The Believer's Walk

Welcome

Good morning once again everyone, and to anyone joining us online good morning as well! We have been studying the book of Ephesians for a number of weeks now, going through it passage by passage and sure enough, we are creeping ever closer to the end of it. Last week we finished chapter four and we looked at how we are called to get rid of our old self, the sinful self, and all of the dirtiness that comes with it, and put on the new self that we have in Christ. We looked at seven different points at how we can put on the new self, but they all pretty much boil down to giving everything that you have to following Jesus. In the way that you speak, act, forgive, and overall live your life, you should do it all out of the new life that you have in Christ. We want to remember to put on this new way of living like how we put on clean clothes each day.

Today then, we are going to be starting chapter five. Like we’ve mentioned before, the second half of Ephesians is pretty much all application. How do we apply what Jesus has done for us in the cross and resurrection into our every day life? Chapter five continues on in this same thread, and provides practical ways on how we can live out the gospel in our lives. We will see how we are supposed to walk in love, walk in light, and walk in wisdom. Let’s read the passage together and then pray over the time that we have to study it.

Ephesians 5:1-20

Prayer

Engage

Our passage begins with this overarching command that everything else flows out of.

Ephesians 5:1 NIV

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children

This verse sets the theme for our entire section this morning. Paul is stating a fairly well known fact here. Children tend to act like their parents, which can be both encouraging and embarrassing at the same time! A child might stand a certain way because that is how mom and dad stand, they might pretend to do whatever mom and dad do, like mowing or cleaning, or maybe they say words or phrases that they hear their parents say all the time. One young girl took imitating her mom to the next level, and made a video of herself acting like her mom when she is working from home. Here’s a brief look at it...

Girl Imitating Mom Video

Kids can and will copy what they see their parents doing. One study was done on just how early kids begin to copy what they see and found that all the way down to a 14 month old can and will copy what they see.

Tension

Paul’s command is fairly straightforward then. Follow God’s example as his dearly loved children. All of us, no matter what age we are, look to certain things and model our lives after them. We might continue to follow the example of our parents, maybe you follow the example of a mentor, a friend, a celebrity, but whatever the case, I think we all look at different people and try to imitate them. The question this morning though, is are you an imitator of God? Do you model yourself, the way you live, the way you interact in this world, after Jesus? Paul gives us this general command, but throughout our passage demonstrates how we can be imitators of God.

Walk in Love (Ephesians 5:1-2)

Ephesians 5:1–2 NIV

1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Paul uses this language of walking once again to illustrate how we are supposed to live. Walking in the way of Christ is extremely important for us. It’s important that what we talk about actually lines up with how we walk in our life. In Matthew 15 Jesus quotes a passage from the book of Isaiah that brings this idea up.

Matthew 15:8 NIV

“ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

We can know the right things, we can know the commands of God and what it means to follow Jesus, but it has to actually be a part of who we are. Our walk has to match up with our talk.

And before we go further into how we are to walk and follow God’s example, notice what Paul says we are. Paul tells us that we are dearly loved children. That is why we walk according to what God says. We don’t walk this way in order to become a dearly loved child, but because we have already been made a beloved child through Christ. This is where Christianity is so different from most other religions. Most religions will teach that if you keep the laws of God, then you will become a child of God. But with Christianity it’s the opposite. Through faith by grace in Jesus, you are made a child of God. Not just a child, but a dearly loved child. This act of love was and is a pure gift to us. Now, because of what Jesus has done, because we have been made children of God through faith by grace in Jesus, we are supposed to imitate him. This comes not out of obligation or duty, but comes out of us because we love him. When we recognize what God has done for us through Christ, we obey and imitate him because of the great amount of love that we have towards him.

Verse 2 says that this walk of love in our lives is set by the example of Jesus. “Just as Christ loved us.” Now if you had to describe the love that Jesus has for you, how would you describe it? It is unconditional, sacrificial, forgiving. This love is like an offering to God. One of the ways that we walk in the way of love is by loving other as Jesus has loved us. What if this was the standard for love that you had towards people? Consider just one small area of your life, what would forgiveness look like in your life if you forgave others as Christ forgives you? Then, what if you viewed this love, this forgiveness towards others, as an act of love toward God, as an offering to him. When we walk in the way of love, the one that we are ultimately loving when we do these things is God. J.D. Greear, a pastor, explains it this way.

