Ephesians 5:1–5:2

Ephesians 5:1-2 1. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 1. Sitis ergo imitatores Dei quemadmodum filii dilecti; 2. And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. 2. Et ambulate in charitate quemadmodum et Christus nos dilexit, ac se ipsum tradidit pro nobis oblationem et hostiam Deo, in odorem bonae fragrantiae. 1. Be ye therefore followers. The same principle is followed out and enforced by the consideration that children ought to be like their father. He reminds us that we are the children of God, and that therefore we ought, as far as possible, to resemble Him in acts of kindness. It is impossible not to perceive, that the division of chapters, in the present instance, is particularly unhappy, as it has made a separation between parts of the subject which are very closely related. If, then, we are the children of God, we ought to be followers of God. Christ also declares, that, unless we shew kindness to the unworthy, we cannot be the children of our heavenly Father. "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." ( Matthew 5:44 ,45.) [153] 2. And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us. Having called on us to imitate God, he now calls on us to imitate Christ, who is our true model. We ought to embrace each other with that love with which Christ has embraced us, for what we perceive in Christ is our true guide. And gave himself for us. This was a remarkable proof of the highest love. Forgetful, as it were, of himself, Christ spared not his own life, that he might redeem us from death. If we desire to be partakers of this benefit, we must cultivate similar affections toward our neighbors. Not that any of us has reached such high perfection, but all must aim and strive according to the measure of their ability. An offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling savor. While this statement leads us to admire the grace of Christ, it bears directly on the present subject. No language, indeed, can fully represent the consequences and efficacy of Christ's death. This is the only price by which we are reconciled to God. The doctrine of faith on this subject holds the highest rank. But the more extraordinary the discoveries which have reached us of the Redeemer's kindness, the more strongly are we bound to his service. Besides, we may infer from Paul's words, that, unless we love one another, none of our duties will be acceptable in the sight of God. If the reconciliation of men, effected by Christ, was a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor, [154] we, too, shall be "unto God a sweet savor," ( 2 Corinthians 2:15 ,) when this holy perfume is spread over us. To this applies the saying of Christ, "Leave thy gift before the altar, and go and be reconciled to thy brother." ( Matthew 5:24 .) Footnotes: [153] "To institute an action against one who has injured us is human; not to take revenge on him is the part of a philosopher; but to compensate him with benefits is divine, and makes men of earth followers of the Father who is in heaven." -- Clem. Ep., quoted by Eadie. [154] "The offering, in being presented to God, was meant to be, and actually was, a sweet savor to Him. The phrase is based on the peculiar sacrificial idiom of the Old Testament. ( Genesis 8:21 ; Leviticus 1:9 , 13, 17; 2:9, 12; 3:5.) It is used typically in 2 Corinthians 2:14 , and is explained and expanded in Philippians 4:18 -- a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.' The burning of spices or incense, so fragrant to the Oriental senses, is figuratively applied to God." -- Eadie.

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; Be ye therefore followers — In forgiving one another. As dear children — God hath but a few such children. See Trapp on " Matthew 5:45 " See Trapp on " Matthew 5:48 "

Be ye therefore followers of God,.... Not in his works of infinite wisdom and almighty power, which is impossible; but in acts of righteousness and holiness, and particularly in acts of mercy, goodness, and beneficence; as in forgiving injuries and offences, and in freely distributing to the necessities of the saints; as the connection of the words with the preceding chapter, and the instance and example in the following verse show: and this should be done by the saints, as dear children; and because they are such by adopting grace; being predestinated unto the adoption of children, in the eternal purpose of God, and taken into that relation in the covenant of grace; and which is declared and made manifest in regeneration, and by faith in Christ Jesus: and they are dear, or beloved children, being loved with an everlasting and unchangeable love, and which is the spring and source of their adoption; and their being dear to him is seen by what he is unto them, their covenant God and Father; and by what he has done for them, in giving his Son to them, and for them; as well as in choosing, calling, and quickening them by his grace, and by the account he makes of them, as his jewels, his peculiar treasure, and the apple of his eye; and by the pity and compassion he has for them, and the care he takes of them; and therefore it becomes them to imitate him; for who should they imitate and follow after, but their Father, and especially when they are so dear unto him?

,2 Because God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you, therefore be ye followers of God, imitators of God. Resemble him especially in his love and pardoning goodness, as becomes those beloved by their heavenly Father. In Christ's sacrifice his love triumphs, and we are to consider it fully.

