testimony Archives : Life with the King

When I put my faith in Jesus, humbled by His love for me, my life became His. No longer my own, I willingly came under His authority and will. Responding to the love of Jesus naturally results in the desire to obey His commands because we know that they are what’s best for us and for others. He commands His followers to walk in His love: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). It is God’s will that we love one another; in love, amazing things can happen.

Paul wrote, “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). What does it mean to walk in God’s love? According to Scripture, walking in love involves both avoiding pitfalls and taking some particular actions. Please note that faith is not based on actions or works (Ephesians 2:8); that is not where I’m coming from with this blog, friends. Scripture gives us specific examples, which I find to be helpful guardrails for everyday life; we have these reference points to correct course if and when needed. While I can’t provide a comprehensive list of Scripture’s examples of walking in love today, I’ll name a few.

Walking in Love: Things to Avoid

Do not speak about sexual immorality or impurity or covetousness (Ephesians 5:3). In Ephesians 5, which speaks to walking in God’s light, Paul calls these things improper, out of place, and taking part in darkness. To speak of these things does not honor Jesus Christ or the place we have as children of God, and as those who inherit His Kingdom. It is not conducive to being a saint, being wise, being thankful, or being people who understand God’s will, filled with the Spirit. “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12).
Do not participate in drunkenness (Romans 13:13). Drunkenness is not conducive to walking properly (no pun intended), as in the light of Christ.
Do not participate in quarreling or jealousy (Romans 13:13). Quarreling and jealousy do not make it easier to love people, but can make it much more difficult to do what is best, not only for the other person but also for ourselves. Being jealous of someone else is indicative of taking our eyes off of Jesus, because we want something that is apart from Him and the way He uniquely made us. Paul went so far as to say that coveting (wanting something to an excess that is not ours), is a form of idolatry (Ephesians 5:5).

If I find myself edging closer to any of these things, it is a warning sign for me, that I have taken my focus off of God, and am not walking in love or in the light of Christ. These things are not reasons to self-condemn or live in shame (Romans 8:1), but can be helpful signposts to point us back to Jesus, and to surrender our focus and attention to Him. They are signals to confess the darkness and bring us back to walking in the path of His light.

Walking in Love: Things to Do

2 John chapter 1 names specific evidence of walking in love:

Love one another (verse 5). As in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), loving others means having compassion on people, no matter if they are considered a friend, neighbor, or enemy. Loving others means having mercy toward them, even when it is not convenient or cost-effective for us. This is something that Jesus did perfectly; we have His life to look to as our best example of what it looks like to live a life of loving others.
Confessing the coming of Jesus Christ (verse 7). Acknowledging that Jesus is God the Son, who came in human form with a physical body, in other words, that Jesus is both fully deity and fully human, is important in walking in love. In every age there will be deception and deceivers spreading lies about the deity and/or humanity of Jesus. Walking in love is not to be deceived about who Jesus is (and thus taking our focus off of the Truth); in His love, our spirit confesses that Jesus is exactly who He said He is.
Abide in the teaching of Jesus Christ (verse 9). I have written a bit about this before in Abide in His Love. Abiding in Jesus stems out of the personal relationship Jesus longs to have with each one of us. He wants us to know Him, trust Him, and love Him, and in turn, He gives us the light of life. He even promises “a full reward” (2 John 1:8) to those who love others, walk in His commandments, and abide in His teachings (Matthew 22:36-39).

Focusing on Jesus involves focusing on the things He commands us to do, and on His character. The more we know Him, the more we love Him. The more we love Him, the more we recognize how much He loves us, and how much love He gives us every single day. As we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to abide in His love and obey His commands, may we love God with all we are.

May we remember that Jesus has already and continues to give us more than enough to walk in His love. Amen.

“‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And he [Jesus] said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. . . .'” (Matthew 22:36-39).

“And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:10-14).

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Have you ever found it wild that God has already told us the end of the story? Each of our lives is an amazing story and testimony in and of itself, and all are part of God’s story, but have you considered that the ending to that story has been completely spoiled?

Spoiler alert: Jesus conquers the enemy of our souls.

We feel the effects of the enemy in our world today, and Jesus warned that “the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). We constantly encounter darkness and see the great need for it to be defeated, both in the world and in our own hearts. Try as we might, we as people don’t have the capacity to defeat the enemy on our own. We need Jesus. In the prophetic Book of Revelation, John writes, “And one of the elders said to me, ‘Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals’” (Revelation 5:5). In the end, Jesus conquers! And not only that, but He allows us to share in that victory.

What’s fascinating to me is that Jesus refers to those who believe in Him as conquerors as well, later in Revelation: “And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son” (Revelation 21:6-7). Not only do we share in Jesus’ victory, but we are welcomed into His family. What is His becomes ours too. Best. Ending. Ever.

So what do we do now, in the middle of the story, when Jesus has yet to come again? How do we look ahead to Jesus’ victory and rely on His sacrifice and victory over death? One of my favorite verses in Revelation says, “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (Revelation 12:11). We can conquer even now over the enemy by relying on Jesus’ blood sacrifice to cover our sin, and also by unashamedly, courageously, and passionately telling our stories about His work in our own lives.

The good news is that even with the love in the world growing cold, and with darkness seemingly closing in, we don’t have to let it defeat us in the here and now. The story has been spoiled for us in the best possible way! I believe the story was spoiled to give us hope in the fact that the future for us is free and victorious in Jesus. Not only that, Jesus walks with us through every single green pasture AND valley along the way until that time. Even now, we are able to share in His victory already had and the victory yet to come.

May we walk in our identity as more than conquerors with Christ, and share “the word of our testimony” in the spirit of God’s love. May we encourage others as we all walk out our stories toward the best ending ever written. Amen.

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death’” (Revelation 2:11).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

Tag: testimony

More than Conquerors