Lecture 1 — Followers of God

^5:1^ Be therefore followers of God, as most dear children: [n. 267]

^5:2^ And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and has delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness. [n. 268]

266. Once he has exhorted them to kindness and mercy, which are the effects of charity, he gives them a model to imitate.

In reference to this he does two things:

first, he urges them to imitate the exemplar, namely, God;

second, he lets them know in what they should imitate him, at and walk in love.

267. I have affirmed, he says, that you ought to forgive one another **as God has forgiven you in Christ **(Eph 4:32). Be therefore followers of God because this is indispensable even if it is difficult. What is man, said I, that he can follow the King his maker? (Eccl 2:12). Nonetheless, human nature would never achieve its end except in union with God. My foot has followed his steps: I have kept his way, and have not declined from it (Job 23:11). He must be imitated insofar as it is possible for us to do so, since a son must imitate his father. Thus he adds as children since he is our Father through creation: is he not your Father, who possessed you, and made you, and created you? (Deut 32:6) He puts in most dear because God chose us to share in what is his very own.

268. And walk in love comes next, and here:

first, he maintains that the way to imitate God is in charity;

second, he speaks of the tremendous sign of charity, at and has delivered himself.

269. The charity of God has made us his most dear children: for you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba, Father. For the Spirit himself gives testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God (Rom 8:15–16).

Certainly we ought to follow him in love. He says walk to signify you must always advance: walk before me and be perfect (Gen 17:1). This should be in love since love is so good that man ought always to make further progress in it, and is that kind of a debt which man always has to pay. Owe no man anything, but to love one another (Rom 13:8). Or in love may mean the way in which God is followed more closely: and I show you yet a more excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling symbol (1 Cor 12:31–13:1). Above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection (Col 3:14). This must be done according to Christ’s example, whence he adds as Christ also has loved us. Jesus having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end (John 13:1).

270. According to Gregory, love is verified when it is expressed in action. Therefore he adds and delivered himself for us. He has loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood (Rev 1:5). I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered himself for me (Gal 2:20). He has delivered his soul unto death and was reputed with the wicked (Isa 53:12).

This death was both advantageous and necessary for us, thus he says an oblation and a sacrifice. Here the Apostle is speaking in the way the old law does. In it, as Leviticus 4 indicates, when someone sinned he was obliged to offer, because of it, the sacrifice and oblation which was designated for the sin. Then too, when someone gave thanks to God, or wished to obtain some favor, he had to offer a victim of peace (Lev 3:9), which was of a most sweet savor (Lev 3:16) to the Lord. These, however, are all accomplished through Christ who, in order that we might be cleansed from sin and attain to glory, delivered himself for us, an oblation through the actions he performed during his life: he was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth (Isa 53:7); and he delivered himself as a sacrifice to God for sin.

This was for an odor of sweetness, hinting at what is said in Leviticus 3:5 ff. But certainly the odor described there was not pleasing to God in itself but according to its signification, inasmuch as it symbolized the sweet-smelling oblation of the body of Christ, the Son of God. Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a plentiful field (Gen 27:27). Draw me, we will run after you to the odor of your ointments (Song 1:3). In this way also we ought to offer spiritual sacrifices to God: a sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit (Ps 51:19).