Imitate God in Love (Eph. 5:1–6)

Series: Ephesians: Building the ChurchText: Ephesians 5:1–6

By: Shaun Marksbury Date: April 30, 2023

Venue: Living Water Baptist ChurchOccasion: PM Service

Introduction

There was an interesting study on accents I remember reading a while back (though I wasn’t able to find for this sermon). It went something like this: People in accidents who wake up in the hospital room or who emerge from anesthesia speak in their native accents, whether they be from the South, the Midwest, or elsewhere. Those are accents learned in the home and are as natural as talking for the individual. They learned it by imitation.

Other accents are not so. They are also learned by imitation. It’s partly influenced by culture, TikTok videos, and the like. There are certain vocal fries that women will adopt, and young men wanting to signal their sexual preferences will sometimes adopt an effeminate lisp. Those are affected accents that people can lose in times of disorientation and stress.

The Lord calls us to holy imitation in this chapter. Of course, He does so in the context of His people, Christians (this will all be an unnatural affectation for unbelievers). It results in a holy manner of life that He began unfolding in the previous chapter, including putting off the old man, being renewed in our minds, and putting on the new man in Christ.

This “put off/put on” relationship appears here again as the church with the worthy walk imitates God. This is a command, so we’ll first note the positive command (vv. 1–2). We’ll then look at the negative example of loving others (vv. 3–6).

First, Note Our Decree to Imitate God (vv. 1–2).

These opening verses give us yet another practical look at how we’re to live and to treat others. We could also consider this as an explanation of the Second Table of the Law, the latter portion of the Ten Commandments which explain how we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. We’ll note first the command for imitating God, and then we’ll look at the criterion for that imitation.

The Command for Imitation (vv. 1–2a)

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love,

The “therefore” points us backward; this command is based on what we’ve read about gospel transformation. It’s essential that we get this down. Again, this passage isn’t a command for how to get saved, but a command about what to do with that salvation. Paul says that we are to do this “as beloved children” not “to become beloved children.”

So, the gospel forms the foundation for the command. As such, take another look at Ephesians 4:32. It says, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” The command for imitation starts with recognizing the good news about the love of Christ and His forgiveness. We should imitate God in our love for others just as He has shown love for us.

Let’s consider what it means to imitate God. The comparison is to the Grecian plays, where an actor mimics a character of literature. We think of hypocrisy today as fake or false; but here, the believer is acting his true role. The mask slips not to reveal an unbeliever, but a flawed believer trying to live like the God we serve.

While God has many incommunicable attributes (those aspects of His nature that are beyond human ability), He also has many communicable attributes He created in mankind. Consider: Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” and He said Luke 6:36, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” These passages call us to mimic His nature in various arenas.

When we fail to be imitators, we rest in the gospel, a balm to sooth the scars of sin in our souls. We remember in the gospel that Jesus Christ fulfilled such commands, imputing His righteousness on believers. We then also remember we’re “beloved children.”

God calls us “beloved” because He’s set His love on us. This sonship has trumpeted from the first chapter — our adoption (Eph. 1:5). This arrangement should result in our being conformed to the image of the firstborn (Rom. 8:29). Peter uses the same argument (1 Pet. 1:14–16). The fact that we are “beloved” leads naturally into the command to “walk in love” — agape love. We remember this glorious gospel so that we can learn how to properly imitate God in love.

That leads us to the next point.

The Criteria for Imitation (v. 2bc)

just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Again, we are back to considering the gospel, and Jesus loved “and gave Himself for us.” He was a willing substitutionary atonement. The Jews didn’t force Jesus into an unwinnable situation, and the Romans didn’t kill Him on the cross. Jesus volunteered Himself for this service of love. This is the testimony of Scripture (cf. Rom. 4:25; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 5:25).

Indeed, this preposition indicates substitution: He gave Himself in our stead. He did so as “an offering and a sacrifice to God,” which was, of course, pleasing to God. Burnt offerings that were pleasing to God were “a fragrant aroma,” and God promised to forgive their sins (Exod. 29:18, 25; Lev. 4:31). Christ is the example, and He gave Himself as the ransom for our sins. Verses like this call us to see the atonement as specific to believers, not general and impersonal.

