Earlier this week I began this book that I’ve been eager to start. I was excited to see that the verse being used in this chapter was from my favorite book of the Bible, Ephesians. It was,
Ephesians 5:1, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”
While reading this chapter, I almost felt convicted in a way. How many times I’ve read over a verse in scripture and thought I had it understood or in this case, mastered the truth that God forgave us (Ephesians 4:32, to which “therefore” points), and that we are his beloved children.
If you were to ask me what I saw in Ephesians 5:1 i would tell you, “we‘re called to imitate God.” while the rest of the verse, “therefore” and “as beloved children” becomes white noise to me, not stopping to consider why it’s there or what it’s meant to tell us.
You see, Ephesians 4:32 does a wonderful job in reminding us that God in Christ has forgiven us. So when Paul commands us Christians to imitate God, he does so in light of a very specific action - “God in Christ has forgiven you.” And because you have been forgiven, you CAN and SHOULD imitate God.
But, when all we see in Ephesians 5:1 is to imitate God, thats when our thoughts tend to turn inward on ourselves. Before fully understanding this verse, I can completely see myself using the verse to develop a list of attributes of God and then making a plan to implement those attributes to my daily life. Since God is holy, this next month i’ll concentrate on being holy and try to implement it in my life.
Thinking this has us missing whats actually important - because, God already declared that he will not hold your sins against you, we can adopt this attitude of grace with others. The “therefore” in this verse is a gospel declaration meant to encourage us to.
If this wasn’t important, then we’d be missing the emphasis on imitating God‘s forgiveness that this verse is meant to communicate. Not the generic imitation of Godlike qualities, but the specific imitation of His forgiveness.
Going into the last point, after reminding us of God’s mercy and forgiveness, Paul writes we are to imitate God as beloved children. There are times where I have forgotten this, but it’s the most comforting thing ever and it’s important to remember that we are beloved. Why? Because, ”beloved” is the same word the Father employed to describe his disposition to his Son. And because of Christ’s work on our behalf, so are we! John 17:23, Jesus himself said that the Father loves his people as he loves his Son. How amazing and comforting is that! That God has adopted us into His family and Jesus Christ is our older brother - we are family.
We are His children and ultimately resemble Him as He shapes us into His image.
In light of these amazing declarations, we can bodily pursue godliness. His Spirit is in us and because of the Son’s ongoing incarnation and the indwelling of His Spirit, we are “bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.” The Son has been made like us; we are being made like Him.
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