And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.
Ephesians 5:2
To walk in love is to live life carrying the revelation of Jesus’ love for us. It is through receiving this love that we become empowered to love others.
The goal of Christian Counselling is for the individual’s empowerment; to be patient with ourselves, to be kind to others, and in being effective in life. All these require Love. This is not the kind of love which we have to produce in ourselves (for that is impossible), but rather, the kind of Love which we receive from Jesus Christ. After all, how can empty people fill others up?
I have to emphasize that in this case, The Lord is speaking of RECEIVING His love first. We have to fill up our emotional tank with His love in order to be empowered to love others. It is very important for us to realize that Jesus Christ is the one who has loved us all along. And there is no way I can over-emphasize that Jesus Christ loves us, even when we are sinners.
While we were sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
Our power to walk in love greatly depends on our realization of the statement “AS CHRIST HAS LOVED US.” Our focus now is not how to love others or the fear of not being loved. Instead, we meditate on the cross and see how The Son of God has already been loving us. This is the key in living an empowered life. It is filling ourselves up with His love and working out the overflow.
We love because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19
Grace Counselling is all about the person’s empowerment, and no empowerment can happen without the revelation of this Great Love brought about by the one, Jesus Christ.