How many times have you heard someone say to another person, I love you? Most of us have heard or said the word love so many times that it no longer has the impact it once had. Unfortunately, due to hurts and disappointments, our expectations of love can be lowered.

Do we fully understand what it means to be loved by God? In Ephesians 5, Paul says that we are “dearly loved” children of God (v. 1)! The fact that Christ loved us and “gave himself up for us” is so impactful that Paul prayed for the Ephesians to understand it fully. In chapter 3:17–19, he asks that they be “rooted and established in love” so they “may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.”

In chapter 5, Paul challenges the church at Ephesus to “walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (v. 2). This statement raises the standard of love back to its rightful place: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). It is Christ’s example of sacrifice that we must follow as God’s dearly loved children (v. 1).

Jesus called us to this same standard of love in the Gospel of John 13:34: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, you must love one another.” As recipients of this sacrificial love, we are called to love others. This is no ordinary love. This love requires sacrificial obedience that sets us apart as children of God: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).

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