CHAPTER 5 Eph 5:1-33. Exhortations to Love: And against Carnal Lusts and Communications. Circumspection in Walk: Redeeming the Time: Being Filled with the Spirit: Singing to the Lord with Thankfulness: The Wife's Duty to the Husband Rests on that of the Church to Christ. 1. therefore—seeing that "God in Christ forgave you" (Eph 4:32). followers—Greek, "imitators" of God, in respect to "love" (Eph 5:2): God's essential character (1Jo 4:16). as dear children—Greek, "as children beloved"; to which Eph 5:2 refers, "As Christ also loved us" (1Jo 4:19). "We are sons of men, when we do ill; sons of God, when we do well" [Augustine, on Psalm 52]; (compare Mt 5:44, 45, 48). Sonship infers an absolute necessity of imitation, it being vain to assume the title of son without any similitude of the Father [Pearson]. Ephesians 5:1 ,2 Paul exhorteth to the imitation of God, and of the love of Christ, Ephesians 5:3 ,4 to avoid fornication and all uncleanness, Ephesians 5:5 ,6 which exclude from, the kingdom of God, and draw down God’s wrath on unbelievers, Ephesians 5:7-14 with whose works of darkness Christians, that have better light to inform and influence them, should have no fellowship, Ephesians 5:15-17 to walk with prudence and circumspection, Ephesians 5:18-20 not to drink wine to excess, but to be filled with the Spirit, singing psalms, and giving thanks to God, Ephesians 5:21 and being in due subordination to one another. Ephesians 5:22-24 The duty of wives toward their husbands, Ephesians 5:25-33 and of husbands toward their wives, enforced by the example of Christ and his church. Be ye therefore followers of God; particularly in being kind, and forgiving injuries, Matthew 5:45 ,48 ; so that this relates to the last verse of the former chapter. As dear children; viz. of God. Children should imitate their fathers, especially when beloved of them.

Be ye therefore followers of God - Greek, "Be imitators - μιμηταὶ mimētai - of God." The idea is not that they were to be the friends of God, or numbered among his followers, but that they were to imitate him in the particular thing under consideration. The word "therefore" - οὖν oun - connects this with the previous chapter, where he had been exhorting them to kindness, and to a spirit of forgiveness, and he here entreats them to imitate God, who was always kind and ready to forgive; compare Matthew 5:44-47 ; As he forgives us Ephesians 4:32 , we should be ready to forgive others; as he has borne with our faults, we should bear with theirs; as he is ever ready to hear our cry when we ask for mercy, we should be ready to hear others when they desire to be forgiven; and as he is never weary with doing us good, we should never be weary in benefiting them. As dear children - The meaning is, "as those children which are beloved follow the example of a father, so we, who are beloved of God, should follow his example." What a simple rule this is! And how much contention and strife would be avoided if it were followed! If every Christian who is angry, unforgiving, and unkind, would just ask himself the question, "How does God treat me?" it would save all the trouble and heart-burning which ever exists in the church.

Ephesians 5:1 , Ephesians 5:2 As God has placed us under so great obligation, “be ye, therefore, imitators of God.” The exhortation is enlarged. We are not only to imitate God in being forgiving, but also as becomes dear children, by walking in love . As God is love, and as we by regeneration and adoption are his children, we are bound to exercise love habitually. Our whole walk should be characterized by it. As Christ also hath loved us . This is the reason why we should love one another. We should be like Christ, which is being like God, for Christ is God. The apostle makes no distinction between our being the objects of God’s love and our being the objects of the love of Christ. We are to be imitators of God in love, for Christ hath loved us. And given himself for us . Here as elsewhere the great evidence of divine love is the death of Christ. See Ephesians 4:25 ; Ephesians 3:19 . John 15:13 , “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his live for his friends.” Galatians 2:20 , “Who loved me and gave himself for me.” 1 John 3:16 , “Hereby perceive we the love of God , because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Christ’s death was for us as a sacrifice, and therefore, from the nature of the transaction, in our place. Whether the idea of substitution be expressed by ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν depends on the context rather than on the force of the preposition. To die for any one, may mean either for his benefit or in his stead., as the connection demands. Christ gave himself, as an offering and a sacrifice , προσφορὰν καὶ θυσίαν ; the latter term explains the former. Anything presented to God was a προσφορά , but θυσία was something slain. The addition of that term, therefore, determines the nature of the offering. This is elsewhere determined by the nature of the thing offered, as in Hebrews 10:10 , “the offering of the Body of Christ”; or, “himself,” Hebrews 9:14 , Hebrews 9:25 ; by the effects ascribed to it, viz. expiation of guilt and the propitiation of God, which are the appropriate effects of a sin-offering; see Hebrews 2:17 ; Hebrews 10:10 , Hebrews 10:14 ; Romans 3:25 ; Romans 5:9 , Romans 5:10 : by explanatory expressions, “the one offering of Christ” is declared to be μίαν ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτιῶν θυσίαν , Hebrews 10:12 ; “a sacrifice for sin,” and προσφορὰ περὶ ἁμαρτίας , Hebrews 10:18 ; ἀντίλυτρον , and λυτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν , as in 1 Timothy 1:6 ; Matthew 20:28 ; it is called a propitiation, Romans 3:25 , as well as a ransom. Christ himself therefore, is called the Lamb of God who bore our sins; his blood is the object of faith or ground of confidence, by which, as the blood of a sacrifice, we are redeemed, 2 Peter 1:18 , 2 Peter 1:19 . He saves us as a priest does, i.e. by a sacrifice. Every victim ever slain on Pagan altars was a declaration of the necessity for such a sacrifice; all the blood shed on Jewish altars was a prophecy and promise of propitiation by the blood of Christ; and the whole New Testament is the record of the Son of God offering himself up as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. This, according to the faith of the church universal, is the sum of the Gospel — the incarnation and death of the eternal Son of God as a propitiation for sin. There can, therefore, be no doubt as to the sense in which the apostle here declares Christ to be, an offering and a sacrifice. There is some doubt as to the construction of the words, “to God.” They may be connected with what precedes, “He gave himself as a sacrifice to God;” or with the following clause, “For a sweet savor to God,” i.e. acceptable to him. The sense of the whole would then be, ‘He gave himself, παρέδωκεν ἑαυτὸν , (unto death, εἰς θάνατον ), an offering and sacrifice well pleasing to God.’ The reasons in favor of this construction are — 1. That παραδιδόναι means properly to deliver up to the power of any one, and is not the suitable or common term to express the idea of presenting as a sacrifice. The word almost always used in such cases is προσφέρειν , to bring near to , to offer . 2. With Paul the favorite construction of παραδιδόναι is with εἰς and not with the dative. 3. In Hebrew, from which the phrase εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας here used is borrowed, the expression means a sweet smelling savor to Jehovah which the Septuagint render, ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας τῷ Κυπίῳ . It is not probable in using so familiar a scriptural phrase Paul would depart from the common construction. The Hebrew phrase properly means a savor of rest; that is, one which composes, pacifies, or pleases. The last is what the Greek expresses, and therefore the equivalent expression is εὐάπεστος τῷ θεῷ , well pleasing to God . Romans 12:1 ; Philippians 4:18 . It was in the exercise of the highest conceivable love, which ought to influence all our conduct, that Christ delivered himself unto death, an offering and sacrifice well pleasing unto God.

