EPHESIANS 5:1-8 - Imitators of God

Introduction

Last year Hannah and I traveled down to Southlake, Texas to attend the G3 Reformation Conference—it was a wonderful time of worship and excellent preaching from several well-known speakers and theologians. A few months after the conference, the news broke that one of the speakers at that event had, for the last several years, been carrying on an extramarital affair with a young woman about half his age. The response from his church and the ministry he had founded was swift and clear-cut; he was removed from all of his ministry positions and pastoral duties, his social media accounts were all deleted, his teaching content and books pulled from circulation (including a book on preaching that has been one of the most beneficial I have ever read.)

This kind of response to sexual scandal within Christianity is met with different reactions from the outside—on the one hand, the enemies of the Gospel immediately take their shots at how hypocritical and judgmental Christians are, and bring reproach on the Name of Christ by saying that Christians are no different from anyone else in regards their moral behavior. (And indeed, such behavior does bring reproach on the Name of Christ, for reasons that will hopefully become clear to us as we study our passage this morning.)

But there is another segment of the watching world that is simply confused by the way faithful Christians react to sexual sin—they wonder (especially in a case like this, where there was no actual physical sin between the two of them)—what’s the big deal?? “Why are you Christians so hung up on these issues? What two consenting adults do between themselves is nobody’s business. Just leave people alone to love who they want to love in the way they want to do it!”

But the real reason that these types of sins are so disastrous; the reason that Christians are so alarmed by them and fight so hard to separate from them is not because we are condemning the one who falls or are trying to embarrass or humiliate them—we are so alarmed when we see a fellow Christian fall because it demonstrates how deceptive sin is!

Remember as we read earlier in Ephesians 4:22, where we are called

Ephesians 4:22 LSB

to lay aside, in reference to your former conduct, the old man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,

This kind of sin is deceitful; it convinces its victim that they are not really sinning; it enables a person to craft an elaborate story for themselves to justify their behavior. And if this sin can take down someone like Steve Lawson, then none of us can afford to be complacent!

As we begin Ephesians 5 this morning, we are continuing through the Apostle Paul’s exhortations to the church in Ephesus

Ephesians 4:23–24 LSB

...to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Through the end of Chapter 4 Paul gives several specific ways we are able to put off the old life and put on the new—laying aside falsehood (v. 25), anger (v. 26), dishonesty (v. 28), bitterness, anger, slander, malice (v. 31). Instead of those things, Paul says, we now have the ability in Christ to

Ephesians 4:32 LSB

...be kind to one another, tender-hearted, graciously forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has graciously forgiven you.

And as we pick up with Chapter 5, Paul will go on to urge that

Ephesians 5:3 LSB

...sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;

Here in these verses we have apostolic instruction on how to guard ourselves against the lusts of deceit—how to fortify ourselves in our walk in Christ so that we may fight against the constant current of this sexualized society that we live in. We are continuously bombarded with images, songs, movies, advertisements, websites, clothing styles, TV shows and more that make everything about sex. It pervades the atmosphere of our culture like a neighboring farmer fertilizing his fields with pig manure—nowhere to go to escape the stench.

So what do we do? Do we cower in our homes with our TV unplugged and only use an old rotary phone so we won’t accidentally see the wrong thing? The problem with that approach—using strict rules on our behavior of what we will or won’t see—unfortunately has the opposite effect of inflaming our temptations—as Paul said in Romans 7:8, sin takes the opportunity through our rules and regulations and laws to create in us a greater desire for what we are trying to avoid by our rules.

The passage here before us today not only warns us against sexual immorality, impurity and greed, but I want to argue that it gives us a strategy for fighting that sin. Here is the way that I want to present the main argument of this passage this morning—here in Ephesians 5:1-7, you are promised that

Walking in the SELFLESS LOVE of Christ will free you from wallowing the SELFISH LUSTS of the world

The reason that I suggest this as the main argument of Ephesians 5:1-7 is because of the structure we see in this passage. Paul begins with a command to walk in love, and then he goes on to say that we must not walk in immorality. When you are walking as Christ did, you will not walk in the impurity of the world around you.

Let’s dive into the first two verses of this passage, where we are called to

I. Imitate the SACRIFICE that REDEEMED God’s CHILDREN (Ephesians 5:1-2)

Ephesians 5:1–2 LSB

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

The first thing we are told is that we are to be “imitators of God as beloved children”. You’ve probably seen a little boy with his dad, carefully looking at him to make sure he’s sitting in the exact same position or walking in exactly the same way? This is the idea here—that children who are loved by their Father want to walk just like Him. And since our Father walks in love, we are to do the same.