There are people in life that are difficult to love, we all know that. Chances are even as I bring that up someone comes to your mind. What we need to do is almost look through whoever you are being asked to love, and see Jesus standing behind them. The way that you love that person is demonstrating the way that you love Jesus. These verses demonstrate why we should walk according to what Paul says, we do it out of love for God, and then we walk in love with the way that we treat others in our lives.

Walk in Light (Ephesians 5:3-14)

The second way we are supposed to walk, is to walk in the light.

Ephesians 5:3–14 NIV

3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them. 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Verse 8 once again picks up on a similar theme that we saw earlier in Ephesians. Through Jesus we are brought out of the darkness in our life because of our sin and we are now able to walk as children of light. How do we walk as children of light? We do what Paul says in the following verses. We find out, we try to figure out what pleases the Lord, by shining the light of the gospel into all of these areas of our lives. Sometimes in life we just go with the flow. Certain things happen in life and we don’t really examine whether or not they are pleasing to God. We have to think about these areas of our lives and not just go with the flow. Another way of thinking of this kind of living is by the phrase of “Just follow your heart.” Right? This classic, Disney theme of following your heart because it knows best. Because of our sinful state we know that the heart is not the best compass for our life.

Jeremiah 17:9 NIV

9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

So instead of just going with the flow, instead of just doing what feels good to your heart, shine the light of the gospel into these areas and see if it pleases God. This is how we walk in the light. In verses 3-7 we can see how we should shine the gospel into parts of our lives. We shine it into the areas of our lives that are impure, we shine it into our sexual immorality, into our greed, into any area of our life that is impure. We do this because these areas of our lives are where we are perhaps most tempted to just go with the flow, to follow our heart. Our heart may be telling us that sex outside of marriage is okay, but when we look at scripture we know that isn’t the case, we see that it is meant for marriage. Our heart can also tell us that wealth and possessions are the provide satisfaction in life and so we become full of greed. Once again, we have to shine the gospel into that area and when we do we see that these don’t. In fact, they draw our attention away from God and we idol them. We look to wealth and possessions to satisfy us instead of God.

Paul also includes the way we talk in this section as well. The words we use, the conversations we have, all of this needs to have the light of the gospel shined on it. Instead of foolish talk and coarse jokes, we are meant to speak with thanksgiving for what Jesus has done for us. In all areas of our lives, not just in these three, we are supposed to live in the light of the Lord, to walk in the light of the Gospel.

The final way to walk then, is found in verses 15-17 where we see that we are supposed to walk in wisdom.

Walk in Wisdom (Ephesians 5:15-17)

Ephesians 5:15–17 NIV

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

Verse 14 also carries into this command to walk in wisdom. Paul seems to be telling us that we need to wake up. Don’t just drift through life, don’t just go with the flow, wake up and make wise decisions and seek to be imitators of God. We walk in wisdom when we plot out our course in life. I don’t mean that we know everything about our lives, but that our ultimate goal and course in life is to live for Christ. We may not know what each day may bring, but we can still choose to make the most of each day for Christ despite whatever happens. Paul isn’t saying that Mondays or Thursdays are actually evil, what he is trying to get across is that time is short. I can’t think of who recently said this to me, it might have been someone here, but in a conversation about how Kanan was growing and having some nights where he wasn’t sleeping, the person said this, “The days might seem long, but the years are short.” Days can seem like they are never ending, maybe you’ve had a day like that this past week. But when you look back at life, you realize how fast the years go by. Part of walking in wisdom is realizing that our days on this earth are limited, and we must make the most of them by being imitators of God.

Action

These three ways of walking, walking in love, walking in light, and walking in wisdom, all flow out of us when we become imitators of God. This week then, let us look to God as our example. Let us love others unconditionally as an act of love towards him, let us shine the gospel into areas of our lives that need changed by Christ, and let us walk in wisdom and seek God’s will.

Prayer

Communion

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NIV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

When we look at communion we see the depth of love that Christ has for us. This is why we walk according to scripture. Not so that we can earn Christ’s love, but because we have already recieved it.