Ephesians 5:2a And walk in love,

Ephesians 5 lists a number of labels of good and bad behavior. Part of me finds labels both good and bad as a hindrance in walking in the love that is Christ in us. I know there are many who insist that calling sin sin is a necessary thing but one aspect if you give a thing a name, it holds a power in the name that is unwarranted and unjustified.

Sin labels make it all that much easier to become like the Pharisee in the temple who said, “Thank God I am not as that sinner.” The outward view of others sin is not only a window to judgment, it has the tendency to allow us to avoid self-examination and the purging of our own sins. Allow yourself to be called pious too many times and you will start to believe yourself worthy of praise.

Psalm 150:6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.

This is the last line in Psalms, the last word if you like. Isn’t that a fitting summation for the Psalms?

Ecclesiastes 10:1 Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.

We, myself included, have a tendency to avoid reading scriptures like this. They are fair warning. The warnings are just as valuable to us in seeking to be everything God has called us to be. The Lord delivered these warns with purpose and to avoid reading them places us in jeopardy of falling into the folly which the Lord would once again have to pull us out.

Galatians 5:15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Is not the opposite also true? But if ye praise and glorify one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Love never fails.