1. An imitator of God walks in love (5:2-7)
a. Have loving relationships—purity of the body (3)
b. Use loving speech—purity of the tongue (4)
c. Maintain loving fellowship—purity of the church (5-7)
2. An imitator of God walks in light (5:8-14)
a. Expose the will of God—examine the Scriptures (10)
b. Expose the works of man—examine your works (11-12)
c. Expose the conviction of Christ—let Christ examine your heart (13-14)
3. An imitator of God walks in wisdom (5:15-16)
a. Be wise in present circumstances (15)
b. Be wise in eternal context (16)
EPHESIANS 5:1
I have to confess—my wife loves pictures. We have boxes and boxes of old snapshots. That’s one of the benefits of having a digital camera. Now the pictures just take up space in the computer instead of taking up space in the house. But looking through old pictures can be and emotional event, can’t it? When we see them, we can think of good times and we can think of bad times. Looking at them can bring joy and can bring sadness. One thing it does is remind us how fast time flies. Especially when you look at pictures of the kids and you see how fast they grow and are gone. Last year, we were going through some of our old pictures. As we were going through them we came across a picture of our oldest daughter. I don’t remember how old she was, but she was just a little-bitty thing. And there she was dressed up in Daddy’s red-neck clothes. She had on one of my old ball caps, one of my shirts, and was standing in a pair of my old cowboy boots. They almost went all the way up to her waist. That’s something that children like to do, isn’t it? They like to dress up in Mommy or Daddy’s clothes to try to imitate them. But our kids don’t only do cute stuff to imitate us. They imitate the way we talk and the way we walk and the way we act. Of course, most of the time it’s the bad stuff that they imitate quickest. But make no mistake, they watch, they learn, they imitate us. That’s the picture that Paul paints with the first verse of our passage this morning. Here in verse 1, he urges the Ephesian Christians to be followers of God. But the word that’s translated followers really has the meaning of being an imitator. He’s urging them to be more than just followers. He’s urging them to be imitators of God. He has been talking over the past several verses about the contrast between the old man prior to salvation and the new man we are in Christ. And now, he tells us how to live godly lives. Just like a young son wants to imitate his father, we need to imitate our Heavenly Father. That’s what I want of us this morning. I want each of us here this morning to be imitators of God. In order to be an imitator of God, we have to know what that looks like. So, this morning, we will be looking at three traits of a God imitator. The first trait is that an imitator of God walks in love.
EPHESIANS 5:2-7
An imitator of God walks in love. I think it was that great, profound 20th century thinker Tina Turner that asked the musical question, What’s love got to do with it? Well, what does love have to do with our daily lives? When this verse says we are to walk in love, that means love is supposed to be at the core of everything we do. It’s supposed to permeate all of our existence. The problem is, we don’t understand what love is. We think of love as some sort of sappy emotion. Or some sort of warm fuzzy feeling. Apparently that was a problem with the Ephesian Christians as well. They must have had trouble understanding what love really is too. Because Paul gave them an example. He said that they were to love as Jesus loved them. Well, how much was that? I remember when I was little. My Pawpaw gave me a little wooden sign. It had a picture of a man standing with his arms open wide. And at the bottom it said, “I love you this much.” That’s what Jesus did. He said, “I love you this much.” And He stretched out His arms on the cross of Calvary and died for you. That’s the kind of love that Paul says we are supposed to walk in. That’s the kind of love he says is supposed to be characteristic of the way we live our lives. If you are a Christian this morning. If you carry the name of Christ because He is your Lord and Savior, you’re supposed to walk in the same kind of love He did. That kind of love is a self-sacrificial love. It places the needs and wants and desires of other people above our own. It offers itself in service as a sweet-smelling offering. It is willing to serve others no matter what the personal cost. Whether they ask for service or not. Whether they deserve to be served or not. Whether they appreciate being served or not. How did Judas repay Jesus’ service of washing his feet? Think about it. Jesus knew Judas would betray Him as He knelt there on the ground and unconditionally served him. Just like He knew how He would be mocked and rejected by the very people He would be dying for just a few hours later. That’s how we are to serve. That’s how we are to love. Unconditionally. This passage shows us that that kind of unconditional love shows itself in three ways. First, it shows itself in preserving loving relationships. Look at what Paul groups together here in verse 3. It seems obvious that fornication and uncleanness would go together. Fornication is sexual contact outside the sacred bounds of marriage. Uncleanness is just another word for sexual nastiness—immorality, sexual impurity. So he covers sex outside of marriage by talking about fornication. And he covers all other physical contact of a sexual nature outside of marriage by talking about uncleanness. But just in case there was any doubt, he threw in covetousness. Covetousness is wanting what somebody else has—desiring it as an object of personal pleasure without regard for the other person. I love you for how you make me feel. For what you do for me. You see, it’s the opposite of the way Jesus loves us. He loves us knowing we can’t do anything at all for Him. Our relationships with each other are to reflect Christ. As such, they must be selfless and unconditional. They cannot take into account anything about the other person other than they are loved by Jesus, so they must be loved by us. Walking in love not only shows itself in preserving loving relationships, it shows itself in preserving loving speech. Loving speech is gracious and thankful. It is forgiving and kind. The words that Paul uses here are interesting. Filthiness