A Perfect Model

Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity. Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

The Moral Imperative to Love

Having told the Ephesians to imitate God, Paul now continues to lay requirements on the Ephesians that, on the surface, would leave them cringing under the weight of their moral demands. We must understand that these two statements - Imitate God and Walk in love are in the imperative tone meaning that there is no wiggle room here. Paul is laying a moral requirement on the Ephesian believers with the expectation that they would follow.

There is a principle in ethics that involves the concept of ought. The encyclopedia Britannica defines this principle this way. Ought implies can, in ethics, the principle according to which an agent has a moral obligation to perform a certain action only if it is possible for him or her to perform it. In other words, if a certain action is impossible for an agent to perform, the agent cannot, according to the principle, have a moral obligation to do so.

What Paul is essentially telling the Ephesians here is you ought to walk in love. He is binding them under an ethical obligation to, a moral obligation to love and in so doing he is bringing them under the weight of law. We must recognize that even though the statement “walk in love” is very easy to utter but is, in practice, very hard to live out. It is a legal requirement, it is an imperative that requires your utmost faithfulness and your utmost effort. It is a burden of the same magnitude of that which the Pharisees would place on the people as they nuanced and crafted the laws to govern every day life.

Why do I say this is a moral and ethical requirement - the very definition of a law? Paul’s first word in this statement makes it so - walk. This is not the first time that we’ve seen this verb used in the course of our study of Ephesians - in fact Paul has used it several times as we have progressed through the Epistle and this is the first of three uses of the verb peripateo in chapter 5. Paul first used walk back in chapter 2 as he reminded the Ephesians where they had come from

Ephesians 2:1–2 CSB

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

He reminds them that they walked according to the ways of the world, in their trespasses and sins. There really is no lower state that we can be in than death - there is nothing worse than that. Things in your life may be hard, they may be challenging but at the very least you can say that you aren’t dead yet. This is also a reminder to us that a person doesn’t have to hit rock bottom to recognize their need of Christ. We will often say, and some of you may have prayed this for a person in your life, that a person just needs to hit rock bottom, they need to come to the worst condition they have ever been in before they can or could come to Christ. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, in saying that we are polluting the Gospel by making it seem that it is only about physical benefits rather than the spiritual condition of an individual. There is no lower spiritual state that a person can be in than to be dead in their sins and as we will see in a few minutes the Gospel is not about restoring your 401k.

After a brief hiatus Paul returns to the concept of the Ephesians “walk” in chapter 4 telling them to walk worthy of the calling which they received

Ephesians 4:1 CSB

Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received,

and then again as a counterpoint in verse 17 he writes

Ephesians 4:17 CSB

Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts.

This verse actually began the paragraph of comparisons and contrasts where Paul demonstrates for the Ephesians in vivid detail the difference between walking worthy of the calling they had received and not walking as the Gentiles do. Then here in chapter 5 in our passage today we are told to walk in love. Later in verse 8 we will be told to walk as children of the light. In verse 15 Paul will remind us to be careful how we walk not as unwise people but as wise.

Paul is very concerned with how we walk - or as some translations translate these verses how we live. So here Paul tells us, lays this moral requirement on us to walk in love.

The world of course would wholeheartedly embrace this requirement - as long as they can make some additions to it. Some of you are old enough to remember the free love generation - the freedom to love any person you want - of course in those days it was still pretty much accepted that this was free heterosexual love - and there were no consequences or requirements. Some of the great apologists for this generation The Beatles said it best “All you need is love. All you need is love. All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.” They could write modern worship songs with a chorus like that. So the world would accept this with the modifier free added in - you should walk in tolerant love.

The world would also accept this with the modifier tolerant added. This is the mood and the attitude of our modern generation. Walk in tolerant love. Meaning that my lifestyle may not be the same as your lifestyle but out of love for your neighbor you should tolerate my lifestyle - even if that old antiquated book the Bible says that it is aberrant. And if you don’t tolerate me - well not only are you unloving but I’m going to do the most unloving thing to you and that is either to force you to agree or to cancel you all together. Not very tolerant or loving but to the world the logic doesn’t have to make sense. So they would agree that you should walk in tolerant love.

Another modifier the world would say that we should add is the modifier of self. Walk in self-love. This isn’t new. It’s been around for as long as time and it really is a misnomer. Our problem isn’t that we love ourselves too little but that we love ourselves too much. But the world would tell you that this isn’t true and that you need to love yourself more in order to truly love other people. And that this is the greatest love of all - it’s what Whitney Houston told my generation “The greatest love of all is easy to achieve; Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.”

