Imitate God
5:1-2
In this passage, Paul continues to tell the Ephesian Christians how they should live in Christ. The first principle is to imitate God. Given that the context of the discussion is what is good Christian behavior and bad behavior, the implication is to imitate God’s holiness.
That command was given to Israel in the Old Testament. For example, God told Israel “For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy”. (Leviticus 11:44) Peter applied this command to the church, writing “…as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy”. (1 Peter 1:15-16)
What does it mean that God is holy? He is totally sinless and separated from sin. Paul call us imitate God in avoiding a sinful lifestyle. God gave Israel the law so that they would be separate from the sinful lifestyles of the pagans. He called them out of Egypt and did not want them to live as the Egyptians did, nor like any of the pagan nations that would surround them in the Promised Land.
Similarly, God called us out of the world and wants us to imitate him, not the world. We are to do this as children who adore their Father, not as unhappy slaves. I love a picture of a little boy with a toy lawn mower following his father as the father mows the law. He wants to be like his father. We, having believed, should be the same way.
Not only should we imitate the Father in holiness, we should imitate Christ, the son, by walking in love. Jesus expressed his love to us by sacrificing himself for us. (2)
Paul demonstrated this principle of imitation in this own life. He urged believers to imitate him as he imitated Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1) Since most of the people Paul led to the Lord had no experience with holy living, it was imperative for him to not only teach the principles of holiness, but also to live them.
We are at that point today also. The increased secularization of the world has resulted in many people not knowing what it is to be holy. If Christians do not model holiness, they cannot see it. When Christians fail to live according to God’s standards, it just convinces people that our faith has no value.
Things To Avoid
5:3-5
Paul goes on to list specific behaviors and attitudes that must be avoided. They are: (1) sexual immorality & impurity; (2) covetousness; and (3) corrupt speech.
Sexual immorality is any type of sexual sin. Sexual sin is to be avoided. Your culture’s standards are irrelevant. The Roman and Greek culture allowed for certain types of immorality. Worship in some pagan temples included sex with temple prostitutes. All of that was acceptable. But, God designed marriage as the sole vehicle for sex. Anything else is sexual sin. God wants our marriages to reflect his holiness. His will is captured in the 4th commandment: “you shall not commit adultery”. (Exodus 20:14)
Jesus took the commandment further. He said “You have heard it said, ‘you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.” (Matthew 5:27-29) He wants us to have a pure mind as well as pure outward actions.
Covetousness is a strong desire to have something that belongs to someone else. That could be the desire to have someone else’s house or car or even their spouse. It shows a lack of contentment with what God has given you. This is prohibited in the 7th commandment, which says “you shall not covent your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s”.
Covetousness is also a form of idolatry. (5) That is because the person who covets worships a created thing rather than the Creator.
Paul also addressed or speech, saying there should be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place in a Christian fellowship. (4) Much crude talk is degrading to other people. It also leads us to think about things we should not think about.
Instead, Paul said there should be thanksgiving. Thanksgiving certainly counteracts covetousness. It also promotes healthy thoughts and actions. When we are thankful, we reflect on the goodness and generosity of the Creator.
Since one’s coming to Christ involves a change in character, becoming a new creation, actions and attitudes that belong to the old self may indicate the lack of regeneration, that one is not actually in Christ although he claimed to be. Paul says that people who practice these things have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (5) That is a scary thought, is it not? Paul said this to the church at Corinth also. He said “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? He goes on to list some of the acts of the unrighteous, including the ones named here in Ephesians.
So, if you do these things, at a minimum you are not acting according to God’s will and are acting like the unbelievers. At the maximum, you are not a believer, not in Christ, even if you claim to be. Either way, repentance is necessary.
In verse 6, Paul acknowledges that there are people who will try to deceive you in this matter. They will tell you these things are not important and God is not concerned with them. They will often begin with the question “doesn’t God want you to be happy?”. Or they will tell you God is not concerned with small things. But, Paul makes it clear that these are not small things to God and are, in fact, very important to him.
Those things are so important that the wrath of God comes upon those who disobey him. (8) Those who are not in Christ will certainly face God’s wrath at the final judgment. But they will also experience God’s wrath in the present, even if it is only God turning them over to their sinful way of thinking so that they have no hope in him, as Romans 1 sets out.
Do Not “Partner” With Them
5:7-14
Believers should not join with those who practice these things (sexual immorality, covetousness, filthy talkers). We may have relationships with non-believers, may even be friends with them, but we cannot join them in their sinful behaviors.
They are of the darkness, but we have been brought into the light. (8) Darkness represents sinful thinking alienated from God. It represents evil. Light represents the life and truth of Christ.
Those who walk in the light do what is good, right, and true. (9) Enlightened by Christ and empowered by the Spirit, we continually seek to discern what pleases the Lord. (10)
Rather than partner with the disobedient in their actions, we are to expose sin. If it is sin, we call it sin. We do not explain it away. We explain how it violates God’s commands. We expose it to the light by shining the word of God upon it. And we address it within the church if it occurs.
Paul recites a phrase in verse 14 about the light of Christ shining on a person. There is no Old Testament passage that says exactly matches the quote. It could be a baptismal hymn since it uses the symbolism of dying (sleeping) and rising to live for Christ. The point is that the old self of the believer has died with Christ and the new self lives in Christ's light, not darkness.
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