BE IMITATORS OF GOD

Ephesians 5:1-21

Key Verse: 5:1

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.”

In this morning’s passage, we learn practical lessons on what to do to become a mature Christian church. We learned last week that we need to put off the old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (4:23,24) This message is a continuation of this. There are many practical lessons in this passage. However, we can sum them all up in three words: “love.” This is the most important and key element of our Christian faith. May God help each of you to imitate God and grow in the sacrificial love that Christ showed for us.

Part one. Live a life of love. (1-7)

What is Paul’s first admonition in this chapter? Let’s read verse 1, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.” Paul admonishes us to imitate God. Wow, what a great challenge! In 4:2 he said to be completely humble. This was also a great challenge for us. Now he says, “Be imitators of God…” Why should we imitate God? It is because we were created in his image to be like him. It is because he is our Heavenly Father who loves us and who saved us when we were dead in our sin and transgressions. We have been born again by his grace and now we want to imitate the one who loves us the most.

By nature we all imitate someone whether we realize it or not. Some people say, “I don’t imitate anyone. I am my own person.” But this is not true. Others while growing up see something that they don’t like about their father and say, “I’m not going to be like him!” But later when we get older we find ourselves acting just like our father. We imitate the one who influence us the most or the one we spend the most time with. By nature a son imitates his father. He first does so by learning and watching him. If the father tends to do good, so will the son. If the father tends to do bad, there is the tendency to do bad. Children learn both good and bad habits from their father. One of my sons, John, watches me carefully more than my other children. When he saw me eating broccoli because I like to eat broccoli, he wanted some also. This is usually hard to get kids to eat any kind of vegetables. But now he asks for broccoli. When I do weightlifting with dumbbells and my son John saw me, he wanted to do the same. Now he takes the smallest dumbbells that I have and does exercise on his own desire even though he is only seven years old.

How can we imitate God? God is invisible. We don’t see him, so how can we imitate him? This seems so hard! We can when we spend time to read the Bible and study about Jesus with a humble heart. The Bible teaches us that Jesus is God in the flesh (Jn.1:14). One time one of Jesus’ disciples, Philip, said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus told him, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…” (Jn.14:9) Philip was kind of slow to learn even though Jesus was right there with him. However, as Jesus lived among his disciples and walked with them and talked to them, they got to see God in him. They learned from him how to love and how to serve. But it took time. For example, once when Jesus was heading towards Jerusalem and he went through a Samaritan village, the people there did not welcome him. When John and James saw this they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” (Lk.9:51-56) John and James wanted to kill all those people. But this was not Jesus’ way. Jesus taught them not to do this. Instead, he taught them to love their enemies and bless those who persecute them. He said in Matthew 5:44-45, “But I tell you the truth: ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven…” Later, John learned this love and become known as the apostle of love. He didn’t want to kill anyone who rejected him or who had rejected Jesus, but instead, wanted to love them to the end.

How else can we imitate God? The words “as dearly loved children” in verse 1 show us how we can. “Dearly loved children” is our standing before God when we are born again through faith in Jesus Christ. God the Father loves us so much, even more than our parents.. It is clear that when we accept his love for us, then we want to imitate him. This is how we know that we have accepted God’s love: we want to imitate him. If we haven’t accepted his love we won’t think about wanting to imitate him. This is why when we accept Jesus in our hearts our desires change and we want to be like him. We can have such lofty standards for ourselves as God does for us. When we read the Bible and the things that Jesus said, we sometimes say, “Wow, I wish I could say such things to people and move them like Jesus. If I could only say the things Jesus said to the Samaritan woman…” Someone once said that they wanted to raise up 12 disciples. Why? Because Jesus raised up 12 disciples. A lot of want to be good shepherds. Why? Because Jesus was a good shepherd. We desire these things and more when we accept that we are the dearly loved children of God.

In verse 2 Paul gives specific mention of how we can imitate God our Heavenly Father. Let’s read verse 2, “and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Paul tells us to live a life of love. What kind of love is this? As we heard, there are three types of love. There is eros, which is physical love. There is phileo, which is love between brothers and then there is agape love, which is unconditional love. The love Paul is talking about here is the agape love. He uses Jesus Christ as the example. How did Jesus set the example of agape love? He came and laid down his life for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

The words in verse 2, “gave…offering” and “sacrifice” are strong words that reveal the great love of Jesus for us. These are action words. Jesus’ love was not just words or good intentions. It was action. There is a saying that words are cheap. Without action, there is no show of love. Live a life of love, Paul tells us, just as Christ did. How did Christ love? What are some of the ways he loved his disciples?

For example, Jesus loved Judas Iscariot to the end. How did he love him to the end? Even though he knew that Judas was going to betray him. Jesus still loved him and at the Last Supper looked Judas straight in the eye and offered Judas the bread which represented Jesus’ body he was going to give on the cross. Jesus was saying that he was going to die for Judas even though Judas had such evil intentions. Can you love someone who you know will betray you? Can you look them straight in the eye with sincerity and forgive them? Humanly it is impossible. This is because our love is superficial and conditional.

