Walk in the Love of Christ
Ephesians 5:1-2
No audio is available for this service.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the morning service on Sunday, November 15, 2009.
We have been looking at Paul’s commands that we put off the old self and put on the new, living with one another in love, truth, and generosity. We are to be a loving, forgiving people who avoid falsehood and bitterness, working instead for the good of one another. Our goal is to display to the world the love and glory of God as we encourage and build up one another in Christ.
Today, Paul brings together everything he has said and presents it to the believers in one brief command.
Ephesians 5:1-2
The first word in this passage is a contextual clue. Paul starts with Therefore, the word therefore telling us that what follows draws from what just came. By the time we have followed Paul’s previous instructions – putting off the old self, turning from sin, serving one another in love, and living for the glory of God, Paul sums it up with a command that takes us all the way: we are to be imitators of God.
There is a similar command found throughout the Old Testament, such as in Leviticus 11:45: 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. From early on the people of God were called to mirror the holiness of God. They were not specifically told to imitate God, but his holiness was to be displayed in their lives. This holiness code is repeated in 1 Peter 1:14-15: As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who calls you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct… You are children of God. As obedient children, be holy as your Father is holy.
We are not called to imitate God’s divine characteristics. We can never imitate God’s sovereign authority or his power. We will never have the fullness of his wisdom and insight. The call to imitate God is the call to be holy as he who calls you is holy. Beginning in verse 3 we will see that imitating God means avoiding the vices celebrated by the world. But before writing of some things believers must not do, Paul gives an example of what we must do: walk in the love of Christ.
Paul also tells us what our mindset should be as we imitate God. We are to be imitators of God, as beloved children. We are reminded of our place with God: beloved children. We are not slaves or vassals, we are children of the Most High.
Our imitation of God is not something we pursue grudgingly or half-heartedly, it should be the desire of our hearts that we be like our heavenly Father. We see this in young children, a delight that comes from imitating the actions of a parent. Children often want to be and do all that they see their parents being and doing. This is the way it ought to be. A good child will follow the example of his parents. As an aside, this also serves as a warning for parents. Your children are watching you – set an example worth following.
For Christians, we should seek above all else to be like our Father. One of our greatest delights should be when we find ourselves taking on his character, displaying his likeness, showing his goodness to the world. Are you so in love with yourself that you refuse to be like your Father? Are you so lovely that your character is more striking than his? Jesus tells us that the kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like little children. Be children who delight to follow in the footsteps of your Father.
So we come to the example of One who showed us the Father. In verse 2 Paul says we are to walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. In John 14:9 Jesus tells us that whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can we imitate the character of God? By following the example of Jesus. Through Jesus Christ we have the clearest demonstration of God’s righteousness and holiness. Through Christ we learn what it means to love. We imitate God by walking in the love of Christ.
To walk in love means to live our lives so that our actions, thoughts, and behavior display the love of Christ. Several times throughout Ephesians we have been reminded of Jesus’ words in John 13:35 that by this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. If our lives are characterized by bitterness or anger or hatred or rebellion or immorality, what will the world see of Christ? But if people see us first of all loving God, and loving him enough to obey him, and loving one another, enough even to live sacrificially, then they will know we are followers of God.
We mentioned living sacrificially. This is the example Paul gives of the love of Christ. Having told us to be imitators of God, as beloved children, we are told to walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. In what way did Christ give himself up? As a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Jesus Christ gave his life for us. He stepped out of a perfect Heaven, left the holiness of his Father, became part of the world he made, and lived in the midst of sin and suffering and pain.
If that were not enough, he then ministered to people all around him, traveling throughout the land to tell people the good news of the Father’s love. He put himself in the middle of the sick, the lepers, the tax collectors and adulterers, the religious hypocrites, the socially unacceptable. He loved them and taught them and gave them a way out of their sins.
