Ephesians - Imitate God in your Walk - Part 1 - Ephesians 5:1-17

Thank you Father for the word. Thank you that the word reveals the Lord Jesus Christ and helps us to understand Him better and love Him more. And we also want to serve Him better. And so teach us from the word, grant to us that spiritual understanding that we need. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and for His sake, Amen.

At some point in life every child has to learn how to walk. If you've raised any children or watched your grandchildren, you know how delightful it is when that child starts toddling around and then you take the child by the finger, by the hand and the child begins to walk and then one day gets up and starts walking all by himself or herself. Now that's one of the turning points in life. You can't go through life being carried in somebody's arms or crawling at somebody's feet. You have to learn how to walk. So it is with the Christian life. Far too many Christians are creepers and crawlers and toddlers. In fact, far too many have to be carried around and pampered. God wants us to walk. 

And that's why in chapter five he talks about our Christian walk. In fact, it begins back in Ephesians 4:1, walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called. And he talks about walking in unity. And then in Ephesians 4:17, don't walk the way you used to walk. Walk now in purity. And he amplifies that in chapter five. Therefore be followers of God as dear children, Ephesians 5:1. The word followers means imitators, mimics. Don't imitate the world with its fornication, its uncleanness, its covetousness, its filthy speech, its foolish talk, its coarse jesting. Do not imitate the world, imitate your Father in heaven. You get involved in the garbage of the world, the aroma of your life will not be fragrant. 

But he says we should walk in love, as Christ also loved us and He's given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. The Old Testament priests used to offer the sweet-smelling sacrifices to God. And that's what we should be to God. And so we have to make our choice. Then down in verse eight, for you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Verse fifteen, see then that you walk circumspectly. That means carefully, looking around with your eyes open. Not as fools, but as wise. 

Here then are three admonitions concerning our walk. We're to walk in love, we're to walk in light, we're to walk in wisdom. And in doing this we are being followers of God. The word followers is the word imitators. In fact, it gives us our English word mimic. Therefore be mimics of God. In what sense? Well, God is love, 1 John 4:8. Therefore we should walk in love, Ephesians 5:2. God is light, 1 John 1:5. Therefore we should walk as children of light, Ephesians 5:8. God is truth, 1 John 5:6 tells us the Spirit is truth. Therefore we should walk in wisdom, verse fifteen of Ephesians 5. See then that you walk circumspectly, carefully, not as fools but as wise. 

You see children have a tendency, whether fortunately or unfortunately, to mimic their parents. This is how many children learn how to smoke and drink and do other things they shouldn't do. They see daddy and mommy doing it. And if it's right for them, it's certainly right for the children. Children don't always do what we say, but they always do what we do. And if we use certain language, they pick up that language. Mimics. Now says the apostle, you are to mimic God. Be imitators of God. God is love, walk in love. God is light, walk as children of light. God is truth, walk in wisdom. 

In other words, Paul is encouraging us to live godly lives. That means God-like lives. And he does this by reminding us of what we are in Jesus Christ. Now in this long paragraph, Ephesians 5:1-17, you're going to find five pictures of the Christian. You must keep in mind that the Bible is a picture book. It's not a law book, there are laws in it. But it's a picture book. God teaches us through pictures, through words that evoke images in our mind. It has well been said that the mind of man is not a debating chamber, it is a picture gallery. And this is true. This is why our Lord gave parables and used images like I am the door, I am the true vine, I am the good shepherd. Because in using these pictures He is conveying to us spiritual truth. 

Verses one and two we are compared to children. Therefore be followers of God as dear children. Verses three and four we are saints. You'll notice that in verse three, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints. So verses one and two he pictures us as children. Verses three and four as saints. Verses five through seven as heirs. He talks about our inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God, verse five. We are children, we are saints, we are heirs, we are lights. That's the longest section, verse eight through verse fourteen. We are lights. Walk as children of light. You were once darkness, now you are light in the Lord. 

And finally in verses 15-17, we are pictured as stewards or as merchants, redeeming the time. That means buying up the opportunity. It's the picture of the merchant out in the marketplace seizing every opportunity he has to make money. Now we are to seize every opportunity we have to serve the Lord. Children, saints, heirs, lights, stewards. Let's look today at these first three images. We are children of God, verses one and two. We are saints of God, verses three and four. And we are the heirs of God, verses five, six, and seven. 

Children of God. Therefore be followers, imitators, mimics of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. Now we share God's life because we've been born into God's family. We're born into God's family by faith in Jesus Christ. As many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the children of God, even to them who believe on His name. Now we're born by the power of the Spirit of God. And we receive a new nature. Children are like their parents. They often look like their parents, they often sound like their parents. And Paul is saying here, it's rather logical if you share His life, you ought to share His love as dear children. Be children that are dear to Him. 

By the way, He loves us as much as He loves His Son. That's an incredible thought. But we read in John 17:23, I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. God not only sees me and accepts me in the beloved one, but He loves me like the beloved one. That is a devastating truth. If I share His life and if I share His love, therefore I ought to walk in love as a dear child of God. God so loved the world, John 3:16. He loved the church and gave Himself for it, Ephesians 5:25. He loved me and gave Himself for me, Galatians 2:20. You see the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the proof that God loves us, that God loves a lost world. God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, Romans 5:8. 

Now we should seek to please Him. That means walking in love. Not walking by law. Well, I have to do this and I don't do that because this is what the rules are. No. A home that is run by law and not by love is not going to be a happy home. It may be an orderly home, it may even be an obedient home, but it won't be a happy home. Ephesians 6:6 says doing the will of God from the heart. That means love. And so we walk in love and we follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. He loved us and gave Himself for us. Therefore we love Him and give ourselves for Him. He gave Himself for lost sinners, we give ourselves to a wonderful, beautiful, loving savior. 

