Ephesians 5.1a-The Believer Must Conduct Their Life By Imitating the Father's Love for Them
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday January 8, 2026
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 5:1a-The Believer Must Conduct Their Life By Imitating God the Father’s Love for Them
Lesson # 305
Ephesians 5:1 Therefore, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of conducting your lives by imitating the one and only God because each and every one without exception are beloved children. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 5:1 is composed of the following:
(1) Inferential command: Ginesthe oun mimētai tou theou (Γίνεσθε οὖν μιμηταὶ τοῦ θεοῦ), “Therefore, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of conducting your lives by imitating the one and only God (Lecturer’s translation)
(2) Elliptical causal clause: hōs tekna agapēta (ὡς τέκνα ἀγαπητὰ), “because each and every one without exception are beloved children. (Lecturer’s translation)
Therefore, we can see that command required that the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia were to continue to make it their habit of conducting their lives by imitating God while the causal clause asserts that they are the Father’s beloved children and presents the reason for this command.
In Ephesians 5:1, the inferential conjunction oun (οὖν) is marking this command as an inference from the contents of Ephesians 4:25-32.
Therefore, the command in Ephesians 5:1 to be imitators of God the Father because the believer is His beloved child is the logical conclusion which can be derived from the various commands and prohibitions presented in Ephesians 4:25-32.
In this command in Ephesians 5:1, the noun mimētēs (μιμητής) speaks of the recipients of this epistle being “imitators” of the manner in which God the Father loved them in eternity past.
The Father loved them when He elected them in eternity past by predestinating them to adoption as His sons (cf. Eph. 1:3-6; Rom. 8:28-29).
The Father also loved them through the work of His Son on the cross when His Son suffered His wrath in their place when they are spiritually dead and His enemies (cf. Rom. 5:6-8).
The Father also loved them through the work of the Spirit at their justification who identified them with His Son in His resurrection and session at His right hand when they were spiritually dead and His enemies (cf. Eph. 2:1-6).
Imitating the Father by obeying His Son’s command to self-sacrificially love another as He self-sacrificially loved by suffering the Father’s wrath on the cross for them when they were His enemies would result in the believer reflecting the character and conduct of each member of the Trinity.
The noun theos (θεός) refers to the Father which is indicated by the articular construction of the noun, which in the New Testament commonly signifies the Father unless otherwise indicated by the context.
Furthermore, in every instance in which the word has appeared up to this point in the Ephesian letter, the Father is this word’s referent (1:1, 2, 3, 17, 2:4, 8, 10, 16, 19, 22, 3:2, 7, 9, 10, 9, 10, 19; 4:6, 13, 18, 24, 30, 32).
The articular construction of the noun theos (θεός) is the “par excellence” use of the article, which expresses the idea that there were many gods in the world, but the God Jewish and Gentile Christians worship was the one and only true God in contrast to unregenerate humanity, which worshipped the pantheon of Graeco-Roman gods.
The verb ginomai (γίνομαι) pertains to conducting one’s life in a particular way or manner.
The word is employed in this fashion by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2:10.
Therefore, in Ephesians 5:1, the verb would express the idea that the recipients of this letter were “to conduct their lives in a particular manner or fashion.”
The context identifies their conduct is to be imitating God the Father and in particular imitating the Father’s love for them.
Thus, it indicates that they were to continue conduct their lives by imitating the Father’s attribute of love for them.
The referent of the second person plural form of this verb is the recipients of this letter, who were noted many times in our study of Ephesians were members of the Gentile Christian community living throughout the Roman province of Asia.
The word is not only referring to them as a corporate unit but also as individuals because the second person plural form of this verb is also used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.
The noun mimētēs (μιμητής) functions as a predicate nominative meaning that it is making an assertion about the subject.
Therefore, it is making the assertion that they must continue to make it their habit of conducting their lives by imitating the Father’s attribute of love.
Therefore, the verb ginomai (γίνομαι) expresses the idea that the recipients of this letter when interacting with each other “must continue make it their habit of conducting their lives” by imitating the Father by obeying His Son’s command to love one another, which manifests the Father’s attribute of love.
This interpretation of this verb is indicated by the fact that Paul wants the Christian community to imitate the Father by practicing His Son’s command to love one another as His Son loved them when they are the enemies of the Father and the Son and the Spirit.
This indicated by the fact that Ephesians 5:2 explains the command in Ephesians 5:1 as practicing the command to love another as the Son loved them.
Secondly, the command in Ephesians 5:1 is an inference from the various commands and prohibitions in Ephesians 4:25-32 because obedience to them is imitating God the Father’s love for them.
Lastly, this interpretation is indicated by the elliptical causal clause, which follows the command in Ephesians 5:1, namely hōs tekna agapēta (ὡς τέκνα ἀγαπητὰ), “because each and every of you as a corporate unity are His beloved children,” which implies that the members of the Christian community are the recipients, beneficiaries and objects of the Father’s love at the moment of their justification.
The present imperative conjugation of the verb ginomai (γίνομαι) is a customary present imperative, which not only expresses the idea of the recipients of this letter “making it their habit of” conduct their lives by imitating the Father’s love for them but also “continuing” to do so because Paul affirms in Ephesians 1:15 that they were already practicing the love of God when interacting with each other.
Therefore, the present imperative conjugation of this verb expresses the idea that they “must continue to make it their habit of” conducting their live by imitating the Father’s love for them.
This would be accomplished by obedience to His Son’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another self-sacrificially loved them when they were spiritually dead and His enemies.
The middle voice of the ginomai (γίνομαι) is a reciprocal middle, which may be used with a plural subject to represent interaction among themselves.
There is an interchange of effort among the subjects with this type of middle.
Therefore, the reciprocal middle voice of this verb expresses the idea of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia interacting with each other and exercising an interchange of effort among each other.
This interchange and interaction with each other would be that of being imitators of the Father.
This would be accomplished by practicing His Son’s Spirit inspired command to self-sacrificially love another as He has self-sacrificially loved them.
This would manifest the fact that they are His children since obedience to this command reflects and manifests His attribute of love.
Thus, to imitate the Father is to practice His love when interacting with one’s fellow believer.
