Ephesians 5:1-7 | "Be Imitators of God" [ Walk Worthy, Communion ]
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· 46 viewsSunday, August 06, 2023. Ephesians 5:1-7 | "Be Imitators of God." Preached to Heritage Bible Chapel in Princeton, MA. This sermon continues an exposition through the book of Ephesians as part of a mini-series called: "Walk Worthy."
Notes
Transcript
Pray
I. The Reading: Ephesians 5:1-7
I. The Reading: Ephesians 5:1-7
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;
2 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.
3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;
4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
7 Therefore do not be partakers with them;
Amen.
II. The Exhortation: “Be Imitators of God” [ 5:1a ]
II. The Exhortation: “Be Imitators of God” [ 5:1a ]
Ephesians 5:1 (NASB 95)
1 Therefore be imitators of God ...
Nowhere else in the Bible, does God command His saints, with these words: Be imitators of God.
The Bible says:
We are children of God …
We are the church of God…
We are worshipers of God …
We are a dwelling of God …
We are chosen of God …
We are people of God …
We are the household of God …
We are the flock of God …
But only here, in Ephesians 5:1, are we commanded to be imitators of God.
And that is what we are, if we obey Him.
Be Imitators of God.
An imitator “does what others do” (LN).
An imitator “does what others do” (LN).
My children are good at finding bugs in the house that they want Dad to eliminate.
I’m convinced they go looking for bugs. I told them if they would stop looking, they would stop finding! But that doesn’t satisfy them.
Our youngest, Audrey, has learned to imitate the reaction of her older brother and sister to finding a bug. So when a bug is found, screaming and dancing and pointing ensues.
I joined in the fun, and began to mimic the reaction of my children when they find a bug. It is, after all, a funny sight to behold.
But Addison doesn’t like that very much.
You see, when someone imitates us, or mimics us, it can reveal a less than flattering picture. It shows us that we act in a way we don’t want to admit or maybe can’t see ourselves.
Addison asked me to stop doing what she was doing.
She did not like my imitation of her.
I wonder,
What does God think about our being imitators of Him?
Is God pleased when He looks at His image-bearers being His imitators?
Is God magnified and glorified by our walk and our talk as Christians?
Sometimes, to mimic a person is to make fun of that person. To mock that person.
But the saints of God are not to be imitators of God to mock God.
The saints of God are be imitators of God to make much of God.
Have you ever said to someone, “Do as I say, not as I do?”
What are you really saying?
You are saying, “Obey me, but do not imitate me.”
Brothers and sisters,
The Bible never reveals God in that way - in fact, the Bible reveals quite the opposite about God.
Our holy God reveals Himself as the supreme example, without blame or blemish, shame or regret, of BOTH words and works, so that His holy ones may be His image bearers and become His imitators.
Be imitators of God.
Everything God says, God does, with perfection and holiness.
And what God says, the saints are to do too.
Fundamentally,
We become imitators by obeying God’s Word.
The Bible says, “Be imitators of God.”
But there is a notable problem with this command —
We are incapable of being imitators of God perfectly. We can only be imitators of God partially.
(Best, ICC, 466)
Let me show you why.
This command to be an imitator is not unique to Ephesians. Other places in the Bible command the saints to be imitators too.
For example, the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians:
16 Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.
Okay. We can comprehend being imitators of another person who is human like us.
If I’m human, and you are human, I can imitate you. I can do what you do.
In the same way, we can comprehend being imitators of Jesus.
Again, the Apostle writes:
1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.
And …
6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit,
We may comprehend imitating humans and the Lord Jesus Christ, for the Bible tells us this of Jesus -
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
So we may be imitators of the Apostle Paul, we may be imitators of servants of God, we may be imitators of the Lord Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth, because these people were flesh as I am, so I can imitate them in the flesh and do what they do.
One more — We may be imitators of faithful churches:
14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews,
I want us to see that this command to be imitators exists in other places in the Bible, in a way that we can understand and comprehend.
But none of these other commands are the same as Ephesians 5:1, which is unique and even shocking in Holy Scripture! It challenges our comprehension!
This is not a command to be imitators of a human agent, or of the Lord Jesus - “the Word became flesh,” or imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus.
This verse says that the saints are to … (look at it again with me) …
Ephesians 5:1 (NASB 95)
1 Therefore be imitators of God …
How may a human being, become an imitator of God, without sinning?
