1Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God; and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already. 4You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. 5They are of the world. Therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them. 6We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God doesn’t listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
7Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. 9By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only born Son into the world that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
13By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. 15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. 16We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17In this, love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so we are in this world. 18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love. 19We love him, because he first loved us. 20If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.
The apostle Paul's exhortation to be imitators of God takes on a direct application in the life of the Ephesians. God does not simply give us commands to obey, but asks us to follow His own example, not merely "do what I say" but "do what I do." We will be like God when we love people who are often unloveable. When we do so, we imitate Jesus in His teaching in the Gospels. The author Luke records Jesus' teaching regarding how we should love others, even those who are enemies in Luke 6:32-35. Jesus said, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. . . . But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil (Luke 6:32, 35). We need to understand that loving one's enemies doesn't mean to agree with them, or like their actions, but to love, as an act of will. The evangelist Charles Finney, in the late 19th century provided an understanding of this type of love. He said that loving someone is seeking the other person's highest good, and someone added, rightly, according to the will of God. When Jesus was dying on the cross, He showed love even to His tormentors. Certainly He didn't like their actions, or view them as close associates like his family or disciples, but He wanted good and not evil for them.
Paul, in Romans 5:6-8, sets forth this type of love Christ expressed for the entire world, and not merely His executioners: "For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a good person someone would even dare to die. But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
By believers having this type of love that Paul speaks about in Ephesians, we demonstrate to others the relationship that we have with God, and what kind of God we proclaim. The last apostle of Jesus to die was the disciple "whom Jesus loved," the apostle John. He wrote about our need to love like God in these words: "Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only born Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us" (1 John 4:7-12).
The life of a Christian that is one of love will reflect the biblical teaching that God is love. Such a life does not only make us like God, but is a "sweet-smelling fragrance" sacrifice to God. A child that loves a loving father is one who wants to be like him.