But then we have to ask, “What does walking in love look like?” The little boy walking with his dad will study his gait, watch what he does with his arms as he walks, take in everything so he can imitate it. Well, we get to see how God walks in love by watching how Jesus loved (John 14:10). And this verse tells us that Christ loved us by giving Himself up for us. We know how to walk like God our Father because

Christ GAVE Himself in LOVE

The love that Christ showed us was a sacrificial love. It was a self-forgetful love. He endured the Cross, despising its shame for the joy of redeeming you from death! He gave Himself up for us! This is the very heart of the Gospel—that Jesus Christ gave up His righteousness and took on our sin. He did not count His life as His own, but came as an offering and a sacrifice. “This is my body, broken for you...” When you govern your life with the same heart for sacrificial love that redeemed you; when your walk is guided by loving others and serving them and cherishing them and delighting in them, it will be very hard indeed to treat them as objects for the satisfaction of your own appetites.

Walking in the selfless love of Christ means walking as Christ did—He gave Himself in love, and the end of Verse 2 shows us that

Christ DEVOTED Himself to GOD (cp. Lev. 1:9)

Christ’s giving Himself up for us is described in three ways in Verse 2:

Ephesians 5:2 LSB

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

In the Old Testament, God’s people were called to make three types of sacrifices in their worship. There was the sin offering, which was an offering of blood to cover their offenses against God, and there was the peace offering, which was eaten together in God’s presence as a sign of His fellowship with them under the terms of the Covenant. The other type of offering was called the “whole burnt offering” or “ascension offering” (olah in Hebrew)—it was meant to be completely consumed on the altar, burned until it was gone. It was a sacrifice to represent the worshipper’s entire devotion to YHWH; that there is no part of their life that does not go up in the smoke and flames of the sacrifice. The ascension offering

it is described in passages like Leviticus 1:9

Leviticus 1:9 LSB

...And the priest shall offer up in smoke all of it on the altar for a burnt offering, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to Yahweh.

When the Apostle Paul uses this image to describe Christ’s sacrifice, he is bringing in that idea of Christ’s entire devotion to God—He came to do His Father’s will (John 5:30), His life was given over to obedience. And this is your great hope, Christian—because you have been given the mind of Christ! You have been given the same capacity to imitate the sacrifice that redeemed God’s children—not, of course, in that you are able to redeem someone from their sin as Christ did, but you are able to love sacrificially as He did. To love someone in a way that costs you. Taking on their hardship or pain or anxiety with them so that you can offer them your comfort and peace—this is what Jesus did for you:

2 Corinthians 5:21 LSB

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

It is this kind of self-sacrificial walk that imitates the sacrifice that redeemed you, Christian, and because you have the mind of Christ you are able to walk in this way. When your heart, soul, mind and strength is devoted to loving others, serving them and delighting in them as precious image-bearers of God, then you will be able in His strength to

II. Kill the DESIRES that DEGRADE God’s IMAGE (Ephesians 5:3-4)

in them. Consider what sexual immorality does—it turns an image-bearer of God, a precious creation of His hands, a fellow bearer of a never-dying soul with extraordinary worth in the eyes of his or her Creator and turns them into an object of pleasure to be consumed by your lust. It is the exact opposite of self-sacrificial love, it is self-gratifying lust.

And so Paul is as clear as can be that those desires cannot be allowed to reign in the Christian.

Ephesians 5:3 LSB

But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;

In order to kill those self-gratifying desires, God’s Word calls you to

Examine the AFFECTIONS of your HEART (v. 3)

Like the old saying goes, sins are like grapes—they tend to come in clusters; here are three sins listed in Verse 3 that are all interrelated: the Greek word for “sexual immorality” (porneia—where we get the word “pornography”) refers to any expression of sexual activity that occurs outside of the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman. The word impurity literally means “uncleanness” or “filthiness”, and is particularly used to describe sexual sins; they are filthy, dirty, revolting. The third sin listed is “greed”, which (as we considered previously) has the basic idea of “never enough”—in the context of this verse you can easily see the nature of sexual sin: It never satisfies you; you have to keep looking, keep watching, keep finding more and more ways to satisfy your lust.

Sexual expression is a good gift of God that is meant to be the glue that binds a marriage together and fills that marriage with children to be raised in the nurture and admonition of the LORD. But see how each of these sins short-circuits that good gift of God in some way—sexual immorality is wanting that good thing from the wrong place; impurity is wanting it in the wrong way; and greed is the inevitable dissatisfaction from having it in the wrong way or from the wrong place.

