“IMITATORS OF GOD”
Ephesians 5:1,2
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”
Here at the opening of the fifth chapter of Ephesians, we are confronted with possibly the most astounding challenge in scripture. Paul tells us to be imitators of God.
Imitate God? Mimic God? Could it be that his great learning really had driven him mad? (Acts 26:24)
Well of course not. As always, he spoke words of sober truth. Paul was a genius, possessed of great gifts and full of the Holy Spirit. So let’s take a close look at these words; this exhortation of Paul’s, today, and let the Holy Spirit speak to our hearts also.
Step back with me for a moment to the final phrases of chapter 4.
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” 4:31,32
Those characteristics of evil listed in verse 31, as we said previously, are all based in self-pride. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, malice… they all stem from a lack of forgiveness for some perceived wrong or slight or harm done, that touched our self-pride.
Lack of forgiveness, refusal to forgive, is disobedience to God, and an expression of unbelief.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus made it very clear that forgiveness from us for others was not optional:
“For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” (Matthew 6:14,15)
Now that seems to be a hard saying. But it’s not so hard. Lack of forgiveness manifests itself in those characteristics of the flesh that are opposed to the character of God. Those characteristics are therefore to be put away from us as we put on the new man.
This is saying two things. 1. We can’t just give lip service to Christianity and not live a changed life. If God has recreated us in His likeness, the character and grace of God will be demonstrated in our lives, and that means forgiveness for our fellows.
2. It is saying that if forgiveness is not in us, then forgiveness cannot be on us. It is saying that the true believer cannot continue to display the evil characteristics of the flesh, unrepentant and unrelenting. The person who does that does not belong to God, and therefore God’s forgiveness is not available to him. God cannot lay His gift of forgiveness in hands that are covered with the blood of others.
So going back to Ephesians; if you are one who Paul has been describing in chapter 4, then you are empowered by the Spirit in you and enabled by the very fact that you have been made in His likeness, to be kind and tender-hearted and forgiving, for these are all Godly characteristics.
So with that foundation laid, let’s go to chapter 5 verse 1
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;…”
IMITATING THE FATHER
I guess it was in the 1970s, whenever it was the American Cancer Society began putting ads on television to warn of the hazards of smoking; there was a spot that portrayed a father with his small son, walking through the park. The scene was very peaceful. The sun was shining, there were flowers all around, lot’s of shade, green grass… then they stopped walking and sat down, their backs against a tree.
The father reached into his pocket, took out a pack, extracted a cigarette and lit it, as the boy watched him intently. Then the boy looked around, picked up a small stick, and pretending it was a cigarette, went through the exact motions he had just seen his father do.
Well the message was obvious, of course. But I think most, if not all of us, have at one time or another seen a small child mimicking the movements and actions of a parent they idolize, whether it’s the little girl copying mom doing laundry or ironing or cooking, or the boy, trying to match his father’s gait, hold his head just like Dad, duplicate Dad’s mannerisms.
Another example that comes to my mind is a great scene in the 1975 movie ‘Jaws’. The Constable, played by Roy Scheider is at the dining room table lost in thought over this problem with the killer shark that’s terrorizing the water ways. Suddenly he looks out the corner of his eye and realizes his small boy is copying his every move. So he pretends not to have noticed, and a very touching scene ensues as the boy’s intent mimicking draws Dad away from his troubles and steals his heart.
Now it’s not something we encourage our children to do. They do it because they love us and they want to be like us. It can be detrimental to them when we have bad habits, and it can be a good thing when they mimic and eventually internalize the good that comes from us.
One thing I know; it blesses a father’s heart when he suddenly realizes one day that his boy wants to be just like him. And that’s what Paul is telling us would bless our Father in Heaven.
It is the example set for us by Jesus Himself:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.” John 5:19
WALK IN LOVE
There is so much to be said about this admonition to walk in love as Christ loved us, that I hardly know where to begin. We’ll see it repeated in verse 25 of this chapter, in reference to the marriage relationship.
“walk in love, just as Christ also loved you”
We’ve talked before about this idea of walking. Paul uses the term numerous times, in referring to the daily Christian life and experience. It is used in chapter 4 verse 17 in a negative sense, when Paul exhorts his readers to no longer walk as those without Christ still walk. He’s speaking of conduct and the habits of life.
Vine defines the specific Greek word this way; “signifying the whole round of the activities of the individual life, whether of the unregenerate, or of the believer”.
So Paul is telling us ~ and remember that we’re starting a new chapter but Paul didn’t make these chapter divisions and he has not left his topic of discussion in chapter 4 ~ that the Christian’s entire existence should be a demonstration of love.
