There are a lot of things we can learn from YouTube. Since it was launched in 2005 it has become the world’s second-biggest search engine behind Google with more than 2.7 billion users every month. If we want to learn how to sew on a button, change a tap washer, or even restore a tractor, we can search YouTube and the chances are that someone has made a video about it. Whatever we might like to learn, we can probably find it on YouTube.
One reason YouTube is so successful is because we all learn by watching others. Instead of being given a set of instructions, when we learn by watching another person, either on video or in person, we can see what is being done and how to do it. We can then copy or imitate what we see by repeating the actions. Sometimes the best way to learn is to see someone do something and then imitate, mimic or repeat that action.
At the start of Ephesians 5, the Apostle Paul encourages his readers to ‘follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love’ (Ephesians 5:1,2a NIV). God has given us a new identity when he adopted us as his children through faith in Jesus. We are God’s ‘dearly loved children’ because he washed us clean and welcomed us into his family of believers through baptism. Through the water and his Word of grace, God speaks the same words over us that he spoke over Jesus in his baptism (Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11). Our heavenly Father says we are his children whom he loves and with whom he is pleased because Christ lives in us through faith by the power of his Holy Spirit.
Like all children, we grow into this identity which God has graciously given us. Children are constantly learning by what they see others do around them. We are constantly learning to live as God’s children in a similar way. To help us grow into our identity as God’s dearly loved children, Paul encourages us to ‘follow God’s example’ (v1) as we ‘walk in the way of love’ (v2a NIV). Just as we might learn to sew on a button, change a tap washer, or restore a tractor by watching someone else do those things, Paul wants us to learn to live as God’s children by watching the way God lived among us through Jesus and then imitating or copying him in our lives.
Paul points us to Jesus offering himself on the cross as the ultimate expression of God’s love for us and the example for us to imitate. In John 15:13 Jesus said, ‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (NIV). Paul explains that God shows his infinite and perfect love for us in this: ‘while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8 NIV). When Jesus gave himself up for us on the cross, he removed every obstacle that separated us from a relationship with God. His sacrifice opened for us a new life and a new way of living which leads us into the full and abundant life Jesus promises us in John 10:10. We grow into the life God has given us as his dearly loved children by watching Jesus and imitating his love for us in our relationships with others.
The way of life Jesus lived and taught is radically different from the way of life the world teaches. A worldly way of living is to live for self and to do whatever we want, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. A common belief in our society is that we should have the right to do whatever we want, when we want, how we want. However, living in this way often results in problems and conflict. For example, if two people each want to do what they want, but they want to do different things, the result can be a strained or damaged relationship.
Living in the way of Christ-like love is completely different. The way of love Jesus lived and taught involves living for others, no matter what it might cost us. It looks like giving up what’s important to us and offering up what we want for the sake of others. Instead of pursuing our rights or what benefits us, imitating the self-giving, sacrificial love of Jesus means being more concerned about the good of others and what benefits them, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:24. In Ephesians 4:25-32 and other places in the New Testament, Paul gives us specific ways this love shapes the way we live in relationship with others.
Living in the way of Christ-like love is based on and grows out of faith in two main ways. Firstly, its source is the faith that God showed his love for us when Jesus offered his life for us on the cross. Jesus was willing to die for us because he was far more concerned with our good than his own. His death was for our benefit and not his. When we trust that good news, it changes the way we live. Secondly, living in the way of Christ-like love grows out of the faith that God will provide everything we need for life in this world and the next because of his great love for us in Jesus. We don’t have to chase after what we want or what benefits us because God is taking care of us. He will freely give us everything we need because of his love for us in Jesus (see Romans 8:32). Last week we heard Jesus say that the work of God is to believe in the one he sent (John 6:29). When we trust in Jesus and the love he showed us when he offered up his life as a sacrifice for us, we can imitate him and show the same self-sacrificing love to others.
Living in this way leads us into the full and abundant life Jesus promises in John 10:10. It sounds very counterintuitive, but following the way of Christ-like love in our lives is the way to find greater love for ourselves and become more loving towards others. Living in this way leads to greater joy, peace and hope as we give the things that cause us stress and worry over to him. The focus of our lives turns away from ourselves, towards God’s love for us in Jesus and imitating his love in our relationships with others. When God’s love is at work in us and we are learning to love others in the same way, the Holy Spirit works in us to produce the fruits that Paul describes in Galatians 5:22,23. Living in the way of Christ-like love brings us into healthier relationships, as well as more fulfilled and meaningful lives.
We can learn a lot of skills by watching YouTube videos and then imitating what we see. We learn to live in the way of Christ-like love by watching Jesus and then imitating God’s love for us in our relationships with others. When we watch Jesus and his infinite and perfect love for us in the cross, we find a new sense of who we are as God’s dearly loved children. As we keep watching him and imitating his self-sacrificing love in our relationships with others, not only is it good for us, but it gives a powerful witness to the love of God to others.
How will we walk in the way of Christ-like love as God’s dearly loved children this week?
More to think about or discuss:
- Have you ever learned something new by watching another person and then imitating what they’ve done? What was it? Was it a good way to learn? Why or why not?
- What does it mean to you that God calls you his dearly loved child? How can that be good news to you? How can finding your identity in that be helpful in your life?
- What is one way you can follow the way of self-sacrificial Christ-like love in your life? Try living out the way of Christ-like love in one situation or with one person, even if it’s difficult or costly in some way, and see if it makes a difference…
Pastor Eugene Online 
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