Walking in Sacrificial Love: Living as a Fragrant Offering

Paul grounds Ephesians 5:2 in the life believers have received through the Spirit. The Spirit has birthed them into life in Jesus, indwells them permanently, and carries them all the way to the day of redemption. Paul therefore calls God’s children not to grieve the Spirit, to put away the relational sins that harm others, and to put on kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness.

Paul then gives the big call: “walk in love as Christ loved us.” The Christian life is not an occasional act of love or a few kind moments when it is convenient. Walking means the daily conduct of life, wherever a believer goes. Love becomes the atmosphere of life. Love moves a heart away from self-centeredness and toward others. Love serves, bears with weakness, refuses to repay evil for evil, pursues another person’s good, loves enemies, and puts away grumbling and disputing.

Christ becomes the standard for that kind of love. Christ did not love people from a distance. Christ touched the leper when others backed away. Christ pursued the broken woman at the well though He knew everything about her. Christ had compassion on needy crowds, wept with grieving friends, washed the feet of disciples who would soon betray, deny, and abandon Him, and prayed forgiveness for enemies while hanging on the cross. Christ’s love moved toward the unlovely, the broken, the needy, the unworthy, and the hostile.

Christ’s love also gave Himself up. Christ left the worship of heaven and took on flesh. Christ came not to be served but to serve. Christ submitted willingly to the Father’s redemptive purpose, endured rejection and cruelty, gave Himself as a ransom, and bore sin in His body on the tree. The cross was not merely something that happened to Jesus. The cross was Christ willingly laying down His life for sinners.

Paul connects Christ’s sacrifice to the Old Testament burnt offering, a sacrifice wholly laid on the altar and rising as a pleasing aroma to God. Christ’s sacrifice pleased the Father perfectly. The Christian life now follows that pattern through a life laid down for God’s glory and the good of others. The fragrant offering life is fully surrendered, trusts God more than it fears the cost, chooses obedience above comfort, seeks God’s approval above people’s approval, and remains faithful in ordinary obedience.

The fragrant offering life finally wants to know Jesus above everything else. Paul’s desire, “that I may know Him,” becomes the heartbeat of a life that walks in love. Christ, who traded the crown for the cross, calls His people to deny themselves daily, take up their cross, and live as a pleasing aroma before God.

##

Key Takeaways

• 1. Walk in love every day Paul’s command reaches into kitchens, traffic, workplaces, conversations, and exhausted evenings. Love is not vague niceness; it is a hundred daily decisions to put another person’s good ahead of personal comfort or retaliation. The Spirit does not call believers merely to speak about obedience, but to live it in the ordinary moments where the heart is revealed. [59:45]
• 2. Christ moves toward broken people Christ touched lepers, spoke with the wounded, fed the needy, wept with grieving friends, and served disciples who would fail Him. His love was never diminished by full knowledge of human sin and weakness. Christ’s pattern confronts the instinct to back away from difficult people and calls His people to move toward them with truth and mercy. [62:40]
• 3. Christ gave Himself completely Christ did not simply give a possession or perform an example of generosity. Christ gave Himself, leaving heaven, taking flesh, submitting to the Father, and dying as a ransom for sinners. Sacrificial love begins by remembering that His self-giving love has already secured the believer’s life with God. [68:42]
• 4. Obedience matters more than comfort The fragrant offering life does not wait for a convenient map, an easy assignment, or the approval of others. Noah, Abraham, Moses, Peter, Matthew, and Paul obeyed because God had spoken. Courage does not mean fear has disappeared; courage means obedience continues while fear is present. [87:46]
• 5. A surrendered life pleases God The burnt offering pictured a whole life laid on the altar, not a God who merely enjoyed the smell of sacrifice. Christ’s sacrifice rose as a fragrant aroma because His obedience was complete, and a believer’s surrendered obedience now reflects that same pattern. The life that dies to self finds real life in Jesus.
  
  ## [79:44]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [37:20] - Prayer and Scripture Reading
• [39:37] - The Spirit’s Work and the Call to Imitate God
• [45:27] - Four Themes of Ephesians 5:2
• [46:08] - Walk in Love
• [50:41] - What Biblical Love Looks Like
• [56:26] - Love in Everyday Life
• [60:40] - Christ’s Example of Love
• [68:05] - Christ Gave Himself Up
• [75:53] - A Fragrant Offering to God
• [82:38] - Marks of a Fragrant Offering Life
• [92:16] - Faithful in the Ordinary
• [94:48] - The Call to Lay Down Life
• [104:02] - Testimony of God’s Goodness

1. In Ephesians 4:30-32, what attitudes and actions are believers told to put away, and what are they told to put on instead? [41:03]
2. What does the word “walk” communicate about the kind of love Paul calls believers to show in Ephesians 5:2? [47:04]
3. According to Philippians 2:3-4, what shift takes place when love moves a person away from self-centeredness and toward others? [51:28]
4. What examples from Jesus’ life show that His love moved toward people who were broken, needy, unworthy, or hostile? [01:02:40]

1. Paul says believers are sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption, then calls them to put away relational sins. How does the Spirit’s secure presence give both comfort and motivation for a believer to change? [40:13]
2. Jesus is the standard for love, rather than the way other people treat someone. How does this change the way a believer responds when another person is difficult, hurtful, or undeserving? [01:01:13]
3. Christ “gave himself up for us,” not merely something He possessed. What does Christ’s willing self-giving reveal about the depth of His love and the purpose of the cross? [01:08:42]
4. The burnt offering was wholly placed on the altar, and Christ’s sacrifice was a fragrant offering to God. What does this picture help believers understand about surrender, obedience, and a life that pleases God? [01:19:44]

1. Where has bitterness, anger, harsh speech, grumbling, or a desire to retaliate begun to shape a relationship in your life? What would kindness, tenderheartedness, or forgiveness look like in that specific situation this week? [01:35:51]
2. Walking in love is made up of many daily decisions, not one large heroic act. What ordinary moment—at home, in traffic, at work, at school, or online—is most likely to test your love this week? What could choosing the good of another person look like there? [57:22]
3. Jesus moved toward lepers, grieving friends, needy crowds, and people whose lives were deeply broken. Is there someone you have been tempted to avoid because their need is inconvenient, complicated, or uncomfortable? What would it mean to move toward them with both truth and mercy? [01:02:40]
4. Philippians 2 calls believers to consider others more significant than themselves. In your closest relationships, where do your preferences, schedule, comfort, or need to be right tend to come first? How might love lead you to serve rather than demand your own way? [51:17]
5. Courage is not the absence of fear; it is obedience while fear is present. Is there an area where fear of cost, uncertainty, or failure has kept you from obeying God? What is one faithful next step you can take? [01:25:15]
6. A fragrant offering life seeks God’s approval more than people’s approval. When have concerns about what others might think made it harder for you to speak, serve, give, forgive, or obey? How can you bring that desire for approval before the Lord? [01:28:47]
7. Faithfulness in the ordinary prepares believers for greater usefulness. What small act of obedience has God placed in front of you right now—perhaps prayer, repentance, honesty, serving, reconciliation, or showing up for someone—and how can the group encourage you in it? [01:32:16]