Look back at 4:32 “And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” So if God, through Christ, has forgiven you, therefore, imitate Him in this, and walk in love.
The same kind of love.
Lloyd-Jones on this passage, points out the fact that there can be no division made between the doctrine and the act. In other words, we cannot love properly without an understanding of sin and our own depravity, and realizing how great this love for us was that forgave us. On the other hand, knowledge of the doctrine is no good to us or anyone if the result is not that we in turn love the brethren with the same sacrificial and unconditional love and forgiveness.
Listen to I Corinthians 13:1-3
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”
So using those comments by Lloyd-Jones as a springboard, I want to take some time today to make sure we all understand the doctrine, and what we are really being called to in this admonition of Paul’s to imitate God.
The Bible makes abundantly clear that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. Now that is a truth that is widely scoffed at in our modern, enlightened culture, and unfortunately I think that even in the church very often the teaching about sin is avoided as a rather embarrassing and unpopular topic.
I submit to you that it is impossible to be a Christian to start with, and it is impossible to begin to fathom the love with which Christ loved us until we come to realistic grips with the sin condition and the fact that we ourselves are included in that little word, ‘all’.
It doesn’t matter how good you are. It doesn’t matter if you are so upright and selfless that you give away all that you have in order to help others, or even if you physically burn yourself out in the service of mankind, asking nothing in return.
You must come to understand that because of the sin of Adam and the fact that you inherited his fallen nature and therefore are a sinner, whatever you look like on the outside, and no matter what you or anyone else thinks of you, in God’s eyes you are putrid, vile, helpless, rebellious, enemies. Only when you understand that, can you come to the cross of Christ and His shed blood for life, for cleansing, for forgiveness and mercy, for adoption into His family.
You may think, ‘Well, I’m really a pretty good guy. I mean, I harm no one intentionally, I am as honest as I can be in all my relations and dealing with others. I pretty much keep to myself and mind my own business, and I don’t have any bad habits…well, maybe just one…but it doesn’t effect anyone else…so what’s the problem with this preacher? He needs to chill out!’
But you have to know that very simply you are spiritually dead in your sin, and there is nothing loveable about you.
That is the starting place. You must begin there or you will never make it to God.
Ok then. Let’s go on. If all of us really were that kind of person, and if God looked at the outer man and judged accordingly, as we tend to do, then we shouldn’t be so surprised that Christ loved us. It’s easy to love someone loveable, right?
But if you understand how disgustingly vile and evil sin is, and that you were infected with it like a leprosy, and the stink and mire of it clung to every area of your life and permeated every thought and intention of your heart, then you have to say, “Amazing love! How can it be, that Thou, my God, should die for me?”
Charles Wesley nailed it. “Amazing love!” Both he and his brother John, although Christians and serving in Christian ministry, had been steeped in legalism all their lives, until one day in the month of May 1738. The Wesleys were in London. Charles was recovering from a recurrence of an illness in the home of some friends, not far from St, Paul’s Cathedral. Through the humble concern and sincere Christian testimonies of his hosts and others, Charles was deeply affected. God was dealing with his heart. Now here is an example of how the Holy Spirit uses the scriptures, taking exactly what the individual needs, to the individual’s heart, to bring life. Opening his Bible at Isaiah 40:1, Wesley read this simple line; “’Comfort, O comfort My people’, says your God” and the light of salvation dawned upon him! He finally understood that His God was a God of grace and love and comfort; and his life began anew.
Exactly one year later, to celebrate his awakening, he wrote these words:
“O, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise;
The glories of my God and King; the triumphs of His grace!”
DOCTRINE AND WALKING
My friend, you will walk, according to what you believe. What you know and believe in your heart about yourself and God, will be demonstrated in your life.
Proverbs 23:7 says that as a man “thinks within himself, so he is”. and we will walk according to what we truly believe in our heart, about ourselves, and about God.
As I said, we cannot begin to fathom the unfathomable love of Christ until we understand how utterly unlovable we were. But once we see that and then are made to see how great His grace and love were, that He would give Himself completely in order to redeem us, then our doctrine will be demonstrated in our walk.
And Paul says, “Walk in love, just as Christ loved you”.
We are to walk among our brethren, in the same kind of love Christ loved us with. So now that we’ve seen the condition He redeemed us from, let’s look more closely at the love with which He accomplished that redemption.
“…and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God…”
Again, this fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. We were lost in sin, dead in our trespasses against God. It was then, not when we cleaned up our act, and not when we did some thing or some set of things to make ourselves deserving, but when we were sinful, helpless, enemies, that He gave Himself up.
He gave Himself up. He said of Himself;
“For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.”