Another example is Jesus’ love towards Simon Peter his top disciple. When Jesus was arrested Peter followed Jesus at a distance. While Jesus was on trial, Peter was waiting outside to find out what the verdict would be. As he waited he was questioned about his identity and about Jesus. What did he do? He denied Jesus three times. He left Jesus after Jesus was led away to be crucified. He went back to his old life to be a fisherman at Lake Galilee. Then the risen Jesus appeared at the shore of Lake Galilee and cooked him breakfast. After breakfast, Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?… Do you love me more than these?…Do you truly love me?” (Jn.21:15-17) Peter was hurt by what Jesus said. He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” (Jn.21:17)

What was Jesus’ love to Peter here? It was forgiving love and restoring love. Though Peter denied Jesus three times and abandoned him, Jesus forgave him and never gave up on him. This is how we live the life of love. It is to forgive those who wronged us countless times and go back to them and serve them like Jesus who went and served Simon Peter. To live the life of love is also to restore others. Jesus came back to restore Peter to be shepherd so he might know God’s love is never to give up on sinners.

It is hard to love because our love has limitations and conditions. We say we can only love a person up to this line. If you go past this line, I can’t love you anymore. This is conditional love. It is usually easy to love those who are like us, but even this has a limit. It is next to impossible to love those who are not like us. When we try to love others with our own love, we eventually become impatient and angry instead of loving, we turn to hate and bitterness. Only Jesus can help us to live a life of love when we accept his forgiving love for us. Only by accepting this love for us, his countless times he forgave us, can our hearts be moved to love one person to the end.

1 John 3:16 says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” Living a life of love is sacrificial, but it is life-giving. This is the difference between people’s love and God’s love. How then can we practically live a life of love? Besides knowing the grace of God for us and being rooted in the grace of God, we need the help of the Holy Spirit and we need to pray.

Then the best way is to go and invite students to 1:1 Bible study and Sunday Worship. Though they may reject our invitation many times, we show love to them like Jesus by being persistent and earnest to keep looking and searching for the lost and inviting them. This is because Christ’s love is to save souls. We heard last week about the Venezuelan Bible Conference. We heard that many students come from homes where their parents divorced. This left many of them feeling bitter, confused and hurt. But at the Conference there were many parents there. How come? It was because through Bible study students accepted the love and forgiveness of Jesus. They then came to forgive their parents and love them. They loved them by bringing them to Bible study and to the Bible conference. This is really living the life of love.

Now think about the one who is hardest for you to get along with. The one who in your heart you have the hardest time to accept. The one that we want to avoid if possible. Now what we should do is to try and practice this week to love that person. How can you love that person? Ask God to help you and then remember that Jesus loved the worse kinds of people. If this person you think is the worst kind of person then remember Jesus loves the worse kind of people. Now try to love that person even though to God there are worse people. Pray for strength and a new attitude. Think that this is the way you can imitate God.

Let’s read verse 3, “But among you there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.” Paul warned against sexual immorality. In Ephesus was the Temple of Artemus, the goddess of love. There was legal prostitution. There were many temple prostitutes. The belief was that you could get closer to the gods by engaging in sex with these prostitutes. This corrupted people’s minds and hearts as well as their bodies. But the believers in Ephesus were not even to have a hint of any of this impurity. Why? This is because God’s people are to be holy. Holiness is a character of God. Holy means to set apart or be separate from the world and not live like the crowd. We imitate God by trying to live a holy life. It is quite obvious that these acts mentioned in verses 3-4 are not holy, but unholy. Let’s read verse 4, “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.”

Here in verse 4, is another important way we can live a life of love. It is by the words we speak. The words we speak are very important in the church and in the Christian community. Words can either build up people or hurt people. Some people give no thought as what they say, even in public. As we learned last week, careless words can be like an arrow that haphazardly leaves the archer and flies away out of control. They can be very dangerous. Obscenities mentioned here are dirty words like curse words. Many people, even those who call themselves Christians often take the Lord’s name in vain and use Jesus’ name in a curse word. People habitually engage in coarse joking thinking it funny and entertaining to their audience. They think it funny to cut others down and make sarcastic comments. Other people talk on and on about so many foolish things but in reality say nothing helpful or encouraging. All these things mentioned in verse 4 are inconsistent with a life of love. Why? Because they come from a selfish and self-centered heart. If we love someone and we love people, we will use our words wisely and prayerfully. We will try to build others up and encourage them to come to know the love of God deeply. Instead of talking these things mentioned in verse 4 which are out of place, what things should come out of our mouths?

Verse 4 mentions, thanksgiving. Imitators of God are those who have many things to thank God for. They have many thanksgiving topics. When people hear us giving thanks to God for all he is doing in our lives, it can build them up and encourage them to see that God is working. A thankful heart is a beautiful and gracious heart. Paul warns that those who live an immoral, impure, and greedy life have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. This is because these kind of people are idolaters. They worship themselves, not God. The wrath of God awaits those who live like this. Look at verses 6-7, “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them.”

