Be ye therefore imitators of God as dear children. As being dead and risen men and having the Holy Ghost dwelling in you, you have the very life of God in your hearts. Go forth, and imitate Him. But where do we get our example? He is love and light (1 John 1:5, 4:8). Where do we see it exhibited? Verse 2 will be our answer. Walk in love, as Christ hath loved us, and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. Christ was the exhibition of the life of God, and His character as love. He did not only love us as Himself but He gave Himself up to death for us; and this is what we are called to imitate. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, not thinking of self at all; giving it up. Still there is a human side to this love, for Christ was God-man. He offered Himself up to God for an offering and sacrifice for a sweet-smelling savor. This was the measure of His obedience. It was not merely perfect obedience to the law, which no doubt it was, but a laying down of this perfect life in death as a sacrifice, in obedience to the Father’s will, as He said, Therefore doth My Father love Me because I lay down My life, that I may take it again, and it was on account of this that the glory was given Him as Man and this is what we are to imitate. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (Rom 12:11I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1)). On the one side then there is the perfect love of God shown to sinners in giving Himself up to death; on the other side there was the perfection of devotedness of an obedient Man to God, in laying down His life on the altar. It is this latter aspect of it that the Epistle to the Romans alone takes up. Oh, saints of God do we understand this wonderful life of God set before us here as an example of which we are called to be imitators?
Lust is the human corruption of love. When man lost the love of God he went into lust (comp. Rom. 1). And here, in verse 3 we have the warning because the flesh is still there; but fornication, and all uncleanness, and covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient; but rather the giving of thanks. For such an one has no inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ. They were to let no man deceive them, for because of these things the wrath of God is coming on the children of unbelief. He besought the, therefore, not to be partakers with them in these things. They were sometimes darkness, but now light in the Lord; walk as children of light: proving by it what was well-pleasing to the Lord (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth).
Here then we come to the other side of God’s character, namely, light. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. He can have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness; no more are we to have fellowship with them. To make ungodly ones my companions is to cease to walk with God. If forced to be in their company, my very company and words should reprove them. It is a shame even to speak of what is done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
Here we see the blessed properties of this side of the character of God. It has only to shine without effort; it manifests everything that is wrong. It does not judge but manifests.
Righteousness judges light manifests. Adam stood trembling in the very presence of the Light. It manifested all, but it did not judge him. So with the poor adultress in John 8. There she stood before the Lord fully exposed; but He could say, Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more.” “I am the Light of the world.” How blessed this is, beloved reader, that we are not called to judge one another, but to shine as lights in the world. Grace has set us in the light, in union with the very Person who was the very exhibition of God’s character as light in the world; and we are called to be exhibitors of this light. Often we may see two persons apparently both waking in darkness. the light shines in. It cries, Awake, thou that sleepest, arise from amongst the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. It separates the two showing that the one was as it were asleep in the midst of the dead; he is now aroused, he shakes himself, and he is manifested as a child of light. Oh believers, are you shining? See from this what blessed work even the quiet shining in of the light may do. It may deliver souls from amongst the dead.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is. All this wisdom we learn in the light. He who is the light is also the wisdom of God. We may find many wholesome practical rules as to our walk in wisdom through the world in the Book of Proverbs. Wine and music give way to the presence of the Spirit, who fills us with spiritual joy, so that we may speak to one another in Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting ourselves one to another in the fear of God.
The relationships of life follow, and their duties, up to Eph. 6:99And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him. (Ephesians 6:9). These all existed in the old creation, but now by redemption they are put on a new platform. The highest natural relationship is that existing between husband and wife. A man even leaves father and mother to cleave to his wife. It was the first that existed, as exhibited in Adam and Eve (Gen. 2).
But since sin has come in, God could no longer own the relationship on that platform. Man was lost and three was nothing but judgment before him. Therefore, when Christ, the man of God’s purpose, came into the world, the test was whether the world would receive His Christ. The husband must leave his wife if it be a question of Christ (see Mat. 19:29).
The relationship must be established on new ground. Redemption must be accomplished; man must be set in a new position, in a new life, before the natural relationships could be rally owned before God. But in this highest relationship another thing must be unveiled, and that the purpose of God to have a heavenly Bride for His Son, so that there might be a heavenly example for the duties of husbands towards their wives and wives toward their husbands. Since the ascension of Christ as Man to the right had of God, and the descent of the Holy spirit on the day of Pentecost, the purpose of God is being acted out, and a body, the Bride, is being gathered out of Jew and Gentile, to be the everlasting partner of the Second Man. The Heir was in due time born, though God’s Son form everlasting (comp. Gen 21). He died and rose again in obedience to His Gather’s will (Gen 22), and the Father having given all things into His hand, has sent down the Holy Ghost to call out of the world a Bride for His Son (Gen 24). When this is accomplished, the Son of God will return to claim His Bride, when the heavenly marriage will actually take place (comp. Rev 19). After which He will claim the earth as His own, clearing off the wicked by judgment, and reign over His inheritance with His Bride as partner. Wives, then are to submit themselves to their own husbands, as unto the Lord. And that, not only on the ground that the husband is the head of the wife (for Adam was first formed, then Eve), but by the example of Christ being the head of the Church, and the Savior of the body. The relationship formed between Christ and the Church, and the Church’s submission to Him, is the reason why wives are to submit themselves unto their husbands in all things.
The love with which Christ loved the Church was to be the measure of the husband’s love for his wife. He so loved the Assembly that He gave Himself up for her. Israel and the rule over the nations were all given up because of the love He had for His heavenly Bride. These truly will be given back to Him but for the present He who was the heir of the promises gave them all up, for the highest relationship; and that He might set His Church apart, having cleansed it with washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. What a holy and blessed example of the love of Christ for His Church that is before us. He gave Himself for it, loving it better than Himself; that is His past work. He sanctifies it by the Word having cleansed it; that is His present work. He will present it to Himself a glorious Church; that is His future purpose. Oh husbands, is this the measure of your love to your wives? Christ did not once love His Assembly and then leave her to herself. No, He sanctifies her every day by the Word. Husbands, do you show your love to your wives like this, with the final thought of presenting them to Christ, in holiness and glory? But Christ is also presented to us as the Savior of the body. He loves His body as Himself so should husbands love their wives as their own bodies. The two are one flesh, so that he that loves his wife loves himself. No man ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes it and cherishes it, even as Christ the Church; for we are members of His body, of His flesh, and His bones. Oh how sacred then is this relationship rendered, by being brought into connection with the higher relationship between Christ and His Church. The apostle quotes Gen. 2, in view of husband and wife being one flesh. A man leaves father and mother and all to cleave to his wife in the thought of being one flesh with her. But there is a great mystery unveiled in this. I speak concerning Christ and the Church, says the apostle. It was not enough that Christ should become incarnate, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Christ must die and rise again. He must go up on high and the Holy Ghost come down, before His Church could be really formed, a new man, one Spirit with the Lord. It is on this ground that the husbands are to love their wives as themselves, and the wives see that they reverence their husbands.