If that were not enough, he then entered Jerusalem, the city of David, the holy hill where he was arrested and beaten and mocked and nailed to a cross. He was crucified. The Son of God was murdered on a tree he had spoken into existence. What was the meaning of his death? Why this sacrifice? Why this offering? Colossians 1:21-22 can help us: And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him…
Jesus Christ died to present us to his father as a people who are holy and blameless. He gave himself as a sacrifice so that we would not have to face judgment for our sins.
Sin is an offense against a perfect, holy, eternal God. It is an offense that warrants punishment. The punishment for rebellion against the eternal God is itself eternal, unending. The price of our sin is Gehenna, the fire pit, Hell, the place of fire that burns but darkness that is unending, a place completely cut off from the love and mercy of God, where for all eternity the unbeliever must face the just wrath of a holy God. Jesus Christ gave the greatest demonstration of love by offering himself as a sacrifice in our place. The eternal Son of God paid an eternal price none of us could pay. That payment is given on behalf of all those who would cling to him by faith.
If you do not receive his gift, your sins are not paid for. If you reject him, you must pay your own price. If you do not live for him, you live for yourself and by yourself you will stand before a holy God who will judge you in righteousness and you will fall condemned and will be cast for all eternity into Hell.
(Ephesians 2:4-5) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved. (Romans 5:8) But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (John 3:16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 15:13) Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (1 John 3:16) By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
Christian, Jesus died to do for you what you could not do for yourself. He offered himself as a sacrifice to God for your sins. Now we are called to live as Romans 12:1 calls us, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. As Christ offered himself to God for us, we offer ourselves to God in service of Christ. We are to imitate the sacrificial life of Christ, living not for our own good but for God as we serve others.
We remember Romans 8:35: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Then in 38-39, For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Consider such love as this. Is your love this devoted? Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. What will separate someone from your love? Will grudges or harsh words or disagreements or skin color or political orientation block your love? Will we be as free with our love as Christ is with his?
We must remember one thing about Christ’s love. It was as fierce as it was free. We must never mistake his love as permission, his mercy as condoning our behavior. Jesus gave forgiveness and acceptance and he called the sinner to repent and turn from his sin. True love can do nothing less. Love will not leave a person in the stench of sin but will show people the way to be free and clean.
People of God, be imitators of God. You are his children, be like your Father and walk in the love of Christ. This is the love that led Jesus to call children to him. Children were powerless and insignificant, they could do nothing for the Savior. We are often quick to open our schedules for those who can improve our influence, but will we give our time for the least of these? The love of Christ also led him to show mercy and forgiveness to tax collectors, widows, prostitutes and adulterers. He loved the unlovely, showed mercy to the weak and helpless, ate with those considered morally unclean. The gospel was not reserved for The Right Kind Of People, it was preached to all. And in his love he went to the cross to carry our sins, satisfy the wrath of God, and win forgiveness and new life for us.
Imitate Christ’s love for others. Imitate his love for holiness. Imitate his love for his Father. We do not have his love if all we ever do is look at ourselves or other people, we must also look at his father. Nor is it love if we only look upward, never getting our hands dirty as we go out to serve God among our brothers and sisters in Christ and among the lost. It is not love that accepts the actions and behaviors God hates. It is not love that rejects the things God calls us to do.
Scripture should serve as our mirror. In the Bible the righteous character of God is on full display. If you want to be an imitator of God you must know what it is you imitate. What is God’s love? How do we understand his mercy and grace? All of these things are learned in Scripture. To be an imitator of God, become a student of his Word. Also spend time around those who themselves show Christ in their lives. In 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul tells the people, be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Find someone whose example you can follow, someone who serves as a guide of what it means to imitate God.
In all of this, live as dearly beloved children of God. His instructions to you are good for you. He is not robbing us of anything good but provides for us every true pleasure, every rich blessing. We were created to be like him. When we rebel and go our own way then our lives break down and face meaninglessness. Only in him can we find our rest, our meaning, the true adventures of life. Only in him can we be what we were meant to be. Only in him can we be free.