Without becoming an idolater (that is, creating and fashioning an image of God after myself and my own likeness),
or becoming a blasphemer (that is, convincing myself that “I am God”),
or becoming a false witness in that imitation (that is, misrepresenting God to others)?
Was this not how the entirety of the human race fell into sin in the first place? …
Through Adam and Eve’s disobedience, in response to this same temptation … the temptation that said:
Genesis 3:5 (NASB 95)
5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
That’s what a human heart, corrupted by sin wants… to be like God so that we do what we want to do instead of obeying what God has said.
How then, may I be an imitator of God without sinning?
Without falling short of God’s glory?
Without disobeying God’s Word?
Without failing miserably in the flesh?
“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love.”
(Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”
Our Lord, as one who can sympathize with our weaknesses (Heb 4:15), knew well of this tension when he warned His disciples, saying -
Matthew 26:41 (NASB 95)
41 … the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Jesus said “keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation.”
The Apostle Paul, whom we are exhorted to be an imitator of, also knew this struggle, for he wrote:
Romans 7:15 (NASB 95)
15 … I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
...
19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
...
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
So where does this leave us, brothers and sisters?
Is Ephesians 5:1 a typo in Scripture?
Can we be imitators of God?
Would God really command His saints to do something that they are incapable of obeying?
Is this command then a trap, meant to condemn us for eternity?
…
To which the Gospel says, according to Romans 8:1-4:
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Hear those words again …
4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Ephesians is talking about this walk… “Walk Worthy.”
This is a walk that is not fleshly, but a walk that is spiritual…”according to the Spirit.”
And inasmuch as we are walking according to the Spirit:
Christians, we are free from the law of sin and of death, because of what God did, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin.
And so we begin to see that obedience to this command,
Ephesians 5:1 (NASB 95)
1 Therefore be imitators of God …
is only possible because of that word: “Therefore.”
That word “Therefore” draws us back to verse 32 of chapter 4.
Look at it with me:
32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
Brothers and sisters, we may “Therefore be imitators of God” only if and only because God first has forgiven you.
And God has forgiven you in Christ.
The problems preventing us from being imitators of God have been resolved because God in Christ has forgiven you.
Our sin - God in Christ has forgiven.
Our flesh - God in Christ has forgiven.
Our weakness - God in Christ has forgiven.
Our failures - God in Christ has forgiven.
Our corrupt heart - God in Christ has forgiven.
God in Christ has forgiven you.
And only after first receiving that forgiveness by faith in Christ, are we set free to walk according to the Spirit to become imitators of God.
So what does it mean to:
Ephesians 5:1 (NASB 95)
1 Therefore be imitators of God …
Am I to imitate all of God?
That’s impossible. God is beyond our full comprehension.
Am I to be an imitator of God’s glory, honor, and power?
No. God is God, and I am not.
So what does it mean to be imitators of God?
We need help, we need instruction, we need boundaries.
And God gives them.
III. The Teaching
III. The Teaching
First,
5.1
5.1
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;
This is our context.
The saints are commanded to be imitators of God within the bounds of a subordinated relationship:
“As beloved children.”
A country song tells the story of a father and his young son driving through town with the son eating a happy meal.
The green light suddenly changes to red, the father slams on the brakes to stop, and the son’s fries and drink go flying.
And what does the young boy do?
He says a bad word.
And the concerned father says to him,
“Son, now where did you learn to talk like that?”
And what does the son say? To his father —
“He said I've been watching you dad, ain't that cool, I'm your buckaroo, I wanna be like you ...
...
I wanna do everything you do
So I've been watching you”
(R. Travis, Watching You)
Any of us who have been given the responsibility by God for raising children have enjoyed humbling experiences like this.
How many times have I said or done something that I later regretted deeply when I saw it coming out of my own children, usually in front of other people?
We are not given free-reign to be imitators of God, being imitators of whatever we want most or like most about God.
Rather, we are commanded to be imitators of God in a specific context: “as beloved children.” Who are watching. Who are hearing.
Which means we never step beyond this subordinated relationship to become “gods” ourselves.
Instead, we remain within the bounds of this relationship that God supersedes and God defines, as our Father.
And we are not only children, for God says that we are “beloved children.”
This means that being imitators of God is also limited to the imitation of His love.
If we step outside the bounds of God’s love, if that were even possible, we cease at that moment to be imitators of God.
16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
This leads directly into the second exhortation of Verse 2. Notice the conjunction “and” at the beginning of this verse and how it connects to verse 1:
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;
5.2
5.2
2 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.
