At the church where I serve, we are spending our
time together in a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of our
Bibles called the book of Ephesians. This week, I would like for us to pick up where we left off last week,
where we will see the Apostle Paul continue to provide a list of commands to
the members of the church at Ephesus when it comes to how they were to live out
their day to day lives as followers of Jesus.
Now if you do not buy the whole Jesus Bible thing,
here’s the thing, what the Apostle Paul is going to talk about here is optional
for you. You are not on the hook for what Paul is about to say. However, if you
consider yourself a follower of Jesus, what the Apostle Paul is about to say to
us this morning is not optional; instead it is required.
And it is in these series of commands that we will
see Paul reveal for us a timeless truth when it comes to our identity as a
follower of Jesus. So let's discover this timeless truth together, beginning in
Ephesians 5:1:
Therefore be
imitators of God, as beloved children;
Paul begins this section of his letter to the members of
the church at Ephesus with a command: Therefore be imitators of God. In other
words, in light of all that God has done vertically for you so that you could
experience the identity that He designed you to live in as followers of Jesus. In
light of the reality that the worth of our identity should drive us to live in
a way that is worthy of our identity as a follower of Jesus; In light of the
reality that our identity of a follower of Jesus should lead us to live a new
life as we lay aside our old life; In light of the reality that our
identity as a follower of Jesus should lead to a lifestyle that builds trust
with others, you are to live a life that reveals and reflects Jesus to others.
Paul
then provides the reason behind his command with the phrase, as beloved children.
Paul’s point to the members of
the church of Ephesus was that the reality that they have a heavenly father who
loves them, who chose them, who adopted them, who gave what was closest to
Himself to rescue them, who has given them an inheritance and His very presence
through the Holy Spirit should drive them to live a life that looks like Him.
As parents, we see this happen with our children, don’t
we? Parents, do you remember a time when your children wanted to act in a way
that imitated you? Maybe it was the time when they wanted to shave as they
watched you shave. Maybe it was the time when they wanted to help work on the
car when you worked on the car. Maybe it was the time when they wanted to cook
as they watched you cook. Or maybe it was the time they wanted to dress up as
they watched you dress up for a special occasion.
You see, there is something within children that drives
them to want to imitate their parents. And throughout the accounts of Jesus
life that are recorded for us in the Bible, we see Jesus repeatedly say that He
only did what He saw His Father doing. And in the same way, we see Paul command
followers of Jesus throughout history to be driven to imitate our Heavenly
Father.
And it is here that we see the Apostle Paul reveal for us
another timeless truth regarding our identity as a follower of Jesus. And
that timeless truth is this: Our identity as a follower of Jesus should lead us
to live a life that imitates Jesus. Just as it was for the members of the
church at Ephesus, just as it has been for followers of Jesus throughout
history, our identity as a follower of Jesus should lead us to live a life that
imitates Jesus.
Now a
natural question that arises at this point is “Well Dave that sounds great, but
what does that look like? What does a life that imitates Jesus practically look
like in one’s day to day life? And how do I know if I am living my life as a
follower of Jesus in a way that imitates Jesus”?
If those
questions are running through your mind, I want to let you know that these are
great questions to be asking. And in Ephesians 5:2-14, we see the Apostle Paul
reveal for us six specific evidences of a life that imitates Jesus. We see the
first evidence in verse 2. Let’s look at it together.
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.
Here we see the Apostle Paul command the members of the
church at Ephesus to walk in love. As we discovered earlier in this series,
when Paul uses the word walk here, he is referring to how one conducts and lives
their day to day lives as followers of Jesus. And how they were to live our day
to day lives is in love.
Paul then unpacks what this love should look like in
their day to day lives with the phrase “just as Christ also loved you and gave
Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” But
what does that mean?
With this phrase, Paul is reminding the members of the
church at Ephesus of what would happen under the Jewish sacrificial system. In
the Jewish sacrificial system, there were two times every day that sacrifices
were made to God for the sins of the people. These sacrificial offerings
involved animals who were offered as a substitute to pay the penalty for acts
of selfishness and rebellion that had been committed against God. These
sacrifices were often described as a fragrant aroma, which was a word picture
to communicate that the sacrificial offering had satisfied God’s right and just
response to selfishness and sin.
Now, as we discovered earlier
in this series, Jesus death on the cross removed the need for the Jewish
sacrificial system. Jesus was the one and only sacrifice that was necessary to
pay the penalty for our selfishness and rebellion.
Paul’s point here is that
followers of Jesus should live a life that is marked by a selfless and
sacrificial love that imitated the selfless and sacrificial love that drove
Jesus to willingly give Himself up to be treated as though He lived our selfish
and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus
perfect life. And it is here that we see Paul reveal for us the reality that we
live lives that imitate Jesus when we sacrificially love others.
As followers of Jesus, our day
to day lives are to be marked by a selfless and sacrificial love that places
others first. So here is a question to consider: Is your day to day life marked
by such sacrificial love? Because as followers of Jesus we live lives that
imitate Jesus when we sacrificially love like Jesus.
Tomorrow, we will see Paul reveal
for us additional evidences of a life that imitates Jesus…
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