FRIDAY August 9th
Ephesians 6:21-24
‘So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts. Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.’
Paul not only sought to encourage the believers in their faith, to be strengthened and able to withstand all the enemy sought to bring against them, he also wants them to be blessed and so he desires for them to know as he writes here, peace and love with faith from the Lord Jesus Christ. He identifies that the source of all blessing is from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He then says to them ‘Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible’. He had already commenced the letter with the words, ‘Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.’ (1:2)
I want us to think of it this way, the grace and the peace and the love of God bookend our lives, they hem us in, keeping us secure in our relationship and fellowship with the triune God.
But Paul ends this letter with those important words, ‘who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.’ The Amplified puts it this way ‘with undying and incorruptible love’,
This is a reminder that God has loved us with everlasting, perfect love. He didn’t wait for us to attain a level of righteousness before he accepted us, he sent his Son, who died for us in the state we were to be found in, vile, depraved, sinners. Such was his love for each one of us, that he deserves nothing else in return but the very best that we can give, and the desire for everyone who has been born again by the Spirit of God, who has been washed, cleansed in his precious blood, who knows what it is to be forgiven and have been saved for eternity should be that we love him back with undying and incorruptible love.
To me as I think of it, incorruptible love means that we love him wholeheartedly, we remain 100% faithful to him alone. I spoke recently with my headliner being ‘say what I mean and mean what I say’. If I say, ‘I love you Lord Jesus with all of my heart’, then I must mean it, and I must demonstrate it by forsaking everything else that would cause my love to be diminished in any way that would corrupt it.
In computer language, a computer can become corrupted by a virus, and software is required to find out what the virus is, to be able to get rid of it, before it does untold damage. May we each examine our hearts, our lives, our walk with our wonderful Saviour to see if there is anything that is causing our love for him to become corrupted, may we even cry out the words of the psalmist, ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, (anything that is corrupting my love for you) and lead me in the way everlasting.’ (Psalm 139:24)
‘Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.’