“as beloved children…walk in love.”
This word “walk” means “to live, or behave.”
So “walk in love” describes what the saints’ way of life should be. Better said - it describes what the saints’ way of life IS.
This command to “walk in love” begs for the same boundaries and limitations as the command to “be imitators of God.”
Because love has become a “catch-all” word to describe whatever we want love to be.
As long as we do what we want to do in love, we’re good.
As long as we feel love when we do it, we’re good.
Brothers and sisters, if “love” is everything, “love” is nothing at all.
The saints are to “walk in love” not as the saints define love for themselves, but the saints are to “walk in love” in the same way Jesus Christ demonstrated love for them.
2 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.
The love of Christ was substitutionary (he gave Himself up for us),
The love of Christ was sacrificial (an offering and a sacrifice to God),
and the love of Christ was sincere (as a fragrant aroma).
The point here is not to say — “since Christ gave Himself for you, go give yourself for another.”
Or “since Christ laid down His life for you, go lay down your life for another.”
Understand this: No matter how much love we have for another, we can never love them as much as God loves them.
We can never give another brother or sister more than God gave them.
We can never be someone else’s Savior or Redeemer.
We fail every time to do what Jesus alone can do and Jesus alone did do —
by leaving Heaven’s glory,
taking on human frailty,
living without sin,
and dying in the place of sinners as a sacrifice to God on the cross.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
The boundaries for walking in love, the limits for love, the definition of love, is Jesus Christ.
2 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.
A “fragrant aroma” meant that God was pleased with the sacrifice that was being offered - because it was offered in total surrender and sincerity of heart towards God (see Ross, RHG, 200-201).
And so the saints’ love for one another is not merely a horizontal relationship between human beings. The saints’ love for one another is an offering of worship to God through the cross of Christ.
It is an offering that God judges, not the other person.
To “walk in love” then, is to walk “according to the Spirit,” Who exalts Jesus and His love.
After making much of Jesus, through these exhortations to “be imitators of God” and “walk in love,” the Word of God presents a strong contrast.
If walking in love means walking according to the Spirit, in obedience — then what comes next explains what it means to walk according to the flesh. To be disobedient.
These are in a sense, distortions of love.
3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;
Being imitators of God, as beloved children, we put off anything that we do not see or hear from our Heavenly Father.
We have to examine and ask, if we do these things here described, “Where did we learn this?”
Did we learn this from God?
Does God act in this way?
Is that what God is like?
The list of “don’ts” could be quite long. But this is not a comprehensive list. It is a specific list.
Immorality, any impurity, or greed.
Make sure, saints, to avoid these at all costs (Thielman).
The immorality referenced here (and any impurity) are sexual in nature.
The word translated “immorality” is the Greek word Πορνεία and it refers to sexual immorality of any kind.
That means sexual actions that do not conform to the right standard — God’s standard.
The word translated “impurity” means filthy. Being unclean.
Sex is not immoral or impure or filthy if it is kept within the boundaries for which God gives it, which is marriage between one man and one woman.
Hear what the Word says:
4 Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
Do I need to give examples of what this means? Ephesians does not, it does not illustrate or elaborate, so I will not.
I will let the Holy Spirit bring conviction where conviction is needed.
Immorality — and ANY impurity (covers it all).
What about greed?
Greed always wants more.
A person doesn’t have to have a lot in order to be greedy. Greed is a heart problem. It is a sin of covetousness.
Notice, verse 3, the admonition:
3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;
That is, no reason should be given among the saints to speak these sins, for they must not be found among saints (LN).
They are not proper for holy ones.
Purge this evil from among you (1 Cor). Do not tolerate it. Do not feed it. But as Bryan Chapell says, Starve it. It must not even be named among you...
As Verse 3 speaks to actions,
Verse 4 in a similar way speaks to words.
Notice again the conjunction “and” at the beginning of Verse 4, connecting these words with the actions of Verse 3:
5.4
5.4
4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
God is not against humor, but even humor should be edifying and pure and gracious.
These three words are not used anywhere else in the Bible. But we have no trouble understanding what they mean, do we?
Saints do not entertain such evil conversation.
Innuendos. Crudeness. Unwholesomeness. Verbal abuse.
Let me ask a question: Why are these evils mentioned in verses 3-4?
I’ll pose the question this way:
How many times does a murder have to occur by someone before that person is called a “murderer”?
How many times does a lie have to occur by someone before that person is called “a liar”?
