Daily EncouragementSample

A life of love is Christlike. For definition of this life, the apostle turns inevitably to Christ and his cross. There is the life of love in perfection. We cannot share in the atoning virtue of Christ’s sacrifice, but its principles are meant to govern us. So the life of love is life given for others. In the deepest sense it is given to God, and then to others in keeping with his will. It is a life fragrant with the perfume of sacrifice. Our bodies are to be offered “as living sacrifices” and the resulting life is to be a mingling of worship and service pleasing to God (Rom. 12:1). A life of love is pure. It is no accident that Paul’s exhortation is immediately followed by such words as these: “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality” (Eph. 5:3). The saying, “Charity is more important that chastity” is not only a false antithesis, it is an entirely false view of love. Nowhere is the purity of this love more clearly seen than in the Christian home, where the husband loves his wife “just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (verse 25). A life of love is radiant. Children of love are “children of light” (verse 8). The life they live is a rebuke to “deeds of darkness” and a reflection of the light of Christ.