Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Have you ever wondered why Paul writes so many examples of how we are to love one another? Do we not know how to love one another? If that sounds silly then I would ask you to look into your own lives and compare 1 Corinthians 13 verses on how love acts with those who were in your life that said they loved you.

What we first know about love is exampled to us and even in that we do not always understand what that means to us in personal growth and behavior. No matter how well we were loved and no matter how well we tried to use those examples as models of our own behavior, it is not Agape love. Parental love is close but flawed because they are human. Romantic love is close but is by natural selfish because it demands a reciprocal effort or it dies out. The love of friends is good but comes in a distant third here.

Allow me to point out the most important words of the opening verse. “as God for Christ’s sake hath” Love as God loves, Agape. God loves us for His Son’s sake. We are unlovable without the Son. In this manner I can love you with the six Greek words for love on my own, to no end, to no gain. But to love you with the seventh, Agape, I need the Son. I cannot do it on my own.

The example set before us is Christ, perfect love. If we act as Christ acted, it is but an act, a pale comparison of true Agape love.

Ephesians 3:17-19 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

That I cannot do without Him.

Acts 7:58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.

Symbolism means a lot in Jewish traditions. Those robes were a symbol of identity. It was more than just an issue of righteousness. Once removed, they were no longer the accusers, they were no longer the ones who grabbed Stephen and stoned him to death. They could literally say within their own conscience “It wasn’t me.”

The other part in this was where they laid those robes. They laid them in the care and protection of the one whom they entrusted their identities, the man they answered to on this day. I find this very interesting. While these men obviously new the law and judgment, they still placed their trust in a man. Here is that example of tradition where one man is responsible for the protection of their identity and they showed belief in this man.

So did Stephen.

Acts 7:52-56 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

For this they killed Stephen, but wait, it wasn’t me, see I was with Saul at the time!!

When you stand at the foot of the cross, are your sins up there, or are you someplace else?