Part two. Live as children of the light. (8-14)

In this part we see yet another way in which we can imitate God and live a life of love. It is to live as children of the light. Let’s read verses 8-9, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth).” Before we know Jesus, we are in darkness. Darkness is defined as the absence of light. The light is Jesus. Jesus is the light of the world. Without Jesus, we have no life meaning in us, no clear purpose or direction. We are living in the shadow of death. But that was the past. Now we who believe are living in the light and are the light in the Lord.

So we must live as children of light. How? Look at verse 10, “And find out what pleases the Lord.” Before, while we lived in darkness, we only thought about how to please ourselves. Everything revolved around us. The only people in our lives were me, me and me. Now that we are the children of the light our desires should be clear. It is what can I do to please God? What can I do that will make God happy? It is true that children want to please their parents. How much more than should we try to please God and find out what pleases God.

How did Jesus please God? It was by his obedience to God’s will for him. Before Jesus was to start his work as the Savior on earth, he was baptized by John the Baptist. As he was being baptized, God spoke from heaven and said, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mk.1:11) God was pleased with Jesus because he was willing to take up the heavy cross of his mission to die on the cross for the sins of the whole world. His obedience to please God is the key. It was due to Adam’s disobedience that the world fell into sin. Those who live disobedient lives can not please God. But those who live lives of obedience to God can please God and can build up and encourage other believers in the love of God.

For example, it was hard for Missionary Jacob and Esther to send their oldest son, Abraham, to China to be a missionary. It is not the best place to go from a human standpoint. The living conditions are harsh and I heard the winters are extremely cold. Especially, China is communist and they don’t naturally embrace Christianity. Maybe they should have sent him to Hawaii as a missionary instead. However, it is because they want to please God that they did so. In doing this, many young disciples of Jesus are encouraged and can go to be missionaries to other nations. This is an act that please God because it is in obedience to Jesus’ world mission command. In fact, I began to pray for my children to be missionaries to another country one day. This is what we all pray before we go to sleep each night. Hebrews 11:6 says, “That without faith it is impossible to please God for anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Those who want to please God are those who live by faith. This makes us happy. We heard from John Lee last week that when he went to the Venezualen Conference he tried to avoid responsibility to participate. He just wanted to go and relax. But as soon as he went there, he was asked to do many things. This was the way in which he could live to please God. This made him stronger and opened his spiritual eyes.

Another way to imitate God and live a life of love like Jesus is to expose the fruitless deeds of darkness. Let’s read verses 11-14, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said, ‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’”

To love others is to help them to see their sins and repent before God. Joseph helped his brothers to their sins and repent so that they could be spiritual men, instead of revengeful and jealous men. For Joseph to do this took great pains and made him weep because he had to give them a hard time. It was sacrifice and hard work, But he did it because he loved them so much that he wanted them to live in the light and enjoy living as the children of the light. Many people don’t like to touch others sore spots. They want to leave them alone and ignore them thinking that they will go away or that time will change them. They are afraid to rebuke others. But this is not God’s way. It is never easy to expose someone’s deeds of darkness. But if we are prayerful about it and go about at it with gentleness and compassion, they will really be changed.

In these verses, Paul is rebuking the Ephesians in love, the love of Christ. He wants them to wake up from living complacent lives and have a sense of urgency to serve the Lord. In Verse 14 he says, “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ’s light will shine on you.” Now that the Fall semester is here we need to wake up from our summer vacation spirit and start studying. Some people’s minds might still be at Ocean City. Some people’s minds may still be in bed. But we need to wake up now and seek to please God. May God help you to wake up and rise so Christ may send his healing light into your hearts.

Part three. Be very careful, then how you live. (15-21)

In this part, Paul mentions wisdom as the way we can imitate God and live a life of love. How can we be wise? It is by making the use of every opportunity. Look at verses 15-16, “Be very careful, then, how you live---not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” We live in an evil world full of many temptations. The devil tries very hard to make believers fall and to discourage them. So we must learn to be wise and know how to live. Instead of wasting time, indulging in wrong thoughts and selfish desires, we need to make use of very opportunity. In college there are so many resources to use and so many opportunities to expand our minds and get educated. There are so many opportunities to prepare us for the job world. In God’s work there are so many opportunities to serve the Lord. So go fishing! Volunteer to work at the table ministry in front of the Stamp Student Union! Start making one friend in each of your classes so you can pray for them and later invite them to Bible study.

Look at verse 18, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with Spirit.” This is a very practical application for us. Don’t drink because you will want more and more until you become a drunkard. Then you will do things you didn’t know you did and cause a lot of troubles. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Desiring to be filled with the Holy Spirit is better than getting drunk. It makes you more powerful and clear minded and you won’t do things that you later regret.

How do you become filled with the Holy Spirit? Through faith and then through prayer and Bible study. Then when you become filled your life is led by God and not yourself. Then you begin to experience real peace and joy and your heart is filled with songs and overflowing thanks mentioned in verses 19-20. In conclusion, this morning we learned that we should be imitators of God and live a life of love like Jesus. May God help you to desire to imitate our Heavenly Father and live a life of love as Jesus loved you.