is from the word which means to use obscenities. Cursing and swearing—using dirty words. Foolish talking comes from the same word we get the word moron from. This is the kind of talk that easily makes it in PG movies and is passed off as humor most of the time. Gutter humor—potty humor fits this category. Jesting, on the other hand, isn’t just a term for dirty jokes. Most dirty jokes fit into the other categories. Jesting, or crude joking as some translations say, is talking about innuendo. Innuendo seems to be a favorite pastime today. It is taking perfectly innocent situations or words and giving them dirty connotations. When we walk in love, we use our tongue to build each other up. Not tear each other down. We magnify God and His creation. Not ourselves and our sharp wit. Walking in unconditional love shows itself in loving relationships, loving speech and by preserving a loving fellowship. You see, if we as a church have unloving relationships and we use unloving speech, God won’t have any part of us. He will not allow us to participate in building His kingdom. Because of that, Paul gives us a serious warning in verse 7. He says that when we see stuff like that going on around us, we’re not to have any part of it. In order to walk in love, we can’t walk in immorality. We can’t walk in greed and selfishness. We can’t walk in impure actions and language. We can’t walk in empty, vain, useless words. To walk like Christ calls us to walk means that we walk in love. Loving relationships, loving speech and a loving fellowship. Walking in love is the first trait of a God imitator. The second trait is that a God imitator walks in light.
EPHESIANS 5:8-14
An imitator of God walks in light. I don’t know about you, but I hate to clean windows. One of the reasons I hate to clean windows is that I’m not very good at it. I can clean my truck’s windshield the best I know how and it still streaks. But the funny thing is, I never see the streaks when I’m doing the cleaning. I see them when the light hits it just right. Usually when I’m driving west into the sunset or east into the sunrise. That bright sunlight exposes every streak, every missed spot, and every speck of dirt. That’s what should happen to our lives when we walk in the light of the Lord. When Jesus saves us, our body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. He lives inside us. And in John 16:8, Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit’s job was to reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. So when we’re saved, the Holy Spirit takes us residency in us in order to shine his light of righteousness around in our lives. He shines that light around and exposes sin in our lives. Not to condemn us or make us lose our salvation. But so we can repent of it and become more like Jesus. So we can imitate God. But to do that, we have to walk in that light. We can’t hide from it. When the Holy Spirit shines that light, we can’t close our eyes to what He shows us. He won’t shine it on that sin forever. If you ignore Him or cover your sin up, it grieves Him. But He won’t keep the light on it forever. He’ll turn the light away and allow you to build up calluses and harden your heart. But to remove those calluses, you have to be sensitive to His Spirit. You have to listen when He speaks. You have to walk in His light. These verses show us three ways to walk in His light. First, you walk in His light by examining the Scriptures. The Psalmist said that God’s Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. He’s not going to show you everything He has for you. He won’t show you the whole field and the horizon and what’s around the next corner. But He will light up your feet to keep you from stumping your toe on sin. He will light up your path to keep you going in the right direction. He will prove to you what is acceptable to Him when you are faithful to stay in His Word. Not only do you walk in His light by examining the Scriptures, you walk in His light by examining your works. Your works are the fruit that are evidence of your salvation. That’s why Paul started this section by reviewing just a few aspects of the fruit of the Spirit. If you bear the fruit of goodness, righteousness and truth, you’re imitating God as you should. But if you bear the unfruitful works of darkness you need to allow the Holy Spirit to expose them and convict you of them. So you can turn from them and allow Him to cleanse you from them. Look at the way Paul describes those bad works. He calls them works of darkness. I’ve always said that nothing good happens after midnight. The vilest sins usually seek the darkest places to hide. It’s only when society becomes darkened by sin that they begin to come into the open. But, when Jesus saves us, we are not to have anything to do with the works of darkness. Notice that Paul doesn’t give us a list of what those things are. That’s because he already told us what the good fruit is. So, we’re not to have anything to do with things that aren’t good fruit. Things that aren’t good. Things that aren’t righteous. Things that aren’t true. And you can only do that if you walk in the light by examining your works. Walk in the light by examining the Scriptures, examining your works and letting Jesus examine your heart. Sometimes good works aren’t an indicator of a right relationship with Jesus, are they? As a matter of fact, that’s one of the biggest complaints against the church. “Well, look at all those hypocrites in the church. I don’t need church because I’m a better person than most of them.” Sometimes, sadly enough, that’s true. I know some lost people who would do anything in the world for you. But they’re lost. And if they died today, they’d be on their way to a sinner’s Hell just like the worst serial killer in the world. Because your works don’t save you. Jesus work saves you. His righteousness saves you. His blood saves you. His resurrection brings the lost to new life in Him. Examine your heart. The only way to walk in the light is if Jesus gives you His light. When Jesus gives you His light, He gives you the ability to examine the Scriptures. He gives you the ability to examine your works. But you have to first examine your heart to make sure Jesus has given you His light. A God imitator walks in the light. The light of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Finally, a God imitator walks in wisdom.
