good times we have to love others,help ,heal ,pray , counsel and comfort them.
We should carry the aroma of God wherever we go, whatever we think,speak and do. 2 Corinthians2:15 “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ,in them that are saved., and in them that perish.”.
Others may ridicule us by saying we are impractical, over spiritual or godly. 1Corinthians 13:7 talks about the kind of love that ” bears all things, endures all things and rejoices in the truth”. Love is about sacrificing oneself, one’s ego, one’s time, efforts, resources to bless others as Christ sacrificed His life.
Under the old covenant, the sacrifices of some people became a sweet savor to the Father. It was more the attitude of the heart of the one who offered the sacrifice rather than what was sacrificed. We must try to spread our thoughts, actions and words like that of the perfume of Mary Magdeline as she emptied the alabaster jar of nard to anointing Jesus. We must become a living and loving sacrifice to God.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father we want to reflect you and we want to love others as you loved them.Give us the grace to do that Be with us, lead and guide us.In Jesus precious name we ask.Amen
Sol.Gigi Jacob