Overview
Rev. Jon Ryan examines “Walk in Love Like Jesus Christ” through 1 Thessalonians 4, Acts 9, 1 John 4, Matthew 19, showing how love, walk, word shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Transcript
Understanding Walk in Love Like Jesus Christ
Walk in love like Jesus Christ. If you take your Bibles and turn to 1 Thessalonians, please, ultimately we want to walk like Jesus Christ. God’s word tells us that we are to walk in his steps, that we can do the works that he did and greater, that we can abide in him.
He set the example. He was only 12 years old when we first are learning that his parents had brought him and certainly his brothers and sisters to Jerusalem for the feast. And they would come in three times a year for the feast from the surrounding communities and cities.
And it was a lengthy journey. It was several days to get from Nazareth to Jerusalem. And when they were leaving, they had left Jesus behind.
That’s all recorded in Luke chapter two. We’re not going to go there. But when his parents returned looking for him, they found him.
And his mother said, you know, much as she said, why don’t, why didn’t you come with us? You know, and he said, don’t you know that I must be about my father’s business. So she and Joseph, his stepfather had been teaching him who he was, certainly the miracle of his birth and what that all meant. And so he pursued from the time he was 12 or earlier than 12 to learn about his father.
He learned how to walk in love, to show God’s goodness and God’s mercy and his grace and abundance. So for us to accomplish this, we must follow this pattern. He laid it out for us.
He studied God’s word. He continued to pray. So we can follow these steps that we can note in the word.
And we can do this not just individually, but we do it together. Go to first Thessalonians, please. First Thessalonians chapter three.
And here, let’s go to verse 12, please. First Thessalonians 3.12, and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another and toward all men, even as we do toward you. To the end, he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God.
Even our father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. So here Paul is exhorting these people that he spent some time with as he writes this letter back to them. And it’s exhorting them to continue to walk in love.
It’s good to remind ourselves who God is. In doing this, we begin to establish patterns and habits of thinking, which are sound and reliable. You know, simply stated, as we feed our minds with the word, it becomes our practice.
Conversely, if we feed on the illogic and unreliable standards, which are so prevalent in the world around us, making this our dominant mental diet, it will be reflected in our walk and the choices we make and the way we live our lives. So that’s one of the reasons we consistently come to God’s word, so we can build this into our thinking. Go to the next chapter, 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 1 goes on.
The Biblical Foundation
Furthermore then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more. So, Paul, obviously, when he was with these believers of Thessalonica, he had taught them how to please God, how to walk according to God’s word. And then he’s exhorting them to continue in this.
Please jump down to verse 9. But as touching brotherly love, you need not that I write unto you, for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed, you do it toward all the brethren, which are in all Macedonia. But we beseech you, brethren, that you increase more and more, and that you study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you, that you may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing.
Wow, that’s a great promise. Lack of nothing. See, we live our lives as those that belong to God.
We recognize who we are as God’s sons and the impact our lives have as we exert ourselves to walk as sons of God, walking honestly, it says. To do this, we must plan our action, allow people to see your honest walk. So you start your day, and it’s great to remind yourself early on that you’re a son of God.
Sometimes we can do this with prayer. We begin our day, oftentimes, I’m praying with a partner or more than one oftentimes as I start my day, and just to lift the things of the day to God. It reminds me of my partnership with him, that I’m his son, and I can walk like that.
The word promises that we’ll have lack of nothing. We can fulfill what is asked of us as we apply ourselves to walk with the Father. Jesus Christ said when he was 12 years old, I must be about my father’s business.
