Ephesians 5:1-4 (2)

Ephesians 5:1–4 ESV

1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

The importance of having a father both in the home, and a desire to love their children each day, to have a productive life in this world.

People who are homeless, or in prison have a common story of an absent father or a father who was there but did not have any love for his child

We are tasked to be productive in this world of Ephesians 4-6. The land of imperatives are opened up to us, and in order for us to find our life in it, we are to hold on to the same needed item, of a Father who is near and loves us.

Ephesians 5:1 “1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”

Scary for a couple reasons.

How can we imitate the eternal, awesome and powerful God? He creates and maintains by the Word.

Well, the imitation here is strictly as it relates to being made in God’s image with the task to image him to creation. I.e. living morally righteously. Or, obeying Jesus in the land of the imperatives.

God has made you in his image with the greatest purpose for you to imitate him in creation

2. Scary for a second reason. Each sin that is left over from our old life reminds us of who are original father was:

Ephesians 2:3 “3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

Ephesians 2:2 “2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—”

John 8:44–45 “44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.”

He was a father who was not absent, though it would be much better for us. But he was a father that was always around desiring our demise and evil.

Like a father who trains up a child to do drugs and get in trouble with the law. Or a father who trains up their child to be confused over their gender and sexuality

As we sin in the land of the imperatives, we are reminded of our old life with our old father, and we can grimace at this exhortation to imitate God.

And what this can lead to, if not in our words in the motivation of our actions as we see such imperatives like imitate God, it can lead to us performing our actions to try and earn God’s good favor—which is a vain and lifeless pursuit.

Instead...

Oh but did you notice a indicative hidden in the land of imperatives that is meant to help us get our grip and strengthen us for the task at hand?

Ephesians 5:1 “1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”

Notice Paul does not say, “be imitators in order to be a beloved child of God.”

Rather, the imperative to imitate God comes forth from the fact that you are already a beloved child of God.

Romans 5:8 “8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

And so our Father went from wanting to do us harm in which we do not survive the land of the imperatives, to having a love for us to strengthen us for the land to enjoy it.

So what’s our first conclusion? Imitating God and finding life in the imperative land is possible with a Father in the house who loves us.

Now we have established that it is necessary, to enjoy the imperative land of imitating God, to ground ourselves in the indicative of being loved children—but it must be understood of how God has shown or revealed that love.

For even Satan as our old father would tell us that he loves us, all the while his actions revealed he hated us and wanted our hurt. How many of us in our old life of sin did we do it thinking the influence of sin in our lives was for our good, when really it was Satan that wanted our death.

No, God says he loves us, and the way he shows it to us both gives us the strength for the imperative of imitation, and it gives us the example.

What do I mean?

Well let’s first look at the revealing of the love to us that empowers us for the land of imperatives.

Notice how 5:1 says therefore, it is pointing to what was said before. And it is anticipating what goes on ahead. Thus, we see that we are beloved children who are to imitate God by what he said before, and what he is about to say. What did he say before?

Ephesians 4:32 “32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

And what does he say after?

Ephesians 5:2 “2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Both of these things reveal God’s love for us as his children, and it gives us the power and gives us the example of life in the imperatives.

Power of forgiveness and sacrifice

Sacrifice is the power of forgiveness, and together it is the power of your imitation as it displays God’s love for you as his child

People as they look at their life in shambles, the last thing they think they need is forgiveness. Usually the blame is on something or someone else; if I just had this or that.

But the Bible is clear, the problem we have in our lives is that we are estranged from our Creator.

To say it bluntly and emphatically, God is angry with the wicked everyday

And you cannot go a day with God being angry at you and live a pleasant life.

This is why forgiveness revealed and empowered by the sacrifice of Jesus is essential to the power of imitating a God we once angered.

Look at the way the power of forgiveness is detailed

Ephesians 5:2 “2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Hebrews 10:5–7 “5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ””

The offerings and sacrifice of old did not suffice to turn away God’s anger to a sinful people.

So God the Son took on flesh and gave up himself unto death on the cross

And since it was a fragrant offering and sacrifice it was pleasing to God, and thus makes him pleased with you and me

Do you remember what caused God not to destroy the whole world despite our sin? The offering of Noah that was pleasing to him

Genesis 8:21 “21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.”

This was a shadow of the sacrifice the God man would provide that would please him despite our unpleasing sin.

It was a fragrant offering, a pleasing aroma to God that his son sacrificed himself for sinners. It pleased him to crush him since he was ending sin with his death

Conclude the section on God’s love for us in Christ (forgiveness and sacrifice) with Romans 8:31-39.

This highlights that nothing can keep us from being the beloved—gives us strength to imitate God.

In Christ—with this forgiveness by his sacrifice, we are beloved children.

Does this mean that when we sin we do not need to feel bad about it? No, we feel bad, but it brings us to the foot of the cross.

Therefore, as we see the imperative, be imitators of God, and we come toe to toe with our failures to do so, we look to the power of the cross to forgive and cause us to walk moving forward as beloved children.

But of course, Paul’s point here is not just to underline the power behind what makes us beloved children of God.

His point is also that in executing the power of what makes us beloved children, we are provided an example for us to imitate.

Thus Christ is the power and the example that we are to imitate

Ephesians 4:32 “32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Ephesians 5:2 “2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

To imitate God means to walk in love—and that means to have a heart of forgiveness to everyone, and to have a sacrificial disposition towards others.

Now we are not called to forgive in the same that Christ forgave his bride of their sins

We are not called to sacrifice ourselves in the same way that Christ did for his church to empower that forgiveness

But we are able to imitate it in different ways

Forgiving:

Matthew 18:21–35 ESV

21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. 23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Your heart should be so overwhelmed by the forgiveness that God has offered to you that you have a level of excitement when you are given a chance to show a minor example of that forgiveness to others.

When we decide not to imitate this example of Jesus, we show we are experiencing a lesser taste of God’s forgiveness to us:

A women weep at Jesus’ feet in the house of a pharisee

Luke 7:47 “47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.””

Sacrifice:

As Jesus lead by offering the greatest of all sacrifice, we should be eager to sacrifice ourselves as the essence of our walk in love.

One we move on to the example of Christ, connect it with the example before 5:1 and show how it is not only an example but in the example is the power given to us (forgiveness and sacrifice).