That kind of love should be what we live out with our neighbors. A husband should show his wife this kind of committed, self-sacrificial love, even if he is not feeling affection or affectionate. He has a goal in loving her, sacrificing much of what he wants to see her grow in godliness (cf. Eph 5:25–33). He commanded us to love one another just as He loved us (Jn 13:34), as Paul said back in 4:32.

We are imitating God showing love to our neighbors. He’s the standard. When we don’t keep this in mind, we get off track, bringing us to the next point.

Second, Note Our Deficiency in Imitating God (vv. 3–6).

The primary object of our love is obviously the Lord, but Paul has been emphasizing our love for neighbor. Here, Paul now creates a contrast starting with the conjunction “but”; this passage describes a perversion of proper love. Indeed, this kind of self-indulgent behavior is an imitation of the lost world, not the Lord. If we are to imitate God in love, then we must avoid both evil practices and evil people.

We are not imitating God in love when we act like the lost (vv. 3–4)

But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

Consider the three terms that start the apostle’s contrast — immorality, impurity, and greed. First, he says immorality or, as some of your translations may read, “fornication.” The word is pornea, the term from which we get “pornography,” and it refers to all sexual activity outside of marriage. This would have been a weighty temptation for those in the Ephesian culture, famous as it was for the temple to Diana/Artemis (see Acts 19:23–31). Some of the expressions of sexual pride today were present in temple prostitution, including men trying to make themselves look feminine and fully castrate themselves to demonstrate subservience to the priestesses. Sinful humans have always had a way of twisting sexual expression, which God created to be enjoyed with one’s spouse (Pro. 5:18–19); anything other than that is pagan and invites the judgment of God (Heb. 13:4).

The next vice the apostle lists is “impurity.” This is uncleanness that defiles the individual, and Paul says that there shouldn’t be any impurity — perhaps including all kinds of sexual sin. This means that simply avoiding external acts of fornication is not enough to love one’s neighbor; a person must also control lust in his or her own private thoughts. With the free distribution of pornography both in media and through the internet, we must take extra care to remain pure. Otherwise, we will find that we no longer see people as image bearers but as objects of pleasure, certainly failing to love them.

The final vice the apostle gives is “greed.” This is covetousness, an expression of lust; the unbeliever becomes dissatisfied with his current level of impurity and grows greedy for more sin. We could also apply this to other expressions of greed, whether it be of wealth or of a lifestyle. Greed is idolatry (Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5), and as it must take from others, it also stems from an unloving heart. Indeed, such a heart gives rise to more impurity and, when lust has conceived, it gives birth to immortality and death (cf. James 1:14–15).

Paul says that none of this may “even be named among you, as is proper among saints.” The sins he references here in this verse and in the next are to be absent from the Christian community, whether in individuals or the church as a whole. Some churches speak approvingly of sexual immorality today, to their shame. We’re called in holiness to a holy God, however, so we should live in holiness.

This is why church discipline is essential. If a person is guilty of unrepentant sin, then discipline begins as our Jesus prescribed, which includes putting the unrepentant out of the church. We don’t let them continue to sit under the preaching of the Word “just in case,” trying to show misguided grace and patience. While we should never be quick to enact church discipline, neither should we avoid it. The hope is that the individual repent and then be restored to the fellowship, but in the meantime, we purge the evil from among us (1 Cor. 5:1–13).

Not only shouldn’t there be any mention of these sins among the saints, we shouldn’t be lighthearted in our discussion of them. With some of the debauchery common to Ephesus, it might be commonplace for Christians to discuss details of acts they would not engage in, thus deriving vicarious enjoyment. Paul lists three more words that “are not fitting,” words that describe the, well, words of believers. The unbecoming conversation includes filthiness, silly talk, and coarse jesting.

First, consider “filthiness” or obscenity, that which is base. Those who indulge in such conversation reveal their heart (Matt. 12:34). A lot of comedy and entertainment today relies on the filthy, and such words pollute the hearers, enticing them to sin. God commands Christians to put filthiness aside (Col. 3:8), for such enticements are hatred of neighbor.

The second kind of talk to put aside is “silly talk.” No, we’re not talking about delightful matters such as a parent making funny sounds over a baby. This is literally “moronic talk,” that which is spiritually foolish and therefore wicked. This might include bragging about past sins and conquests, and it perhaps includes trivializing important issues — again, a subtle means of tearing down the piety of our neighbors.