He surrendered willingly to the fate that should have been ours. He gave Himself into the hands of the very ones He came to save, so that they could torture and kill Him.
But staying with the text, I want you to see that He was giving Himself to God the Father, as an offering and a sacrifice. It was not men that needed to be appeased. It was not men that were offended by sin. It was God. And so great was God’s love for His creation, that He gave His only Son. So great was the love of Christ for all of us, that He carried the wood for the sacrifice up the hill, and offered Himself to the Father there as an atoning sacrifice. A perfect and acceptable sacrifice, paying the penalty in full for us all.
This is the truth that has changed the lives of countless millions through the ages, folks, and if it hasn’t changed yours then you haven’t understood something.
Either you haven’t understood your sin vs. His holiness and therefore your eternal destiny separated from His presence, or you haven’t understood the love and grace that saves and sustains you.
I think there are a lot of Christians who have got past the first one. They’ve understood they are sinners and they’ve come to the cross of Christ and believed for salvation. But they grovel there still, at the foot of the altar where the sacrifice was made, laboring under a weight of guilt and wanting to know what they can do to make themselves more acceptable to God.
Add to the sacrifice. Do their part.
They must get up, go past the cross, see the empty tomb, hear the promises He made concerning their security in Him, and His promise to return and receive them into the Father’ Kingdom.
You will only understand the love He has for you and the love that sent Him to die for you, when you comprehend that your life is now by grace through faith and not of works. Not just in your head on some mental and emotional level, but in your heart of hearts, in your spirit.
Only then will you be empowered to walk in the same kind of love with other Christians, willing and able to lay yourself down for them. Kind, tender-hearted, forgiving. Sacrificial. Unconditional. Full of grace.
A FRAGRANT AROMA
Genesis 8:20, 21
“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself, ‘I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done’.”
When righteous Noah came off the ark and set his foot on a new earth, the first thing he thought to do was to offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to his God. And God received that sacrifice as a man would receive a sweet fragrance. It made Him smile. It gladdened His heart so, that in response He promised never to destroy the ground in reaction to man’s evil again.
And here in Ephesians the Holy Spirit has revealed to us that the sacrifice Christ made of Himself for us was pleasing to God. The fire of His wrath against sin consumed the sacrifice on the altar, and it rose up to Him as a sweet smelling aroma that gladdened His heart.
We look at the cross of Christ and His sufferings both leading up to it and while He was on it, and we recoil in horror. And well we should.
We think of Him, perfect and holy, tasting death for us, that is, as a substitute for us, in our place, and we are saddened. We feel a sense of unworthiness, that this should be done for us who were so undeserving. “…how can it be that Thou, my God, should die for me?” And well we should.
“But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering…” Isaiah 53:10
Why? Because He perfectly atoned for sin there. He perfectly paid the price in full, and took sin away from God’s presence forever. His sacrifice of love was as satisfying to the Father as a fragrant aroma. And He declared Him His Son with power by raising Him from the dead. (Rom 1:4)
You must understand the implications of that for you today, if you are a believer in Christ, because inherent in this exhortation of Paul’s is a promise. An assurance.
If you are to walk with one another in the kind of love with which Christ loved you, then you are called to offer yourself as a sacrifice. Not a guilt offering; not a sacrifice for sin…
…but a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, by loving the brethren with a Christ-like love. That’s the admonition.
Now I want to take you to Romans 12 for a moment for a passage that supports Paul’s admonition in Ephesians 5:1,2
Verses 1 and 2
“I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Then if you go on to verse 9 and read through the rest of that chapter, and I encourage you to sit down later and read it thoughtfully, you will see how presenting your members as a living sacrifice to God manifests itself in your relation to others. This is what he’s talking about in Ephesians 5.
The promise I see with that, Christian, is that your sacrificial, unconditional love for the brethren is an offering of a fragrant aroma to God. It pleases Him
This is what is so desperately needed in the Christian church today, people. We don’t need more programs and gimmicks. We don’t need seminars and training and catch-phrases and spiritual sounding words on t-shirts and bumper-stickers.
The church needs to repent as one, and begin to imitate God in walking with one another in love…
…the kind of love that sent Jesus to the cross… the kind of love that brought Him up from the dead… the kind of love that rises up to the Father as a fragrant aroma.
That would bring an end to all the church’s problems. It would fill all the church’s needs. And it is my belief that she would once again see the heavens opened, and God pouring out His blessings in abundance.
Please pray with me that by His Spirit He will awaken His church to the need to walk in love as Christ loved her, heal her of her wounds, purge her of her guilt, and make her a witness for Christ across our great land once again in these final days.
