Ephesians 5.1b-Being a Child of God is the Basis for the Command to Imitate the Father
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Saturday January 10, 2026
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 5:1b-Being a Child of God is the Basis for the Command to Imitate the Father
Lesson # 306
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 verb ginomai (γίνομαι) pertains to conducting one’s life in a particular way or manner.
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.
The middle voice of the ginomai (γίνομαι) is a reciprocal middle, which as we noted 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.
As we noted the inferential command in Ephesians 5:1 is modified by an elliptical causal clause, which asserts that the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia were the Father’s beloved children and presents the reason why they were to obey this command.
In this elliptical clause, the conjunction hōs (ὡς) does not function as a marker of comparison, which would indicate that it marks a comparison between the Christian imitating the character and conduct of God the Father by obeying His Son’s command to love one another as His Son loved them at the cross when they were His enemies and that they are children of God through faith in His Son at justification.
Rather, this word functions as a causal conjunction, which means that the expression tekna agapēta (τέκνα ἀγαπητὰ) presents the reason why the recipients of this epistle must continue to make it their habit of imitating God the Father, namely “because they are His beloved children.”
This interpretation is the most specific semantic value of this word in this particular context.
The noun teknon (τέκνον) speaks of the members of the Christian community during the church age as those who possess the characteristic of being the recipients of God the Father’s love as manifested through the work of His Son at the cross (cf. Rom. 5:6-8) and work of the Spirit at their justification (cf. Eph. 2:4-6).
They appropriated this work when they trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior and were declared justified by the Father as a result of this faith.
At justification, the Spirit identified them with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
They were also adopted in God’s family at justification (cf. Eph. 1:5).
In Ephesians 5:1, the adjective agapētos (ἀγαπητός) expresses the idea that the members of the Christian community possess a close, personal relationship with the members of the Trinity in the sense that they are the recipients, beneficiaries and objects of the triune God’s love as a result of their justification through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
At justification, they appropriated the work of both the Son and the Spirit which were expressions of the Father’s love for them.
This adjective is a reminder that before conversion, they were the object of God’s “impersonal” love but now after conversion, they are the object of God’s personal and affectionate love.
The former means that they were obnoxious and unattractive to God and the latter means that they are now attractive to Him as the Son and the Spirit are as a result of their faith in His Son at justification through regeneration, which produced in them the nature of the Son.
The imputed righteousness they received at their justification transformed them into being objects of the Father’s love.
