SERMON OUTLINE

Be Imitators of God        Ephesians 4.29-5.2

Introduction

-4.30 is a general principle directly connected to v29 and then to the overall context.

-5.1-2 is a general principle directly connected to 4.31-32 and then to the overall context.

Be Imitators of God

-An astonishing command and a high standard

-“mimaytes” = mimic; Copy God, follow God’s pattern

-Not physical behavior or incommunicable attributes

-But Communicable, moral attributes. Exodus 34.5-7

-v31-32 “kindness, compassion, forgiveness”

-Alexander the Great, “renounce your name or cowardice”

The Power to be Imitators of God

-We are dearly loved children and love for God compels us to love others. The Holy Spirit lives inside of us.

Romans 5.5; 8.15-16; 1 John 4.19

-The love of God is the key to being imitators of God. Love is more powerful than law. We are to walk in love. Galatians 5.6

-More than WWJD. More than copying the behavior of Jesus. The outflow of a relationship with God and the power and fruit of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is our example of a life submitted to God in love.

Conclusion

1) God has done a supernatural work in every Christian

2) Our new walk is the expression of our new life in Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in and through us

3) Glorification is God’s goal and will be accomplished

SERMON NOTES

Careful Living in 2010  (Ephesians 5.15)

Imitators of God               Ephesians 4.29-5.2

-Two weeks ago we studied verse 30, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God”. We learned that this verse was more of a general principle than a specific command on how to live. We connected this command directly to verse 29 which teaches that as Christians we are to speak words that build others up. We were reminded that the Holy Spirit of God was responsible for giving us God’s revelation, recording that revelation in the words of the Bible, and using that revelation to teach us how to live. So our use of words is to follow the example of the Holy Spirit. We are not to grieve the Holy Spirit with unwholesome words but rather we are to walk in the Spirit and build others up with our words.

-We also connected verse 30 with the overall message in these chapters, a message that commands us to live a holy life and not sin and grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Since we are new creations in union with Christ we must walk in a new way, a holy way, and a way of love.

-We also noted that this new life is to be lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. This new life is far more than the adoption of new standards/ethics lived out in our own strength. This new life comes from within and is a work of God in us.

-We find in 4.31-5.2 a similar pattern as in verses 29 and 30. We find in verses 31-32 the specific command on how to live and then in 5.1-2 a general principle connected to these verses and also applicable to the surrounding verses. The connection to 4.31-32 is made with the word “therefore”.

-Verse 1 begins with an astonishing command, “Be imitators of God”. If you remember nothing else this morning remember these four words, “Be imitators of God”. I want you to meditate on this phrase, “Be imitators of God” often this week. Roll the command, “Be imitators of God” around in your mind this week until you are gripped by the high standard that you are called to as a Christian. You are called to be like God in the way you live each day.

-The Greek word for “imitators” (followers in KJV) is mimaytes from which we get our English word “mimic”. We are to copy God, to be like God, to do things the way God does them, to follow God’s pattern.

-In what ways can we imitate God? We cannot imitate the physical behavior of God because God does not have a body to imitate. There are also certain characteristics (attributes) of God that belong to God alone such as His eternal existence, His omnipresence (present everywhere at once), His omnipotence (all powerful), His omniscience (knowing all things), His Glory and Majesty. These attributes are exclusive to God and can belong to no other but God. In theology they are called God’s incommunicable (cannot be shared by others) attributes. But there are attributes of God that are communicable (can be shared by others) such as holiness, love, goodness, mercy, patience, forgiveness, and justice. These are the characteristics we are to imitate. They are moral attributes which reflect the essence of God’s character. We are to imitate God’s moral character.

-As I have already said, verse 1 connects back to verses 31-32. In these verses we are given three attributes of God that we are to imitate – kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. Remember last week’s message on the fifth Beatitude, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy”? I said that forgiveness and mercy must be evident in the Christian. These verses are saying the very same thing. The Christian must imitate God by showing mercy (kindness and compassion) and forgiveness to others.

-In Exodus 34.5-7, God describes Himself to us in terms of His communicable attributes. [Read].