How many times does a theft have to occur by someone before that person is called “a thief”?
The honest answer is ONCE. One time.
A person becomes a murderer with one murder; a thief with one theft; a liar with one lie.
But humanity doesn’t like that answer because of the guilt it subjects us all to… so we come up with qualifiers...
We speak of “Serial killers...” “Habitual liars”… “Repeat thieves...”
“We’ll look the other way on a first offense, with a warning - so long as a person doesn’t continue practicing this lawlessness …”
I think that the sins of verses 3-4 are listed here, because these are the sins we are inclined to justify and tolerate and silence and excuse and hide - even in the church, among the saints.
Why else would the Word say that these must not even be named among you?
Because they are among you.
Immorality - “just this once, but, I won’t do it again and no one will know. Everyone does it.”
Silly talk - “it’s just culture, having fun, comedy, enjoying a laugh...”
Brothers and sisters, who are imitators of God, who walk in love —
God requires PURITY among His holy ones.
Be sure of this!
5.5
5.5
5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Notice that God labels the sinner by his sin.
Do you practice immorality? You are immoral.
Do you practice impurity? You are an impure person.
Do you practice greed? You are a covetous man and an idolater.
Behold your kingdom, of which you are king — but it is not the kingdom of Christ and God.
This verse is strong because it introduces the second group of people, who are not beloved children of God, or saints of God, “holy ones,” but instead they are immoral, impure, covetous, idolatrous, and they have no inheritance in God. They are sons of disobedience.
If you are a saint, a beloved child of God, then when you sin the Holy Spirit presses upon that sin until you can have no more of it, and you confess that sin to God.
God did that with David and Psalm 51 tells us of David’s point of confession.
God will not leave you alone, comfortable in that sin. And God offers forgiveness if we confess our sins.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
But hear the Word of God - if you are one who practices these things, God labels you according to your sin.
The kingdom of Christ and God is both a present and future reality.
If we think that such sins are excused now, and such a battle for holiness is not worth fighting now because we will be glorified with Christ and be made right in glory - then watch out! Be warned! —
You’ve misunderstood that God is making us holy and expects holiness of us, through obedience to His Word.
What we do now will impact what we will do in glory forever. And so verse 6 says —
5.6
5.6
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
Do not be mislead. Holiness matters to God.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
These are the sons of disobedience, rejecting the light God has given.
The words of a deceiver are empty and many, but God does what God says.
Judgment is coming, and judgment is now here.
The Apostle wrote to the church at Corinth about their observance of the Lord’s Supper.
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.
30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.
31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.
How may we be imitators of God without messing up God’s image?
Without becoming guilty of idolatry, or blasphemy or of a false witness?
How may we walk in love?
How may we avoid impure actions and words that should not be named among saints?
There is a sense in which we can’t —
But Jesus did.
The Bible says after the Fall, after Adam and Eve disobeyed God, that Adam and Eve knew that they were naked, and so they made for themselves coverings.
Because they were naked, they realized that they must put something on.
But what they put on, was insufficient. It was not enough. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
The coverings of fig leaves point to the saints’ former manner of life.
Of which Ephesians says,
Ephesians 4:22 (NASB 95)
22 ... in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
What Adam and Eve had to put on to cover their sin, the Gospel frees us to put off.
What did God do for Adam and Eve?
He caused them to put off the covering that they had made, and God covered them with the covering GOD HIMSELF made.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
To make a garment of skin, there must have been a sacrifice.
What God did for Adam and Eve, God has done and will do for us.
He will clothe us with His righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus Christ because of the sacrifice of His body and blood.
Hebrews 1:3 tells us of Jesus, that —
3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Jesus is the perfect imitator of God, and Jesus obeyed God perfectly.
And that uniquely qualified Him to stand in our place and bear the wrath of God which He did on the cross,
so that by faith in His name and His work —
Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection —
we might be born again, given a new heart and new life,
to walk according to the Spirit and be perfected by His obedience.
To receive His inheritance as children of God.
By faith, in Christ, we are imitators of God, and then freed to obey Him. To obey His Word. Trusting not in our works any longer, but in His grace.
By faith, we are imitators of God, we are children of God, we are saints of God, shining as lights in this dark world.
Invitation to Communion
Invitation to Communion
Our invitation to Communion comes from verse 7:
5.7
5.7
7 Therefore do not be partakers with them;
The Communion table invites us instead, brothers and sisters in Jesus, to be partakers together with Christ.