EPHESIANS 5:15-16
An imitator of God walks in wisdom. This is one of those words that I love. Circumspectly—don’t you just want to find a sentence to use that in? Try using it in a sentence with a complete stranger this week. It’ll be fun. But seriously—circumspectly isn’t a word we normally have in our vocabulary. The English word is taken straight from Latin. Circum means around—like circumference. And spectus means to look—like spectacles. So the English word carries the meaning of being aware—knowing what’s going on around you. Walking with your eyes open. On the other hand, the original Greek word that it was translated from carries the meaning of completely conforming to a standard. Every detail is accurately and fully followed. So, in other words, if we’re going to be imitators of God like verse 1 told us to… we’re not going to walk foolishly. We’re going to walk wisely. And walking wisely means that we are going to walk circumspectly. To walk circumspectly, you need to keep your eyes open to the world around you. Wisdom isn’t the same as isolation. You can’t isolate yourself from the world and walk in wisdom. You have to live in the world without being of the world. That takes wisdom. You need to have your eyes open to the world around you, but live according to the Spirit who lives in you. Scripture says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge or wisdom. Walking circumspectly is living in the light of who God is and what He expects from you. It is living accurately according to the standard set before you in Scripture. Anything else is foolish. We are to walk in wisdom in our present circumstances. As far as I know, today will have 24 hours in it just like yesterday did. Each one of those hours contains 60 minutes. That totals 1440 minutes each day. Each one of those minutes contains 60 seconds. That totals 86,400 seconds each day. God gives each of us 86,400 seconds each day to live for Him. To walk circumspectly. To redeem for Him. Do you redeem that time or do you waste it? How many of those seconds do you spend worrying about your needs and your circumstances? Or do you redeem those needs and circumstances by bringing God honor and glory as you go through them? Walk in wisdom in your present circumstances by redeeming the time. But also walk in wisdom in an eternal context. Not one of those 86,400 seconds exists in isolation. They are all connected. And they are all part of God’s eternal plan. And His plan says the days are growing short. We don’t know when the end will come. But we know it’s closer today than it ever has been. And the days are more evil than they ever have been. That’s why when God gives us another 86,400 seconds on this earth, we need to use it wisely. Use it wisely by redeeming it. By buying it back for Him and for His use and His glory. Use the time God has given you to love Him. To love others. To serve Him. To serve others. To spread the gospel. To save souls. How foolish to waste the little bit of time we have on trivial things. On petty things. On hurtful things. On things that tear down instead of build up. The days are evil. And they’re short. How awful it will be to stand before Jesus and explain to Him all the ways we wasted the time He gave us. All the opportunities we missed because we weren’t walking in wisdom. Because we weren’t walking in light. Because we weren’t walking in love. So, are you an imitator of God this morning? Do you imitate Him by walking in love? Are your relationships pure and loving? Or are they selfish and demanding? Is your speech loving? Or is it crude, crass, and impure? Do you imitate God by walking in light? Do you work as hard as you can to learn more about Him just so you can be like Him? Do you examine the Bible on your own to determine His will for your life? Or are you just floating along, hoping something might soak in at church? Do you examine your works to see if they line up with what Jesus expects of you? Have you let Jesus examine your heart to see if you belong to Him in the first place? Are you walking in wisdom? Do you redeem the time God has given you? Or will you have a lot to answer for when you give your account? The good news is that Jesus died for you because He knew you would fail. He died for you and stands ready to offer forgiveness to whosoever will receive Him. Receiving Him is more than just checking a box. It’s more than just walking an aisle. It’s more than just getting wet in a baptismal. It’s recognizing how far you fall short of really imitating God. Realizing how far you fall short and confessing you can’t do it on your own. Confess to Jesus that you have no righteousness of your own, so you desperately need His. The righteousness that He willingly died in order to give you. Salvation means dying to yourself and committing to live for Jesus. Sacrificing yourself and surrendering all to Him. Surrender all to Him today.
