Sunday Service - 24 Mar 1957 / 17 Mar 1963

The Epistle to the Ephesians is a short Epistle of six chapters. In the last two chapters the apostle gives detailed advice regarding Christian conduct. We have a part of this advice as our Epistle for today. The text or the ground on which he bases this advice is this: “Walk in love as Christ also loved us.” This is one of the great principles underlying Christian morality. A Christian is expected to have a high standard of conduct.

What is the motive or the driving force behind a Christian’s conduct? What is it that urges a Christian to have such a high standard of conduct for himself? It is the thought that a Christian must follow the example of Christ. To the Christian, God’s character and attitude to men had been decisively revealed in the cross of Christ. The cross of Jesus Christ speaks of God’s self- giving love for men. Having accepted the message of Christ, the Christian is under obligation to embody its principles of self-giving love in his life. In Christ we see God taking the initiative to come among men and show them his love for them. If that is God’s love for me I am under obligation to show the same type of love towards my fellow men. It is this conviction that is the basis of all Christian conduct. Christian morality is not just a series of negative prohibitions: Thou shalt not do this. Thou shalt no do that etc. It is something practical. It springs from our love for our neighbours – a love which is inspired by God’s love for us shown in Christ. The love which Christ inspires is not flabby sentiment, but something which knows no limit in either scope or quality. Its standard is the cross.

We read that in the early church the conduct of the Christian was so marked and different from that of the non-Christians around them. Christians came to be known by their high standard of conduct. What was it that helped them to rise above others to such heights in moral conduct? As Christians they knew that they had to follow the example of Christ. Christ on the cross has shown the extent of God’s love for men. If that is God’s love for us, then we must love our fellow-men with that same love, and our behaviour towards others must be in accordance with that love. We now see the principle underlying Christian conduct. “Walk in love as Christ also loved us and hath given himself for us.” In actual life we may have fallen short of this ideal, but we are called upon to hold on to that ideal, and then only will our conduct rise above that of others. Perhaps many Christians in the Church have lost this ideal in their lives. Their conduct is not guided by this ideal. We who hold on to this ideal must show by our daily conduct how we can reach a higher standard of conduct inspired by this ideal. It is then that others will make this ideal their own. “Walk in love as Christ also loved us and hath given himself for us.”