Ephesians 5:1-2
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Introduction
Introduction
If Jesus has saved us, Jesus is changing us.
He who died for our sins will not let us continue in our sin.
He will see to it that we put on holiness.
He will see to is that we become more like Him.
This is the will of God the Father.
This is the power of the Holy Spirit living within us if we are in Christ.
That is a very general summary of the first four chapters that Paul, an Apostle of Jesus, sent to the Christian church in the ancient city of Ephesus.
In the first three chapters, Paul talked about how Jesus saved them.
Then, beginning at chapter 4, Paul talked about how Jesus was changing them.
They were new creations by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ; they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and now they were to live like it.
Paul talked about this Christian life-change as a “laying aside” and a “putting on”.
He wrote of the “laying aside” in Ephesians 4:22…
22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
And then Paul wrote of the “putting on” in Ephesians 4:24…
24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
As new creations in Christ Jesus we lay aside biting speech, explosive anger. and any type of sinful anger. We clamor or brawl with others. We do not slander. We are not spiteful.
That’s Ephesians 4:31.
Ephesians 4:32 says that as new creations in Christ Jesus we put on kindness, tender-heartedness, and forgiveness; and we put on those things because we have experienced those things in Christ Jesus.
Because we have experienced kindness, tender-heartedness, and forgiveness in Christ Jesus, we can extend kindness, tender-heartedness, and forgiveness to others in the Name of Jesus.
Now all of this gets summarized for us very powerfully in Ephesians 5:1-2. Let’s listen…
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
[PRAYER]
[TS] There are two COMMANDS in Ephesians 5:1-2…
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
COMMAND #1: As new creations in Christ Jesus, we are to be imitators of God.
COMMAND #1: As new creations in Christ Jesus, we are to be imitators of God.
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;
[ILLUS] {Madelyn, “It’s me, Rocky, your husband.”
My wife, Cheryl, and I have four children. Our baby Lillian is a little over a year old, then we have Madelyn (5), Lydia (almost 8), and Dalton (10).
One of the things I didn’t realize before having children is that you actually lose all right to privacy as soon as your children are born.
My wife, of course, feels this the most. She can’t get dressed for church on Sunday mornings without our kids barging in to demand breakfast or to complain about how itchy their clothes are.
One morning Cheryl had enough, so she locked the door to our bathroom as she got ready. Soon though she heard a knock at the door. She already knew who it was. Madelyn, our now five-year-old who was 4 at the time said, “It’s me, Rocky, your husband. Let me in.”
Four-year-old Madelyn was trying to imitate my voice in order to get in to see her mother.
[EXP] The word “imitate” in Ephesians 5:1 means to mimic, to copy as closely as possible another person’s speech, actions, and behavior.
Madelyn tried to imitate my speech, but we are to imitate God’s speech, His actions, and His behavior.
Now, we should immediately recognize that we are not going to be able to do this in some things regarding God. God has noncommunicable attributes, which are attributes that He doesn’t share with us, and He has communicable attributes, which are attributes that He does share with us.
God’s noncommunicable attributes are things like His…
self-existence
This means that God has no beginning. He has no origin story because has no origin. He exists independently whereas our existence is dependent upon other people and ultimately dependent on Him.
self-sufficiency
God has no needs and doesn’t depend on anyone or anything. We, however, are very needy and depend things like food, warmth, clothing, shelter, companionship, and oxygen to keep us going.
eternality
God has no beginning and no end, but even though we will live for eternity because of our faith in Christ Jesus, there was a point before we existed. Therefore, we are not eternal in the same way that God is.
We could go on to speak of God’s limitless power, presence, and knowledge; His glorious majesty and perfect holiness. All those things are attributes of God that we cannot imitate because it’s impossible for us to do.
But God’s communicable attributes are things like justice, wisdom, faithfulness, and goodness.
Looking back at Eph 4:32, we see that we should especially focus on imitating the communicable attributes of kindness, tender-heartedness, and forgiveness.
Certainly all of these communicable attributes become noncommunicable in God’s perfection. We cannot be perfectly just, perfectly wise, perfectly faithful, and so on. But perfection in these things is what we are to strive for.
This may make us wonder, how? How are we to be imitators of God when God is perfect in all of His attributes? Well, notice what the rest of v. 1 says, “We are to be imitators of God, as dearly loved children.”
We have been reborn as children of God through faith in Jesus the Son of God so that (and this is a staggering truth) just as Jesus is the Son of God, we too are sons and daughters of God. That’s what we are told in 1 John 3:1-3…
1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
We are reborn as children of God through faith in Jesus.
We are being remade into the image of Jesus as sons and daughters of God.
The full scope of that remaking will only be revealed when Jesus comes again.
Until then everyone who hopes in Jesus purifies himself, just as He is pure—or we could say, until then everyone who hopes in Jesus strives to be an imitator of God.