-These attributes are compassion, grace, patience, love, faithfulness, forgiveness, and justice. These are the attributes we are to imitate in our lives so that we will be like God and live as Christians should live.

-A man who had lost courage and run away from the battle field was brought before Alexander the Great. Alexander asked him what his name was. The man said “my name is Alexander”. Alexander the Great said to the man, “either renounce your cowardice or renounce your name”. Alexander did not want his namesake to be known as a coward. So God wants those who claim to belong to Him to be imitators of Him and to be like Him.

-We are to be imitators of God “as dearly loved children”. First of all we are not adherents to a religious system called Baptist or Christianity. We are children of God. We have been born again into the family of God. We belong to God and we have the seal of the Holy-Spirit-living-within-us to prove it. As children of God we are the beloved of God. We are the focus of God’s love and we know God’s love through the Holy Spirit who pours God’s love into our hearts and makes us to know God as “Abba, Father”. Paul writes that “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children”. (Romans 5.5; 8.15-16)

-Those who know they are loved with God’s love desire to love God in return. John writes, “we love because He first loved us”. (1 John 4.19) Knowing the love of God in His grace, mercy and forgiveness compels us to imitate God by loving others.

-Our status as beloved children of God leads to the next command, “live a life of love”. This is the key to being imitators of God and to keeping all of the other commands given in these chapters. Love is the fulfillment of the Law and a greater motivator than the Law. As Paul writes in Galatians 5.6, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love”. God’s love is the essence of living the Christian life.

-Just a note here that “live” is the word “walk” which I have highlighted in the book of Ephesians. As Christians we are to walk in good works (2.10); walk worthy of our calling as Christians (4.1); walk as children of light (5.8); walk very carefully (5.15); and of course walk in love. We are no longer to walk in sin (2.2); we are no longer to walk as the Gentiles walk (4.17).

-A couple of years back many people were wearing bracelets with the letters WWJD on them. This idea was taken from the book “In His Steps” written in 1896 by Charles Sheldon. In that book Christians were challenged to ask “what would Jesus do” and live that way for one year. You might think that the command “Be imitators of God” is telling us to put on our WWJD bracelets and look for some good deeds to do or some injustice to correct. I hope that as a result of our study in Ephesians your conclusion is that the command to “Be imitators of God and live a life of love” is saying a lot more than copy the behavior of Jesus. We are to live a life of love to God and of love to others because God has changed us and lives within us. The love we are to live is the fruit of the Spirit of God, the outflow of our relationship with a loving God. It is more than a willful determination to keep a high moral standard for the sake of self-righteousness before God. A righteous moral life can be a life lived in the flesh and not in love and in the Spirit. This new life is God loving others through us. To live a life of love is to live a life of submission to the love of God that is willing to let God use all of us, in any way He pleases, to love others.

-The example we have for living a life of love is Jesus Christ. This love is a giving up of ourselves for the benefit of others. Our great need was to be reconciled to God because sin separated us from God. Christ gave himself as a sacrifice to God for my sin and made me into a child of God instead of an enemy of God. We in turn are to give ourselves to God in love and meet the need of others in love as God leads us, not considering our own life as worthy of preserving and protecting. In this way we will be true imitators of God in the power of the Holy Spirit, living in love.

-What Paul is highlighting in these chapters that we are studying is that God has done a supernatural work in your life by forgiving you, uniting you with Christ, and filling you with the Holy Spirit. You now have God living inside of you and that calls for a new way of living. Paul teaches us what this new way of living looks like in the way you talk, work, play, and relate to others. But, Paul continues to remind us every so many verses to never forgot that this new way is God living in and through you. Don’t just exchange your old sinful lifestyle for a new moral lifestyle, live in the power of God’s love, live by the Holy Spirit, live out of your relationship with God the Father. As you do, God’s life will change you and change others through you.

 –God’s purpose for you is nothing less than that you be like His beloved Son. If you are a Christian this morning you will one day be like Jesus. As sure as you are justified in Christ, you will be glorified in Christ. The plea of the NT is that you start to live like Jesus today by submitting to the power of the Holy Spirit and by showing forth the fruit of the Spirit which is love.