Ephesians: Part 4 - Ch. 5

Therefore…

As we near the end of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we will be approaching a very unique chapter that highlights some very simple, yet very momentous commands from Paul. Paul talks about how the relationship between a husband and wife should function in a godly manner at the end of this chapter, which is a hard enough standard to live up to already if you are in a relationship. Beyond this, however, is what Paul instructs Christ-followers to do at the very beginning of this chapter, which is to be imitators of God. Seems so easy, right? Yeah, didn’t think so. While the command is as simple as any, living out this command might be the most difficult of any. To be imitators of a perfect being is next to impossible, so why would Paul even say it? This is where breaking down exactly what Paul says about this will help us map this out. Just as Ligonier Ministries so accurately puts it, “When Christ redeemed us from sin and death, He incorporated all believers into His body. It is therefore critical to understand the nature and calling of the church that we might be effective members of the one body that is called to bear witness to God’s grace in this world.” We are given a beautiful description of this in chapter 5 of Ephesians, and Paul certainly wants us to grasp this point so that we may live it out in our day-to-day lives. With this in mind, let’s dive in to see what Paul has for us in this great chapter. 

Imitators of God

To start, being imitators of God isn’t something that Paul builds up to in this chapter. Right off the bat, Paul says in verse one that we should be imitators of God, as beloved children. But there is something we must notice about the literature being used here. Verse 1 starts out by saying, “Therefore be imitators of God.” We see that Paul is using a conjunctive adverb here, which means he is tying together two clauses. This means we need to look at how chapter four ended in order to see why Paul uses the word ‘therefore’ to open up chapter 5. If you were with us for our last post, you remember that Paul ends chapter 4 by telling his readers to ‘put on the new man’, now that we are led by the Spirit. This is why chapter 5 fits so well with how chapter 4 ends and why Paul builds a bridge between the two. If we are led by the Spirit, we have the power to be imitators of God. Now, does this mean that we have the power to do everything that God does and be perfectly holy as He is holy? Obviously not. So what does Paul mean to communicate when he tells us to be imitators of God, if we can’t live out this imitation to 100% accuracy? Paul actually lays out how we can live out this command in the following passages. Ephesians 5: 1-4 tells us, “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. But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.” 

If you look at how Paul tells us to be imitators of God, he does so by mentioning the way we love one another. This is a fascinating way to imitate God because obviously, we cannot perfectly love others as He has loved us, but we can attribute the same characteristics to our love that God does. As we go through this passage, we can see that to love like God does, we must have a sacrificial, sinless, and thankful form of love. This is how our Lord loved us, and it’s exactly how God wants us to love others. We must be willing to give of ourselves to love others, we must be willing to die to our sinful ways, and we certainly must be willing to have thankful hearts towards God when we love, because without His Spirit, loving like this would be impossible. This leads us right to the next therefore clause in this chapter that lines up perfectly with imitating God. Paul mentions in Ephesians 5:15-17 “So then, be careful how you walk, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Imitating God’s love is no simple task, which is why we must walk not as unwise people, but as wise. When we follow the leading of the Spirit in our lives, we can truly love how God has called us to love because we aren’t following the unwise lifestyle that we used to live, but are rather being led by the Spirit to be imitators of God instead of the world. 

Husbands & Wives

And what better way to practice Godly love than in a relationship with your significant other? Now, this may not be applicable to all members of the church, but it is for many, which is why Paul still addresses it. Verses 22-33 put the average marriage in this world to absolute shame as we understand the standard that God has called us to fulfill as husbands and wives. Let’s just look at two of these verses and see how we measure up. Ephesians 5:22,25 says, “Wives, subject yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,” Wives are to be submissive to their husbands just as they are to the Lord… And husbands are to love their wives to the point that their love should imitate Christ’s love for the church, which He died for… Sounds like the average marriage we see today, right? Not even close. Paul’s message to us in this chapter is absolutely clear: having the Holy Spirit should lead us to be imitators of God in the way we love each other, regardless of the relationship. Our love should look completely different from the rest of the world because we have the most perfect example of what true love looks like from our perfect God that we serve. I hope and pray that as you read these passages, you wouldn’t feel defeated because you think achieving this love is impossible, but rather, you find yourself submitting to the leading of the Holy Spirit as you earnestly seek and pray for this type of love to be evident in your own life. 

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Sources

[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/

[2] Imitators of God by R.C. Sproul from Book of Ephesians. (n.d.). Ligonier Ministries. https://learn.ligonier.org/series/book-of-ephesians/imitators-of-god