Our Lord's sacrifice here is pictured as a sweet smelling aroma. You'll recall when Noah came out of the ark, he offered sacrifices to God and God smelled that aroma. Now all of this is human language to express divine truth. The truth is simply this: God accepted Noah's sacrifice. It was a pleasure to Him. God accepted our Lord Jesus Christ when He sacrificed Himself on the cross. Now we in turn should be a pleasing aroma, a living sacrifice to God. 2 Corinthians 2:15 and 16, these verses remind us that we are the fragrance of Christ unto God. 2 Corinthians 2:15, for we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. My Father in heaven loves His Son so much He wants all of us to become like Him. And the place to begin is to give yourself to Him as a living sacrifice and to live a life that is fragrant to God. I wonder if our lives today are fragrant to God? Oh, I trust that they are. We are imitating Him as dear children.

Now in verses three and four he says we are saints. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. We are saints. Now the word saint means a set apart one. In fact, he addressed this letter to living saints. People have the idea that saints are dead people. We have investigated their lives and discovered how holy they were and therefore we give them a special honor. No. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints. Which saints? The saints who are in Ephesus, living saints, and faithful in Christ Jesus. Nine times in this letter Paul uses the word saints. 

What's it mean to be a saint? Well, you're redeemed, chapter one verses one through fourteen. Chosen by the Father, purchased by the Son, sealed by the Holy Spirit. That's a saint. You are resurrected and seated on the throne, Ephesians 2:1-10. The grave clothes are taken off. You've been reconciled and put into God's temple. There's one nation and you're a citizen in that nation. There's one family and you belong in that family through faith in Christ. There's one temple and you are a living stone in that temple. Now if we are saints, let's live like it. If we've been set apart, let's not get involved in these wicked deeds. 

He names things. Fornication, all uncleanness and covetousness. Remember he was writing to the saints in Ephesus. In Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the world, the great Temple of Diana. The Temple of Diana was a place of idolatrous worship and it was a place of immorality. And it was also a bank. If you wanted to keep your money safe, you took it down to the Temple of Diana and deposited it and that was the bank. Now says Paul, fornication, the kind of thing going on down at that temple. Uncleanness, get rid of it. Covetousness, get rid of it. Don't even have it named among you. Now Paul names these things because he is writing an inspired letter for us to learn how to live the Christian life. But he says to them, don't even have this thing named among you, let alone practiced among you. Why? It's not fitting for saints. You're a saint, you've been set apart. 

He talks not only about deeds but about words. Filthiness of speech. He had mentioned that before in chapter four. Foolish talking, that means silly talk, treating holy things lightly. Coarse jesting. People who tell sordid jokes about holy things or about precious things. Coarse jesting, they're just not fitting. Twice he's used this word fitting. They just don't fit. If you're separated unto God and separated from the world because you are a saint, these things simply don't fit. 

What's his solution? Rather giving of thanks. That's interesting. Did you ever stop to think that the giving of thanks, the praising of the Lord, is marvelous, marvelous therapy for a dirty tongue? You want to clean up your vocabulary, you want to clean up your mouth, you want to clean up your mind, start giving thanks to God. Be thankful for the blessings He's given to you. Gratitude is a marvelous thing, the purifying power of praise. You see our God is the giver of every good and perfect gift. The devil comes along and offers something else to us and when we're praising the Lord for His blessings, we don't want what the devil has to offer. 

We are children of God, verses one and two. We are saints, verses three and four. And we are heirs. For this you know that no fornicator, unclean person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. 

Paul has spoken much about our inheritance in the writing of Ephesians. In Ephesians 1:11 he tells us what God has done for us, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance. Verse eighteen, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Now we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Once we were bankrupt, now we are rich. Ephesians talks about the riches of His grace, the riches of His mercy, unsearchable riches. We have been born again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled that fades not away reserved in heaven for you, 1 Peter 1:3-4. 

Now there are those who would deceive us. They say, oh well if you're a saint of God you can sin. If you have an inheritance and you know you're going to heaven you can sin. If God saves us by grace, then the more you sin the more grace you're going to receive. Paul refutes that in Romans 6. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. 

It's interesting that this judgment he's talking about is not something future. He says the wrath of God comes, present tense, right now. The wrath of God is now coming upon the sons of disobedience. He spells this out in Romans 1. It's a frightening chapter. Romans 1:18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven now, right now, not in the future, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Now how does God judge people today? Is He sending fire from heaven? No. Is He opening up the earth and swallowing people? No. He just lets them have their own way. Look at Romans 1:24. Therefore God also gave them up to their uncleanness. God gave up on them. He said, alright, you want to live that way, go ahead. In the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. He also tells us in verses twenty-six and twenty-seven, for this reason God gave them up to what? Vile passions. And he goes on to describe in verses twenty-six and twenty-seven the unnatural practices of men and women, things that he says are shameful. Now verse twenty-eight, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting. The very words that Paul used in Ephesians. These things are not fitting for saints. 

You see, if the saints of God live like sinners, they're going to reap what sinners reap. The fact that you're saved does not rescue you from the consequences of sin. Be sure your sin will find you out. Now we are heirs of God, we're going to live in heaven, we're going to share the glories of heaven. Why do we want to live like sinners here on earth? Let no one deceive you. Don't defend sin. Any doctrine that makes sin easy and palatable is false doctrine. 

Now Paul has assured us that we are the children of God. He's not saying if you do these things you'll lose your salvation. No. He is saying you are God's children, live up to it. Be a fragrant Christian who pleases your Father. You are a saint of God. Put these things out of your vocabulary and out of your life. You are an heir with the Lord Jesus Christ. Look forward to being in heaven in glory with Him. Therefore do not be partakers with them, rather imitate God.