But none of this is Biblical love. Notice I don’t say Christian love or evangelical love because in many cases the modern church has gotten this wrong as well. With songs like Reckless love and this new one The One You Love with lyrics like this “I can be real with you; say anything and not be afraid; you made me and you like what you made; you made me and you don’t make mistakes; I can be real with you. You take me just as I am, you’d choose me all over again, I am the one you love, I am the one you love, I don’t have to prove anything, there’s room at your table for me; i am the one you love, I am the one you love.

Now look - I’m not reciting these lyrics because I want to waste time. I’m recounting these for you to warn you that if this song comes on your radio you should rip it out of the dashboard and throw it in the street. Endure just a bit more if you can - I know you’re proud of me; even though I don’t deserve it sometimes; no I’m not a perfect child but I still make my father smile, so I know you’re proud of me.

Where is any of that in Scripture - this is a ridiculous perversion of the love of God and it is not the kind of love that we are called too. Then what kind of love are we called to Chris? I’m glad you asked. Paul says walk in love and I think that what is foremost in his mind as he gives this command are two things. Look with me at Mark 13:28-33

Mark 12:28–33 CSB

One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.” Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, teacher. You have correctly said that he is one, and there is no one else except him. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is far more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

What love is Paul commanding us to - there it is right there. Biblical love - the kind of love that fulfills this commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. If you’re fulfilling that then loving your neighbor as yourself will just come naturally.

But we recognize that this isn’t possible right? We recognize that in our own power we don’t love God the way that we should. We are not completely devoted to Him. And we don’t love others the way that we should. This isn’t hidden. Consider this quote “You can’t force yourself to love everyone and you can’t force everyone to love you.” Or this one “I love everybody. Some I love to be around. Some I love to avoid. And some I would love to punch in the face.” Just so you know - that last part is not very loving. But this is the requirement, the moral obligation that Paul is laying on us as he tells us to walk in love.

This is what Jesus did. This is how He lived and Paul is now going to hold Christ up for us as an example of what it looks like to walk, to live, in love.

The Greatest Example of Love

Walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us. This phraseology is going to repeat itself later in this chapter as Paul talks of the correlation between the marriage of one man and one woman - you have to be very specific in this day and age - and the relationship of Christ and His church. Christ also loved us - what a statement because we are some of the most unloveable people around. And I’m not talking about humanity in general. I’m not talking about the Russian soldiers who may be committing atrocities in Ukraine as we speak. I’m not talking about the woke crowd or the LGBTQXYZ crowd. I’m talking about this crowd - the one sitting in this very room. I’m talking about me - the one standing here in the pulpit. We are not a loveable group of people - because we are inherently sinners.

And yet - Christ loves us anyway. We are born at enmity with Him and yet He loves us anyway. We are born with a deep seated desire to kill Him and yet He loves us anyway. When the rich young ruler comes and questions Jesus about what he must do to follow Him and He tells him and the rich young ruler says “I have kept all these from my youth.” What does it say? Mark 10:21 says “Looking at him, Jesus loved him”. He loved him even when He knew that this kid not only couldn’t possibly have kept all those commandments from his youth but also was a violator of the first commandment that he would have no other priorities before God. That he would worship nothing else except for the living God. That he would have no other gods except for God. He loved him.

But maybe we’re tempted to say that this was just lip service. That Jesus said He loved others but He didn’t really demonstrate the proof. What does the text say next? It says He gave Himself for us. I love the way the NASB translates this “just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God”.

The use of these two words is significant in our understanding of the love that Christ showed for us. The text says that He gave Himself up for us as an offering. A few things to note regarding this statement. The first is this - Christ was not an unwilling participant in the plan of salvation, He was a willing originator of the plan of salvation. Christ was not an unwilling participant in the plan of salvation, He was a willing originator of the plan of salvation.

This revelation completely debunks any notions of cosmic child abuse or some other such nonsense regarding Christ’s actions in coming to earth. He gave Himself up for us. The Trinity was not standing around Heaven trying to come up with a plan and Jesus was the last one to touch His nose resulting in His coming. He didn’t look at the Father and the Spirit and say “well I guess you two aren’t going to go so I guess I’ll have to.” No. He willingly submitted Himself under the Father’s authority to be the agent that would carry out the plan of salvation. Philippians 2 says that He set aside, He willingly condescended to come in the form of a slave, not considering equality with God as something to be exploited but instead submitted to Him and willingly came to demonstrate love and obedience.

In so doing He also demonstrates for us what it means to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. An offering is something that is given freely, of His own volition. But an offering doe not imply or necessitate death. Christ didn’t merely come as an offering but also as a sacrifice.

