September Business Meeting Message on Forgiving Others and Imitating God

Introduction

I tell people often how much of a blessing it is to serve as Senior Pastor at FBC Salem. During a time where there is much division and confusion, it’s a blessing to get out of God’s way and watch Him work in the lives of His people. God has done so much in recent months and years and I for one am excited to see what He will do today and tomorrow as well! Just because God is moving, though, it doesn’t mean that we have the right to sit back and relax. In church life, it seems like there is always something going on. In the summer we have camps and VBS, in the fall we have Kidz choir and discipleship classes, in the winter we have Christmas activities, in the spring we have Easter events and continued outreach opportunities as well as Kidz choir and so much more! Whenever we’re so busy with things, it can be hard to slow down and it can also be hard to focus on what God is doing because we have so much on our plate. This is the tension in our lives… We don’t want to slow down and miss out on what God wants us to do… And we also don’t want to get so busy doing things that we miss out on something that God is trying to share with us.

We’ve been blessed to see God do so much - what should our response be? It can’t be to get complacent or to take things for granted… We are called to continue to follow after Him in our lives individually and as a church body. The statement that occurs over and over the New Testament is to imitate God. To follow Him. To live for Him. Because of Jesus and His great love for us, we are called to do what He calls us to do - even though that might require us to do things differently or to step out of our comfort zone.

Tonight, I want to take a few minutes to look in Ephesians 5 and examine the first 2 verses of that chapter and what Paul is encouraging the church in Ephesus to do.

Ephesians 5:1–2 CSB

1 Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, 2 and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

Paul gives his audience 2 imperative commands in these 2 verses and these will be our main points tonight and they are painfully obvious in the text: Imitate God and Walk in His Love

Imitate God

Whenever we find the phrase to imitate God in Scripture it can be a very intimidating statement! After all, God created the universe in 6 days and knows all things - we only know some things and we can’t come close to matching God’s creativity in creation. We are different than God - He is all powerful and we are only kind of powerful. Yet, verse 1 reminds us of our status as Christians: we are adopted children of God! We are loved by our Father! The reason that we are called to imitate God is because He is our Father and this is His purpose in adopting us into His family… God doesn’t adopt us just so we feel better. He doesn’t adopt us just so we avoid hell. He adopts us to bring Him glory and to reflect His goodness in the world around us. As His children, we come together and we obey His commands and the Bible gives us a lot of things to do but we have to realize that “do” isn’t the main thrust of the Bible… Jesus did the necessary work. The work is done, we are called to follow after Christ and work not to save ourselves but to glorify our Father.

Look back in chapter 4 at some of the things that Paul shared that this church should do as they imitate God:

Don’t walk as the Gentiles

Take off the Old Self

Put on the New Self

Put away Lying

Speak the Truth to one another

Don’t Fall into Sinful anger

Don’t steal

Don’t curse

Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit

Be Kind

Be Compassionate

Forgive Others

Now some of these line up with the Old Testament law and others might be a little different but the point is this: We are saved to serve. Part of serving Jesus is looking differently than the world around us. This means that we must strive to imitate God daily as we reflect His love to others. How can we claim to be followers of a loving God if we ourselves aren’t loving towards others?

One atheist shared this a few years ago, “How much do you have to hate someone to not Evangelize them?” If we believe that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone and that anyone who does not repent and place their faith in Christ is separated from God because of their sins, then we’d better faithfully continue to proclaim the Gospel and tell others about the reality of their situation. We are sinners who need saving and that Jesus alone saves sinners. We must faithfully imitate God in all that we do inside the walls of the church, inside the walls of our home, and everywhere in between.

Walk in God’s Love

As we imitate God and proclaim the Gospel, we are to walk in the love that God loves us. This is a command - not a suggestion. This type of Agape love is found more at the end of Ephesians 5 as Paul talks about the love between a husband and a wife and the love in Ephesians 5 is a love defined by one willingly forfeiting their rights on behalf of another person.

Is this easy? See, we live in a society where love isn’t the primary problem… The problem is our definition of love. So many want a love that is conditional - you do what I want and I’ll do what you want… Like a contract. I’ve known couples who treated marriage like this - if you do these 3 things for me then I’ll do these 3 things for you and they keep score left and right and the moment that someone does something wrong then logic flies out the window because their idea of love has been violated and broken. How does Christ love us? What did He do? Romans 5:8 tells us this

Romans 5:8 CSB

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

Jesus loved us so much that He humbled Himself and died on the cross in our place as our substitute even though He never sinned! He didn’t deserve to die… Yet He died a criminals death. That’s how much He loves sinners like you and I! This love that we have received and experience today is the love that we are to walk in today.

That is the kind of love that Christ Jesus displayed for us on the cross. Love is not just a feeling or an emotion, it is not feeling sorry for others. It involves action! We are supposed to love one another (John 13:34-35), forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32), give financially (2 Corinthians 8:9), spread the Gospel (2 Corinthians 5:14-21), be a patient people (Ephesians 4:2), love those who drive us crazy (Ephesians 4:26) and aid those who are in need (Ephesians 4:29). How are we to love others? We think of Jesus’ love for us. We look to the Cross! Rather than building up walls and declaring war, we are to build bridges and proclaim peace. We are to look out for one another rather than live a selfish life as we did as an old creation. Whenever we think of what Christ has done for us, everything changes!

Christ gave Himself up for us, but Paul says in verse 2 that it was an offering to God. This is how we should love other people. We will never be able to love like Christ in the sense that we cannot take away the sins of others! But, there should be a holy fragrance of love in our lives whenever we care for others practically, genuinely and consistently for the glory of God. That is what it all comes down to, is it not? We are called to be a people of love not to look good in the eyes of others but so that our God might be glorified.

Conclusion

Forgiving others and Imitating God aren’t easy things to do… They’re difficult… However this is what Christ calls us to do! When we love one another, we will be careful to speak kindly to each other. When we love one another, we will not be bitter, angry, wrathful, or malicious toward one another but instead will be willing to work hard so that we can share with those in need all around us.

Let’s seek to apply these 2 verses in 2 ways going forward:

Seek to be known above all else as a child of God

In a world marked by hatred, be a person who speaks the truth in love

Don’t water down the Gospel or the truth about our sinfulness… Speak the truth but do it in love - share with others that you once were lost too and that if it weren’t for Jesus and His grace, you’d still be lost today!

Let us at FBC Salem be marked by our love for Jesus Christ and let’s follow after His perfect plan for our lives individually and corporately for our church. Let’s be kind to one another. Let’s forgive one another. Let’s love one another. Let’s fight against our pride and crush disunity before it has the opportunity to fester. Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus and bring Him glory in all that we do!