Ephesians 5:1-10
OUR BEHAVIOR SHOULD IMITATE OUR SAVIOR
Ephesians 5:1 (BSB) Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children,
SUSAN: We both believe the Amplified Classic Version clarified this verse:
Therefore be imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father].
Ephesians 5:10 (AMPC)
SUSAN: We’ve all seen children try to be a “mini-me” of their parents.
SUSIE: They try to walk like dad, pretend to work on the car like dad, pretend to vacuum the house like mom, etc. We watched a cute video this morning of a baby pretending to talk on the cell phone, mimicking the hand motions, leaning on her elbow, just as her mom would do. How do we imitate God?
SUSAN: Imitate—be a mini me—walk in the shadow of Christ’s walk. Conduct yourself in the same manner as He does. His love is a sacrificial and intimate affection. A child mirroring their parent is a copy-cat. I want to be a carbon copy of Jesus.
SUSIE: Essentially, we are “carbon” copies of Jesus. We talk about leaving a small carbon footprint on the earth, but in this case, we want our footprint to be large, large enough to love sacrificially.
SUSAN: I no longer have physical feet, but I can follow Jesus with my choices each day in each situation. We want to be an enormous, gigantic, impossible to miss witness for our Lord. Some examples of how we can imitate Christ: Jesus gave thanks before He fed the multitudes from seven loaves and two fish, and we should give thanks before our meals.
Taking the seven loaves and the fish, He gave thanks and broke them. Then He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.
Matthew 15:36 (BSB)
SUSIE: Jesus used words to benefit others rather than tear them down.
Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him trembling in fear, and she told Him the whole truth. “Daughter,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free of your affliction.”
Mark 5:33-34 (BSB)
And Jesus answering, said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona! For flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but My Father in the heavens.
Matthew 16:17 (BSB)
When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.”
John 1:47 (BSB)
SUSAN: Jesus was humble and came to serve rather than to be served.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:5-8 (BSB)
. . . and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.
Matthew 20:27-28 (BSB)
Jesus knew that the Father had delivered all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was returning to God. So He got up from the supper, laid aside His outer garments, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel that was around Him.
John 13:3-5 (BSB)
SUSIE: Jesus lived in complete obedience to the Father. Jesus was God in the flesh, so we are to imitate Him.
SUSAN: We are now Jesus’s earthly expression to bring light to a dark, dark world. In our earth-suits, we can be the hands and feet of the Lord to minister to people in practical, everyday ways.
You are the light of [Christ to] the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;
Matthew 5:14 (AMP)
Ephesians 5:2 . . . and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:35 (NASB)
SUSAN: Our love for members of the family of faith is Jesus’s certification stamp on us, like USDA Choice on a package of steak (and I know my steaks!)
SUSIE: Christ’s love for us was demonstrated by His sacrifice on the cross to redeem us. Christ-like love almost always involves sacrificing our own desires for the benefit of others. Sacrificial love is another way we imitate God.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:7-12 (BSB)
SUSIE: Susan demonstrated sacrificial love for me by being willing to live in a personal care home, apart from me, for three months to allow time for me to heal from back surgery. She has demonstrated love for me in practical ways by asking others to do chores for me that she is unable to do herself such as vacuuming, taking out trash, changing the bed linens, etc. to prevent me from overdoing it as I continue to rebuild my strength.
Ephesians 5:3 But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.
SUSAN: The King James Version uses the word “fornication”. We do not use that word in everyday conversation, so we looked up the definition:
FORNICA’TION, noun [Latin fornicatio.]
1. The incontinence or lewdness of unmarried persons, male or female; also, the criminal conversation of a married man with an unmarried woman.
2. Adultery. Matthew 5:32.
3. Incest. 1 Corinthians 5:1.
4. Idolatry; a forsaking of the true God, and worshipping of idols. 2 Chronicles 21:11, Revelation 19:2.
Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language
SUSIE: Let us just put this out there plainly. Fornication is sexual immorality of any kind, including having sexual relations with someone before marriage. Sexual immorality, impurity in relationships, or coveting someone else’s spouse should not even be suspected of a Christian.
SUSAN: When we assert that we are “Christians,” we represent Christ. We are ambassadors, witnesses for Him. He is who we are here for, not ourselves. We are not our own because He paid the price for our redemption. We should not participate in anything that is not honoring to His name.
Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 (NASB)
SUSIE: Sexual immorality is an epidemic in the USA, and unfortunately is even a problem in the church. A friend recently shared that she is required to sign an affidavit stating that she refuses to have her 15-yr-old vaccinated against an STD. Our world assumes teenagers will be sexually active! This should not be! However, our society sometimes seems to penalize people for getting married. A person on disability may lose benefits if they marry because their potential spouse has a job even if that spouse’s job cannot support their combined households or their medical needs. I have known elderly people who lost their senior adult housing when they married because combining their social security incomes put them over the income limit for the housing, but even combining their incomes it was hard to find housing they could afford. That being said, we must still refuse to give in to the temptation to live immorally despite what may be seen as “extenuating circumstances.” We cannot legislate morality as each person is responsible to God for his/her own actions. However, we can use our voices and our votes to help create a society that honors morality rather than discouraging right living.
Ephesians 5:4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving.
SUSIE: We like the Amplified Version for clarifying verse four:
Let there be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse [obscene or vulgar] joking, because such things are not appropriate [for believers]; but instead speak of your thankfulness [to God].
Ephesians 5:4 (AMP)
SUSAN: Do not participate in conversation about those who engage in perverse activities. Don’t even speak of their exploits in jest.
SUSIE: Don’t even make jokes about it. Making jokes about immorality opens the door to thinking lightly about this kind of sin, and is completely “unbecoming,” as my grandmother would say, or inappropriate in today’s terminology, for believers’ conversations. Yes, this is an extremely high standard, but God empowers us to do what His word instructs us to do. God sees us covered in the righteousness of Christ, but this does not excuse us from being conformed to the image of His Son through the working of the Holy Spirit. That uneasy feeling when I am tempted to pass on a funny but extremely inappropriate joke is the Holy Spirit reminding me whose name I bear.
SUSAN: Instead of foolish talk, we should be giving thanks to God for what He has done, continues to do, and will be faithful to do until we meet Him face to face.
SUSIE: Our focus should be on all God has given us rather than what our fleshly desires covet, and our conversations should reflect that.
Ephesians 5:5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
SUSIE: The behaviors listed in verse five are associated with those who are apart from Jesus, who have never received His gift of salvation.
SUSAN: They should not be habitually practiced by those who have trusted Jesus for salvation.
SUSIE: That is not to say that a single immoral incident causes one to lose his/her salvation. Once we belong to Jesus, we are permanently adopted into His family. His Holy Spirit inside the believer will draw them back to obedience; but the believer may have to suffer consequences of their behavior.
SUSAN: A believer’s life will not be characterized by willful, habitual sin.
Ephesians 5:6-7 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them.
SUSIE: People find ways to justify their behavior, but do not let them influence you when you know something is against what the Bible teaches or would in any way harm your witness. This goes back to being imitators of God. Would Jesus do these things? Would you participate with that friend if Jesus was in room with you? (By the way, Jesus IS in the room with you!) Especially, beware of the friend who professes Christ but lives in perpetual disobedience to Him. God is a God of love, but He cannot and does not tolerate sin.
Ephesians 5:8-10 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Test and prove what pleases the Lord.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
Matthew 5:14-15 (NASB)
SUSIE: Jesus Himself called believers the light of the world.
SUSAN: In the Christian life, we walk not with our feet, but decision by decision, choice by choice. We are to walk in the same manner Jesus walked.
SUSIE: Jesus is THE Light, and we as lesser lights, like the moon reflects the sun, are to reflect the Son of God to the world.
SUSAN: Light grows crops, and the fruit grown by the Light of Jesus is the fruit of the Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB)
SUSIE: We need to allow the Master Gardener, the Father, to cultivate this fruit in our lives. The Lord may need to prune some behaviors, and sometimes even influences, out of our lives to make us more like Jesus.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
John 15:1-2 (ESV)
Therefore I urge you, 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, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:1-2 (NASB)
SUSAN: As the Lord renews our minds, we are enabled to present evidence in our own lives, like exhibits in court, of good and acceptable behavior.
APPLICATION: Remember the song, “Be careful little eyes what you see…”? It went on to address ears, lips, and hands (actions). It is not just for children. We need to remember that “the Father up above is looking down in love” and behave accordingly. We need to be Jesus’s “mini-me” by imitating Him as a child imitates a parent. Sometimes we have earthly parents who are not the best role models. However, our heavenly Father is the perfect example. Each day we need to ask ourselves whether or not our speech, interests, and actions are something that would bring honor or dishonor to our Father.
ASSIGNMENT: There is an excellent book titled In His Steps by Charles M. Sheldon. The story line is that a pastor is moved by an incident in his community to ask members of his congregation to make a one-year commitment to do nothing without asking themselves “What would Jesus do?” There are times we cannot do exactly what Jesus would do because we are not equal with God like He was. But we can certainly ask ourselves, “What would Jesus have me to do?” This week, be intentional about asking yourself what Jesus would do in your situation. Find the answers in His word or by consulting with a respected Christian friend. Try to live one week following Jesus in this way. This may be more difficult than it sounds. Journal your experiences.