We talk of sacrifices frequently in our culture and in so doing have diluted the value of the word. We talk of those who have sacrificed their time for a good cause. We talk of those who have sacrificed things to achieve some great goal or to attain a certain stature. During the recent winter Olympic games we saw athletes who have sacrificed relationships and free time to get to the pinnacle of a sport. But Scripture talks of sacrifice in a much deeper, more profound sense. Sacrifice in the Bible almost always points to or implies death. And generally an unwilling death to achieve something.

Isaac wasn’t jumping on the altar when he and Abraham climbed that mountain together in Genesis 22. The lambs that were sacrificed on Passover did not volunteer to go to the Temple to be slaughtered. This is not to say that Christ was an unwilling participant in the crucifixion. In fact He was probably the only completely willing sacrifice in the history of the world. He knew exactly what He was giving Himself up for. He was sacrificing Himself out of love for His people.

John 15:13 CSB

No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.

Romans 5:8 CSB

But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Christ love is most clearly demonstrated for us on the cross as He willingly offers Himself as both and offering and a sacrifice on our behalf. D.L. Moody said this “Greater love never has been taught than that which the cross teaches. What prompted God to give up Christ - what prompted Christ to die - if it were not love?”

His love was so deep, so pure that when an alternate way was offered Christ refused to take it. Satan offers Christ a way out of death at the temptations of Christ telling Him if you just bow down to me I’ll give you all the kingdoms of the world. And then through Peter another way is offered. Peter makes his great confession of who Christ is - that He is the Messiah - and in the very next breath he rebukes Jesus for saying that He was going to be betrayed and die. Look with me at Mark 8.

Mark 8:31–33 CSB

Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke openly about this. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning around and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You are not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”

Jesus says “I’m about to be betrayed and killed” and what does Peter say? Matthew’s Gospel gives us his words “God forbid it Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Jesus what are you thinking? You are the most popular preacher going. Just keep giving the people what they want and we’ll be on easy street. You don’t have to die. Just ride this wave of popularity to the kingship. Look at Jesus response - you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.

Jesus couldn’t fully love God with all His heart, all His soul, all His strength and all His mind or love His neighbors as Himself unless He submitted to God’s plan and was an offering and a sacrifice for His people. And in this we have the greatest demonstration of love.

The Greatest Demonstration of Love

Paul has been drawing on Old Testament motifs in both of these admonitions. Imitate God as dearly loved children - throughout the Old Testament the children of Israel were the children of God. And while they were not explicitly told to imitate God, they were told “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” in Leviticus 19:2, Leviticus 11:44 and Leviticus 21:8. I am this therefore you be this. I am holy therefore you imitate me and you be holy. And now here in the closing phrase of verse 2 Paul draws another parallel to the Old Testament and to Leviticus saying that Christ’s sacrifice was a pleasing aroma to God.

Throughout the book of Leviticus as Moses details the specifics for the different offerings that are to be offered to God he repeatedly uses the phrase “a pleasing aroma to the Lord”. Here, Paul tells us that the offering and sacrifice of Jesus is a fragrant offering to God. This is an offering that is acceptable to God and that satisfies the requirements or condition that necessitated a sacrifice to take place. Paul is saying here that Christ is the true and better and the last Old Testament sacrifice, lifted up on Passover to achieve lasting atonement for His people. The writer of Hebrews echoes this sentiment

Hebrews 9:11–14 CSB

But Christ has appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), he entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?

Hebrews 9:24–28 CSB

For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that he might now appear in the presence of God for us. He did not do this to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. Otherwise, he would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment— so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

And His sacrifice is for the covering of sins. Christ didn’t die on the cross so that you would have prosperity in this life. His death is not about restoring your 401k - I told you we’d get back to that - or that you would get straight A’s or have any other form of worldly success. Love drove Him to the cross and there He paid for the sins of those who would believe in Him. In 1 Peter 4:8, Peter quotes Proverbs 10:12 and describes the truest power of love

1 Peter 4:8 CSB

Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Christ’s love poured out on the cross covers a multitude of sins. Do we do that? Do we recognize that? How far are we willing to go in love? Paul sets Christ before our eyes as the model of the love he expects us to have - but how far are we willing to go? Now of course none of you are going to die for people’s sins but how far are you willing to go?

And of course - none of this can happen of your own volition so what’s the point? How can we model and embody the love of Christ? Turn quickly to Romans 12:1.

Romans 12:1–2 CSB

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Paul here urges us to offer or present our bodies as a living sacrifice - holy and pleasing, a pleasant aroma. 2 Corinthians 3:15 says “For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” This is an act of worship - what is loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength but the demonstration of true worship. Do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind - that is how this love that Paul is calling us to is possible. We have to be being transformed by the Spirit at work in us, making us more like Christ and enabling us to love in a pure manner.

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