He sought to understand God and what God would have him to do. The Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 9, when he was still called Saul, and Jesus Christ appeared to him, and he finally recognized that this Jesus that had been around, that he was bringing people to prison that were followers of Jesus Christ, he finally realized Jesus was a Christ. His response is, what will thou have me to do, Lord? That’s a great way to live life, is to realize that we belong to God, we’re workers together with him, so what would he like us to do? Go to the epistle of 1 John, not the gospel of John, but way towards the back of your Bible, 1 John, and we’re gonna go to chapter 4, 1 John 4. We wanna continue to remind ourselves of who God is, and it says in 1 John 4 10, herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation or the payment for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Wow, perfected, now that’s an old English word, and we’ve used the word perfect in our vocabulary all the time, and perfect in our thinking is flawless, but here, it’s more to along the lines of mature, and to give you an example, back when I was quite a young man in 1979, I had traveled across country with my best friend growing up, and we had hitchhiked from New Hampshire to Washington State, and as we came into Washington, we needed to get some money, we needed to work, and on the eastern side of Washington, Washington is separated by the Rocky Mountains, they’re called the Cascades in Washington, we were on the eastern side along the Columbia River in this city called Wenatchee, and we had heard that along the Columbia River, especially in this city, there were many apple orchards, and they would hire people that were like us, that would maybe just be working for a short period of time, and so we went to this one orchard, and we were able to get jobs, and we worked for a couple of weeks picking apples, and they had a lot of people that had come from countries south of the United States, migrant workers, who were very proficient at this, and they would put us and them up in housing, into these bunk houses, and they would feed us breakfast, and then they’d bring us out to the orchard, and we’d pick apples all day, and they’d give us a lunch, and then they’d give us dinner, and say, so you lived there, and we worked there for two weeks, and made a certain amount of money. Now, what I learned is that before they would bring us out into the orchard each morning, there would be several of the men that were part of the orchard staff that would go, and they would test the apples, and the apples had to be a certain sugar content, and when they were a specific sugar content, those are the trees or the apples that we could pick. They were waiting for these apples to be perfectly mature, so that’s how scientific it was.
You just couldn’t go out and pick any apples just because you saw these red things hanging from the tree. They would mark these trees. They’d have these containers, these big bins, they called them, and we’d pick all the apples off the tree.
That’s what this word perfect means. It’s mature. There’s a point where the fruit is perfectly mature on the tree, and it’s perfect to pick it right then, so when it says God’s love is perfected in us, it’s just made perfect.
Go to chapter 4, verse 16, just a little further down. 1 John 4, 16, and we have known and believe the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
Examples and Spiritual Lessons
Herein is our love made perfect. See, it’s made mature. It’s not flawless.
We don’t walk flawlessly, but our love is matured as we dwell in God that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. See, there it is again that we want to walk in love like Jesus Christ, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment.
He that feareth is not made perfect in love. So, that word perfect comes up over and over again, and it’s just that we want to have that maturity where we have attained, we’ve reached the point where we’re walking like Jesus Christ walks. And again, we do it for periods of time.
He did it without a break. He did it consistently, moment by moment throughout each day. He walked perfectly before God.
Well, we can do this, and at times we’re maybe gonna make a mistake here or there, because we’re not flawless, but we want to arrive at that maturity. Now, how do we get to that place? We’ll look back at chapter two, 1 John chapter two. It talks about this perfect love, this mature love.
In 1 John chapter two, let’s read verse three. And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. Now, that’s not just, it doesn’t say to keep the 10 commandments, although the 10 commandments are very good, but it’s just to keep his word.
If we do what his word says, verse four, he that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments or keeps not his word is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected. Well, that’s how we gain that maturity.
If we learn who God is and what his word says, and then we walk according to the word. And it’s, again, it’s what we’re doing right now. We’re gathered together so we can hear more of what God’s word says so that we can arrange our walk day by day to be like this.
So it’s really pretty simple. It’s just consistently go into God and say, okay, God, thanks for all that you’ve done for me, not the least of which is Jesus Christ gave his life. And now I wanna walk in his steps.
You tell me that I can. And so God will direct our steps as we put our trust in him. Let’s go to Matthew, Matthew chapter five.
It’s exciting to learn how to walk like this. This is what life was all about. Jesus Christ, the greatest man that ever lived, was already striving to do this at age 12.
Don’t you know? He said to his mother, I must be about my father’s business. He wanted to learn how to walk with God. At the end of that chapter, that’s Luke chapter two, it says that he increased in his understanding, in his walk with the father, in grace.
Faith in Action
So he grew to become the man ultimately that we see as he opened his ministry when he got to be 18 years later, when he was 30 years old. So here in Matthew chapter five, Jesus Christ is teaching. And go to verse 44, please.
Matthew five, verse 44. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your father, which is in heaven. For he maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans do the same? If ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so. Be ye therefore perfect or mature, even as your father, which is in heaven, is perfect. I would say God is flawless, obviously.
He’s perfect. We can’t be perfect, flawless, but we can be mature in our walk. It’s interesting because we, our own selves, we grew up in a family, and perhaps many of us have children of our own, and we see them grow from stage to stage, or we can recognize in our own lives that we grew from stage to stage, and we gained more and more maturity as we grew up, or our children do, and they make better and better choices.