Paul says that this heart condition should be utterly unthinkable among the “saints”—those who have put on the renewed mind of the new man do not want to degrade others as sexual objects, but desire to serve them in sacrificial love. Christian, you are called to kill the desires that degrade God’s image in others through those sins of sexual immorality, impurity and greed.

Verse 3 describes the inner life—immorality, impurity and greed are the condition of that futile mind that we are called to put off. But then in Verse 4 Paul transitions from the inner life of these sins to the external outworking of these sins. As Jesus taught, “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). When you are indulging that old futility of mind instead of putting it off, then it will come out of your lips. The three sins of the heart in Verse 3 are all committed inwardly; the three sins of Verse 4 are committed outwardly:

Ephesians 5:4 LSB

nor filthiness and foolish talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

And so, see here that you must not only examine the affections of your heart, but you must also

Evaluate the WORDS of your MOUTH (v. 4)

These three outward sins are described as “filthiness”—think of obscenities, such as the proverbial “F-bomb”. “Foolish talk” is the English translation of morologia - “Moron speech”. It was used in Greek to describe the inappropriate ramblings of a drunkard, and in this context refers to things like dirty jokes and speaking in an inappropriate way about sexual topics. (It’s been well-said elsewhere, and the Scripture here bears it out, that “Profanity is the last refuge of the weak-minded.”) The last word, “coarse jesting” is literally translated “wittiness”, or a “clever turn of phrase”. Think of things like double entendre, where an apparently innocent statement hides a dirty or obscene meaning. Paul says here again that it is not fitting that these sins should be found in the mouths of God’s beloved children. That kind of speech has no place in the mouth of a Christian, and do indulge in those sins reveals a heart that has been overrun by sexual immorality, impurity and greed.

See again here: A mouth filled with obscenities belongs to a person that doesn’t care about others; someone who is willing to tell filthy jokes or find clever ways of talking dirty without using “dirty” words is a person who is not thinking of how their speech can build others up or minister grace to them (cp. Eph. 4:29). These are sins that reveal an essentially self-centered and self-indulgent heart—a heart that has no place in the self-sacrificing love of a child of God.

Walking in the selfless love of Christ will free you from wallowing in the selfish lusts of the world. Imitate the sacrifice that redeemed God’s children, kill the desires that degrade God’s image in others, and in Verses 5-6 we are called to

III. Acknowledge the BEHAVIOR that RISKS God’s WRATH (Ephesians 5:5-6)

These sins, as we have seen, are particularly deceptive sins—and so as we

Ephesians 4:22 LSB

to lay aside… the old man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit

we need to confess that this is serious sin:

Ephesians 5:5 LSB

For this you know with certainty, that no one sexually immoral or impure or greedy, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

If your heart is filled with sexual immorality, impurity and greed—if your speech is filled with filthiness, foolish talk and coarse jesting—then you have a heart that cannot co-exist with Christ. Understand what Paul is saying here:

A RENEWED heart cannot keep its IDOLS (v. 5)

Can you begin to see why faithful Christians react so strongly to the threat of sexual immorality? Can you see here that this is not just “being a prude”, this is not some kind of congenital “fear of sex”, this isn’t some leftover “puritanical judgmentalism”. The fight against this kind of sin is a fight for your soul. You cannot simultaneously indulge in sexual immorality in the same heart that has been renewed by Christ. You cannot claim Christ as your satisfaction while setting up idols to your lusts. You cannot bless the Name of Christ in worship one day and pour out filth and dirt from the same mouth the next.

The world will tell you that Christians are just too uptight; that a few obscenities now and then help get your point across; that even if it’s dirty, it’s still funny; that as long as you never act on your fantasies or illicit desires it’s OK; that at least you’re not consuming the really dirty stuff. But Paul warns you here in verse 6 that

A REBEL heart cannot escape God’s WRATH (v. 6)

Ephesians 5:6 LSB

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

This is a reference back to Chapter 2, where Paul writes about the way

Ephesians 2:2 LSB

...you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience,

It is easy to convince yourself that you really don’t have a problem with sexual immorality—even to the point that you can go on preaching and teaching in full-time ministry while having an affair or being enslaved to pornography or caught up in a secret double life that runs after the impurity and greed and ugliness of a self-centered, self-indulgent immorality. But God’s Word warns: Those who go on filling their hearts and their mouths with the immorality, impurity and filthiness of those desires that degrade God’s image in others are risking the eternal wrath of Almighty God.

And so what is to be done? Does God’s Word shine its light into corners of your heart that you’d rather not face this morning? Does your language, your jokes, your plays on words reveal that there is a self-indulgent heart of immorality, uncleanness and never-satisfied appetite within you? Does this all sound to you like typical Christian prudishness that needs to drop its hangups about sex and morality?

