Peace be to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. (Eph 6:23-24)
So concludes Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Take a moment to turn those God-breathed words over in your mind today. If something is “corruptible,” it’s perishable. Corruptible things are temporary things. Those flowers you plant in the Spring? Corruptible. Those pumpkins you put on your front porch in the Fall? Corruptible. The milk in your refrigerator right now? Slowly perishing inside a corruptible jug stamped with a perishable date on the side.
Want an interesting challenge? Take mental notes throughout the day of how many things around you are corruptible. So much of what grabs our attention and consumes our focus is merely temporary. Houses. Cars. Digital gadgets. Degrees. Careers. Social media. Hobbies. Sports. Clothes. Even our own bodies are “perishable” (1 Cor 15:42).
But do you know what’s within your grasp today that is truly “incorruptible”? Love. Love “from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” is a major focal point in Ephesians.
In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ… (1:4-5)
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved… (2:4-5)
…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (3:17-19)
God loved us first. That’s why Paul is able to conclude his letter with, “Peace be to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” But don’t rush by his last sentence…
Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.
The infinite, eternal God may have loved us first, but his isn’t the only love that can endure, “incorruptible.” In an all-too-temporary world, in the conclusion of a 2,000-year-old letter, we’re being pointed to what really lasts. Beyond the wasting away of our outer selves. Beyond trials. Beyond grief. Beyond death itself … is love–incorruptible love for our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you realize what that means? Your house won’t stand forever. Your car will rust. Your digital toys will break. Your education opens brief opportunities. Your career is temporary. Fame is fleeting. Your body is growing older. To draw our significance and rest our hope in any of those things is vanity and folly. But love for Jesus endures. Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength doesn’t pass away. Earthbound “love with faith” echoes in eternity.
So here’s an aim worthy of this new God-given week: to think of the temporary things around you as truly temporary and to prioritize “love incorruptible” above everything else. That’s life the way our heavenly Father intended it to be.