Third, Paul also warns us against “coarse jesting.” As many commentaries note, this is typically a good thing in Greek, engaging in “wittiness.” However, in the context here, he must be addressing a crude wit, innuendo, a witty repartee with sexual connotations. An example of this might be akin to the infamous and infectious line of joking, “That’s what she said.” There’s nothing wrong with finding humor in the world around us and engaging in wit, but this is a particular kind of humor to inflame the thoughts of others with sin.

Rather than giving grace to those who hear, a fitting word (as Paul said in 4:29), these kinds of conversations cheapen those around us. Paul now says that we should instead engage in the “giving of thanks.” The speech of gratitude should be definitional of a Christian (see also 5:20), which would, in turn, encourage others to also have gracious speech.

Just as we put off the old man and put on the new in the gospel, we should now follow through by putting off impure speech and put on God-glorifying, neighbor-uplifting words. There should be a difference people note between how Christians speak or live and the rest of the world. Indeed, outsiders should be keenly aware of the difference, as the next point makes clear.

We are not imitating God in love when we act as the condemned (vv. 5–6)

For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

We must remember that the difference is more than just those who know Jesus and those who don’t. Paul warns us here that God condemns the lost world. The wrath of God is coming, and those who embrace and engage in worldly behavior express their own condemnation.

Just consider what we’ve already read. The person engaged in immorality is an “immoral person.” The individual engaged in uncleanness is impure. The greedy is a covetous man. That’s the fearful reality is that those engaged such activities are practicing idolatry, the worship of something or someone other than God. It all comes back to the worship of self, and you are not able to deliver yourself from the penalties of the Judge of all.

Paul isn’t giving us new information, for “you know with certainty.” Such individuals will not have “an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” We could also see this temporally through the church discipline process; such a one is cut off from God’s kingdom blessing today, and will not be able to enter that better country tomorrow. This individual entirely lacks salvation.

There are those who might resist this message, aiming for status quo. However, in v. 6, Paul warns, “Let no one deceive you with empty words.” This would be, perhaps, some of the silly, moronic talk from earlier. As one study Bible puts it, this likely refers to “attempts to trivialize or justify illicit behavior.” As Paul warns in Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” Paul says here that “because of these things” — because of immorality, impurity, and greed, and the justification of these things — “the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience,” so we don’t want to be deceived by empty words into thinking that we will be okay.

There are many false teachers out there seeking to justify worldly behavior. They say that the Bible isn’t clear in its condemnation of certain behaviors. We noted left-leaning younger social-media influencers saying homosexuality isn’t sinful, but we have to watch people on the right, too. For instance, Dennis Prager was saying recently that Jesus was wrong by comparing lust for a woman to adultery, and that even pornography is preferable to adultery. Scripture condemns it all, and because of the gifts Christ has given the church in Ephesians 4 and the transformation that takes place through the gospel, it’s possible for believers to resist deception.

Of course, there is good news here. Earlier, Paul spoke of our inheritance as being according to predestined will of God (Eph. 1:11). As such, this doesn’t refer to a loss of rewards, or a loss of salvation itself, because he doesn’t say that the individual loses what he has. Moreover, the “inheritance” indicates that the kingdom is still to come — and while the kingdom is still not-yet, there is a space for repentance.

Conclusion

Considering the weight of the warnings here, the Christian should desire to distance himself from what God so detests. We should crucify it when we find it in ourselves, putting it off. Yet, we should desire not just outward purity, but also inward cleansing as we are renewed in our minds. The purity in which we should walk will be the subject of next week’s passage. Suffice it for now to say this: to hide secret sin in our hearts is not imitating (nor honoring) the Holy Lord we worship.

Dear Christian, we must correct our thinking about others and this kind of sin. Remember that the sins you cherish are set apart for the wrath of God. Rather than engaging in fornication with an unbeliever, remember that the soul of the unregenerate dangles over the pit of damnation. Such thoughts have a sobering effect on our behavior.

Perhaps the reason you are so impure is that you lack the inheritance of the kingdom, salvation. If you are not a beloved child of God for whom Christ died, then you won’t have the basis to sacrifice your desires and love others properly. However, this need not be your eternal lot; confess your sins to God, repent today, and trust in the substitutionary atonement of Christ.