Has God’s Word laid you low this morning because you see the truth about your heart? Have you been forsaking that self-sacrificial love for others that you are called to walk in and have been indulging in immorality and uncleanness by which you are degrading the image of God in your fellow creatures? That girl on that screen that you are using to satisfy your lust is an eternal image-bearer of the Almighty God. That raunchy joke you are guffawing over; that filthy language that comes pouring out of your mouth is degrading and diminishing one of the holiest and purest gifts God ever gave to mankind. The heart that produces that lust; the mouth that spits out those obscenities has no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ.

There is only one remedy for you who are walking in the selfish lusts of the world; there is only one way out—hear this invitation from God’s powerful, authoritative Word this morning:

IV. Embrace the RENEWAL that WALKS in God’s LIGHT (Ephesians 5:7-8)

Ephesians 5:7–8 LSB

Therefore do not be partakers with them, for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

Christian—here is the amazing promise that God’s Word offers to you: Even though you feel like you are up to your eyeballs in the muck of this sin,

You have the POWER to walk AWAY (v. 7)

Paul says it simply:

Ephesians 5:7 LSB

Therefore do not be partakers with them,

Don’t join in with the raunch-fest; don’t hang out at the parties; don’t chuckle along with the filthy stories—it doesn’t mean you have to turn into some kind of purse-lipped, disapproving Mrs. Grundy, but it does mean that you have the ability to simply separate yourself. Not out of a legalistic sense of mere disapproval; but out of a deeper sense of delight in God. This power to walk away is not simply your willpower and superior moral fiber—that’s just judgmental legalism (and all that will do is just make the problem worse in your heart!) But this power to walk away, this power to turn from the selfish indulgence of immorality and impurity and greed comes from a delight in the holiness you have been granted in the New Birth in Christ!

When the Apostle writes that we are to replace filthiness and foolish talk and coarse jesting with thanksgiving, he is showing us something powerful about our ability to walk away from this sin—sexual immorality and lust and greed are essentially ungrateful sins—we want what we want when we want it, and we are not content to have these desires fulfilled in God’s way on His terms. And so we fight the temptation to self-centered impure greed by thanking God for the good gifts He has given us! As Matthew Henry puts it in his commentary on this passage:

...so far let the Christian’s way of mirth be from that of obscene and profane wit, that he may delight his mind, and make himself cheerful, by a grateful remembrance of God’s goodness and mercy to him, and by blessing and praising him on account of these. (Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 2316). Hendrickson.)

Beloved, you have the power to walk away from this sin—In Christ you have the ability through the renewed mind of the new man to replace obscenity with thanksgiving, and in verse 8, Paul says that

You have the GRACE to walk FREE (v. 8)

Ephesians 5:8 LSB

for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

And here we come full circle back to where we began—in Verses 1-2 we are called to imitate God by “walking in love”; and here we are called to “walk as children of light”. The deceptiveness of sexual sin will tell you that it is impossible to be free; that you will struggle and fail your whole life to be free of sexual immorality and impurity. That the sins of your past are utterly ineraseable; you will always bear the shame of your past behavior, the guilt of your impurity will never let you go.

But look at what the living, active, powerful and authoritative Word of God says to you, Christian: “You WERE formerly darkness—BUT NOW YOU ARE LIGHT IN THE LORD!! You really are free in Christ!

The lust of deceitfulness will try to convince you that there is no real forgiveness for sexual sin; that there is no real escape from porn; that there is no point in trying to walk away because it will always catch you again. And while it certainly is true that you and I will not be sinless until we awaken in the presence of Christ in eternity, it is also certainly true—that you and I will sin less as we walk with Christ!

Beloved, God’s Word promises here that you can be holier than you ever thought possible. You can be freer of these sins than you ever dreamed; you can walk more freely, more surely, more confidently in an imitation of your Father’s walk of love than you could have ever thought. The sins of lust, greed and impurity that have you by the throat have been conquered on the Cross. Jesus died to free you from their power; He rose again to give you His life. God’s Word promises you, Christian:

Romans 6:6 LSB

...that [your] old man was crucified with Him, in order that [your] body of sin might be done away with, so that [you] would no longer be [a slave] to sin...

When you came to Christ in repentance for your sins and called on Him to save you, He gave you everything you need to put off the old futile mind! You are free to delight in sacrificing for others, free to honor the image of God that every person bears, free to replace the filthiness and foolish talk with thanksgiving, free to see through the shallow lies of this world’s empty promises of pleasure and free to walk as children of light, in the sacrificial love of your dear Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Jude 24–25 LSB

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

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