The only way to learn to be an imitator of God is by learning from Jesus and following Him closely. Only Jesus, God in the flesh, has made God known to us. John 1:18 says…
18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
There is no understanding God apart from Jesus Christ.
There is no imitating God without imitating Jesus.
[ILLUS] I’ve told you about my children. Dalton’s the oldest, then Lydia who was the baby of the family for a couple of years before Madelyn arrived. When Madelyn, Lydia moved right over and took up the role of middle-child with such maturity. But Madelyn did not and has not taken up the role of other middle-child even though she now has a one-year-old baby sister.
You see, for the first four years of Madelyn’s life, she was the baby of the family. And when you’re the baby of the family for four years, it’s not so easy to stop just because another baby arrives.
Every now and again, our actual baby, Lillian, the one-year-old, will be needy and Madelyn will take that as a cue to be needy herself in that very same moment. It’s a test she runs to determine who is the real baby of the family.
We had one such episode yesterday afternoon, which prompted Lydia, our daughter who is experienced in trials of being a middle-child, to get up and address Madelyn in a very professional manner, “Madelyn. Meet me at 8 o’clock in the morning in our room, so I can begin to teach you how to be a middle child.”
[APP] Just as Madelyn needs to learn to be a middle child from Lydia, we need to learn to be sons and daughters of God from the unique Son of God, Jesus Christ.
As we follow Him, we will find ourselves living an imitators of God.
[TS] …
COMMAND #2: As new creations in Christ Jesus, we are to walk in love.
COMMAND #2: As new creations in Christ Jesus, we are to walk in love.
2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
[EXP] Of all God’s communicable attributes, the one that we must imitate above all others is love.
Love is not just a feeling. Love is an action. Therefore, we are not to just feel love, but we are to walk in love.
Paul uses the word “walk” throughout his letter to the Ephesians to talk about how they should live as followers of Christ.
Here he says they should live in love—but this love is described very specifically in terms of how Jesus loved them.
His love was a sacrificial love.
“Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us…” (Eph. 5:2a)
Jesus gave Himself as the sacrifice for our sins. We were all sinners. We were all rebels against God, breakers of His law. The price for that sin is death, but Jesus died that death for us.
He who had no sin gave Himself up as the perfect sacrifice for our sin so that we would stand righteous before God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).
Three days after His death on the cross, Jesus was raised from the dead “putting an end to the agony of death” for all who trust in Him (Acts 2:24).
You see, the Bible says that when sin is full-grown, it leads to death (James 1:15), but in the death and resurrection of Jesus death has lost its sting and sin has lost its power (1 Cor. 15:56).
Victory over sin and death is ours in Jesus Christ! (1 Cor. 15:57)
And don’t miss this, the sacrificial love of Jesus was a love pleasing to God.
The sacrifice of Jesus was “a fragrant aroma” rising up to God (Eph. 5:2c).
Burnt offerings were made under the Law of Moses and as they were burned, the smoke from sacrificial animals and other offerings was described as rising up to God in a way that pleased Him or satisfied Him.
It was the faith of His people in obeying these commands that really pleased Him.
The sacrifice of Jesus as He offered Himself for us on the cross was an offering that pleased and satisfied God because obeyed every command of God to perfection.
He was a lamb without spot or blemish. Therefore, God is pleased to receive Him as our sacrifice when we trust Him as our Savior.
Have you trusted Jesus as your Savior?
Do you believe that Jesus gave Himself for you?
[ILLUS] A pastor from way back, a guy named Donald Grey Barnhouse, was once counseling a couple when the husband erupted in frustration toward his wife.
“I don’t understand it. I have given you anything a woman could want. I’ve given you a nice house. I’ve given you a car. I’ve given you all the clothes you can wear. I’ve given you...” and on and on he went.
When he had finished, his wife replied with a sad voice, “Yes, John. That much is true. You have given me everything… but yourself.”
Jesus doesn’t just give us nice things while keeping the best thing back from us. Jesus is the best thing, and He has given Himself to us!
[APP] Now, if Jesus has loved us like this, then we are empowered to love others in the way of Jesus.
We are empowered to take up our cross and love sacrificially.
This won’t always be fun because considering others more important than ourselves or looking to someone else’s desires rather than our own is not gratifying to our sinful flesh.
But it is pleasing to God because it is the way Jesus has loved us.
[ILLUS] From time to time I have the privilege of performing wedding ceremonies for Christian couples. More than once I’ve been asked to read 1 Corinthians 13 because “it’s so romantic.” But 1 Corinthians 13 isn’t describing romantic love. It’s describing Christian love. It’s describing the way we should love one another because the way Jesus loved us.
First Corinthians 13 says that we are nothing without this kind of love (1 Cor. 13:2).
First Corinthians 13 says that we gain nothing without this kind of love (1 Cor. 13:3).
It says that love in the way of Jesus…
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
[TS] …
Conclusion
Conclusion
You have been loved by God in Jesus Christ, so receive His love, and go love others in His Name.
Or, as Paul said it…
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
[PRAYER]