In a Word: Love
Louise Duval
MA, LPC, LAC, CAC
3/9/2026
In college, I was in a Christian organization, and one year we had a shirt that said: “If you know who you are, then you know what to do, in a word, Love!” This phrase has taken on greater meaning for me as I have been studying the book of Ephesians, and it may be more appropriately written: If you know whose you are, then you know what to do, in a word, Love! Paul spends the first half of Ephesians making sure we understand who God is, and the second half of the book helping us understand how that should impact the way we live.
In the first half of Ephesians, we learn that all people are created in the image of God, but apart from God, we are sinners, living in darkness without hope. However, God predestined us and chose us before we were born, and He has good works prepared for us to do, so He chose to do something about the sin problem. He sent Jesus to pay the price for our sin so that, with His spirit living in us, we could do all the works He has prepared for us and live a life that points to Him. When we truly understand that the God of the universe, who is greater than anyone or anything and is the only one worthy of praise, loved us enough and cared enough about us to rescue us from a hopeless, dark, life separated from Him, even though it cost the life of His son, it changes the way we live. We now have a responsibility to live a life worthy of that calling.
Living a life worthy of that calling can be simply and basically put in one word: Love. We are called to selflessly love everyone. All people are equal in God’s eyes, and He loves us all more than we can imagine. The only difference between me and someone who is still living in sin is that Jesus is in my life, and God wants that person to experience Jesus living in their life, too. We are all created in God’s image, we are either a Saint, a child of God, living for Him or we are a lost child who God loves and desperately wants to adopt into His family. After you see God’s great love for you and recognize He is above all things and the creator of all things, our only response is obedience. Obedience out of gratefulness and obedience because someone who loves us would only ask us to do what is best for us. If God made us and the world, He knows how life works best.
When you look at the second half of the book of Ephesians, you see that if we are loving others, all we are asked to do flows naturally from that love. I am not talking about accepting sinful behavior; I am talking about loving people where they are and letting them see how we live. As we adjust our lives to show love, others will see Jesus. Our standards are different because we now live for God, and the good thing is, He also doesn’t ask us to do it in our own power because He knows we can’t; we do it because of the spirit living in us. He gives us what we need to live worthy of the calling when we accept Christ’s gift of salvation. The good works we do because of His spirit living in us do not glorify us; they glorify our Father in heaven, because the goal is to bring more people to Him.
We are loved beyond our imagination, and because of that love, we love others by the spirit of Christ living in us so that others may experience the love we have been freely given. So, if you know whose you are, live a life worthy of that calling and show love to those around you!