Well, that’s what it is. We can grow up spiritually. Go to Matthew chapter 19.
Again, Jesus Christ is teaching, and He was trying to set a great example for people to follow as He’s teaching them who God is. And here in Matthew chapter 19, let’s go to verse 16. And behold, one came and said unto Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And He said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God.
So He draws a distinction. He’s not God. He says, don’t call me good.
There’s one good that’s God, meaning ultimately the greatest, the one that is all good is God. It goes on to say, but if thou will enter into life, keep the commandments. He says unto him, which Jesus said, thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
So He begins to tell them many of the 10 commandments, but then He ultimately says, but love thy neighbor as thyself. Later on, He’s asked by another individual the same question. And this individual is asking, what’s the greatest law in the Word? And he says, the greatest law in the Word is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
So here He’s saying that again, to love thy neighbor. It’s about that walk in love. Verse 20, the young man saith unto him, all these things have I kept for my youth up, what lack I yet? Jesus saith unto him, if thou will be perfect, now this is that word perfect again, if you wanna be mature, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.
This is an amazing invitation. Jesus Christ is inviting this man to be one of His followers. He recognizes, Jesus Christ recognizes that this man at this point still loves his possessions, what he has more than God and His Word.
Walking in Love and Confidence
If he knew, really knew who Jesus Christ was, I imagine he would just do exactly what he says, go and sell everything he had and come and follow Jesus Christ. To be a part of this group of people that are walking with the greatest man that ever lived, there’s nothing that you could buy that’s greater than that. But it says in verse 22, but when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
See the possessions that he had were bigger than his desire to walk and please God. So this is part of maturity, that was an immature decision that he made. Look at Ephesians, Ephesians chapter four, Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians chapter four.
Here in this section of Ephesians, it talks about what God has given the church so that people can rise up to that maturity. And it says in verse 10, he that descended, that’s talking about Jesus Christ, is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints.
See, there’s that word again. The purpose of these gift ministries is to help the saints rise up to that maturity in their walk. Now this word perfecting is used, the Greek word is used to describe fishermen mending their nets.
There’s a record in Luke chapter five where Peter was a fisherman and he was mending his nets and the same word perfecting is used there. So what’s that mean? Perfecting the saints, mending the nets. When someone goes out to fish, we live here on the coast, and if they were to fish using nets that they would cast out of their boats, sometimes these nets would drag along the bottom of the body of water they were in.
And they could get caught on rocks or other sharp objects. And in the process of fishing, these nets could get torn and ripped. And if they’re torn, then the holes are bigger and they can’t keep the fish in the nets.
So when they would come in after each day that they went out fishing, they would take the time before they put everything away to mend the nets so that they would be useful again. Well, that’s what the gift ministries here are called to to perfect the saints. It means mending at times the parts that are broken.
Do we help people to in so many different ways with prayer, with the word, we show them how to repair relationships, to repair situations in their lives, how to see how God can supply their need in an illness or financial situation or whatever it may be. So here again, we’ll read verse 11, he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. There’s the goal is to get to the place where we reach that maturity.
Look at Philippians, the next book, Philippians, please, chapter three, Philippians three, and here in verse 13, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. So this is a mature walk. We’re not lingering in the past, condemned perhaps over things that we maybe did wrong, but we continue to move forward.
Verse 14, I pressed toward the mark for the prize, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, mature, be thus minded. If in anything be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
See, so it’s just, it’s learning how to continue to walk with that mindset. We belong to God. God is full of mercy and grace and love.
And so we don’t have to linger on things in the past. We can just walk each day as we’re moving forward to that day of Christ’s return. Pretty great way to walk.
Applying the Teaching in Daily Life
Look at the next book, Colossians, Colossians, please. And Colossians chapter one. And towards the end of this chapter, it says in verse 26, even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now has made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man and all wisdom that we may present every man perfect. There’s the word in Christ Jesus. For unto I also labor striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
So Paul took it upon himself to do his utmost to present every man mature in Christ, to give them that opportunity to walk like Jesus Christ walked, to love like he loved. Look at chapter three, please. Colossians three and here in verse 12, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved.
So there’s who he’s addressing. We are the elect of God. We are holy.
We are beloved of God. So in light of that, he’s saying put on, this is something that we can do with our thinking. It’s not like you can liken it to putting on your clothes in the morning, but here it’s put on, dress your mind in this way.
Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. So here’s how to dress yourself, your mind each day.
Be forgiving, be meek, be kind, be full of mercy. And then it goes on to say verse 14, and above all these things, put on charity. Now in other places, this Greek word is translated love.
For some reason here, they put charity. A few places they put charity, but it’s the same word. So it’s put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.
See, that’s the bond of perfectness, of maturity. That’s when we are humble and we’re meek and we’re kind and we’re forgiving, then we are achieving that walk in love, which is what holds everything together. How great is that? Now look at chapter four, please.
Chapter four, Colossians four, and in verse 12, Epaphras, who was a man that worked closely with the apostle Paul, Epaphras, who was one of you, he was from the city of Colossae. Epaphras, who was one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you. See, Paul has been in Colossae at a time, and now he’s now in Rome when he writes this letter to them.
And this letter is delivered to the Colossians. And at the end of this letter, he’s saying, Epaphras, who they would have known, Epaphras, who was one of you, he salutes you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in the will of God. So that was this man’s prayer, is that they could just achieve that walk, that mature walk, that walk in love.
How great is that? You know, it said earlier, we looked at that there’s no fear in love. We can walk without fear. I wanted to read a section in 1 John 4. If you go back to 1 John 4, again, it’s way towards the back of your Bible.
A Life Shaped by God’s Word
And I read this in the King James, but I’m gonna read it to you, verse 17 through 19 from the Message Bible. So you can read along if you want in verse 17. It starts out here in his love.
And the Message Bible, it says, God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us so that we’re free of worry.
Our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There’s no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear.
Since fear is crippling, a fearful life, fear of death, fear of judgment, is one not yet fully formed in love. We though are going to love, love and be loved. First we were loved by God, now we love.
He loved us first. That’s a great translation of this. The Message Bible adds some words that are not necessarily in the text, but they’re striving to achieve the meaning.
What a great explanation of what that section is saying. And then go back to 1 John 2. And this 1 John 2, I’m gonna read from the Amplified. And again, we’ve already looked at this.
I’m gonna start in verse 3 from the Amplified Bible. But he who keeps treasures, his word, who bears in mind his precepts, who observes his message in its entirety, truly in him has the love of and for God been perfected or completed or reached maturity. By this we may perceive, know and recognize, be sure that we are in him.
Whoever says he abides in him ought as a personal debt to walk and conduct himself in the same way in which he walked and conducted himself. So again, it’s a tremendous pursuit to endeavor to become mature. As we watch our children grow, they grow from stage to stage.
When they’re first born, they have no way to take care of themselves. We provide everything. As they begin to get more mature, they begin to take on some of the responsibility of raising themselves.
We teach them to make their beds. We teach them to go to school to learn. And then as they become more mature, they get to the place where not only are they able to take care of themselves, but they get to see how they can be part of the family and take care of each other.
We just had Mother’s Day just a few weeks ago. And so they recognize how much they love and respect and are thankful for their moms. So they give moms something, maybe not just on Mother’s Day as they get mature and they’re showing their appreciation.
But we can rise to that maturity spiritually and learn how to walk in love like Jesus Christ.
Key Takeaways
- There’s a point where the fruit is perfectly mature on the tree, and it’s perfect to pick it right then, so when it says God’s love is perfected in us, it’s just made perfect.
- We’re gathered together so we can hear more of what God’s word says so that we can arrange our walk day by day to be like this.
- So Paul took it upon himself to do his utmost to present every man mature in Christ, to give them that opportunity to walk like Jesus Christ walked, to love like he loved.
- We don’t walk flawlessly, but our love is matured as we dwell in God that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.
- See, there it is again that we want to walk in love like Jesus Christ, because as he is, so are we in this world.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main message of “Walk in Love Like Jesus Christ”?
Rev. Jon Ryan examines “Walk in Love Like Jesus Christ” through 1 Thessalonians 4, Acts 9, 1 John 4, Matthew 19, showing how love, walk, word shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Which scriptures are central to this teaching?
The teaching draws especially from 1 Thessalonians 4, Acts 9, 1 John 4, Matthew 19, 1 John 2.
How can believers apply this teaching?
See, there it is again that we want to walk in love like Jesus Christ, because as he is, so are we in this world.
Scripture References
1 Thessalonians 4; Acts 9; 1 John 4; Matthew 19; 1 John 2
This text was prepared from the teaching audio or source document. Please verify scripture references against your own Bible.