EPHESIANS GOD’S IMITATORS Ephesians 5:1 The Revised Version gives a more literal and more energetic rendering of this verse by reading, ‘Be ye, therefore, imitators of God, as beloved children.’ It is the only place in the Bible where that bold word ‘imitate’ is applied to the Christian relation to God. But, though the expression is unique, the idea underlies the whole teaching of the New Testament on the subject of Christian character and conduct. To be like God, and to set ourselves to resemble Him, is the sum of all duty; and in the measure in which we approximate thereto, we come to perfection. So, then, there are here just two points that I would briefly touch upon now-the one is the sublime precept of the text, and the other the all-sufficient motive enforcing it. ‘Be ye imitators of God as’-because you are, and know yourselves to be-’beloved children,’ and it therefore behoves you to be like your Father. I. First, then, this sublime precept. Now notice that, broad as this precept is, and all-inclusive of every kind of excellence and duty as it may be, the Apostle has a very definite and specific meaning in it. There is one feature, and only one, in which, accurately speaking, a man may be like God. Our limited knowledge can never be like the ungrowing perfect wisdom of God. Our holiness cannot be like His, for there are many points in our nature and character which have no relation or correspondence to anything in the divine nature. But what is left? Love is left. Our other graces are not like the God to whom they cleave. My faith is not like His faithfulness. My obedience is not like His authority. My submission is not like His autocratic power. My emptiness is not like His fulness. My aspirations are not like His gratifying of them. They correspond to God, but correspondence is not similarity; rather it presupposes unlikeness. Just as a concavity will fit into a convexity, for the very reason that it is concave and not convex, so the human unlikenesses, which are correspondent to God, are the characteristics by which it becomes possible that we should cleave to Him and inhere in Him. But whilst there is much in which He stands alone and incomparable, and whilst we have all to say, ‘Who is like unto Thee, O Lord?’ or what likeness shall we compare unto Him? we yet can obey in reference to one thing,-and to one thing only, as it seems to me-the commandment of my text, ‘Be ye imitators of God.’ We can be like Him in nothing else, but our love not only corresponds to His, but is of the same quality and nature as His, howsoever different it may be in sweep and in fervour and in degree. The tiniest drop that hangs upon the tip of a thorn will be as perfect a sphere as the sun, and it will have its little rainbow on its round, with all the prismatic colours, the same in tint and order and loveliness, as when the bow spans the heavens. The dew-drop may imitate the sun, and we are to be imitators of God; knit to Him by the one thing in us which is kindred to Him in the deepest sense-the love that is the life of God and the perfecting of man. Well, then, notice how the Apostle in the context fastens upon a certain characteristic of that divine love which we are to imitate in our lives; and thereby makes the precept a very practical and a very difficult one. Godlike love will be love that gives as liberally as His does. What is the very essence of all love? Longing to be like. And the purest and deepest love is love which desires to impart itself, and that is God’s love. The Bible seems to teach us that in a very mysterious sense, about which the less we say the less likely we are to err, there is a quality of giving up, as well as of giving, in God’s love; for we read of the Father that ‘spared not His Son,’ by which is meant, not that He did not shrink from inflicting something upon the Son, but that He did not grudgingly keep that Son for Himself. ‘He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up to the death for us all.’ And if we can say but little about that surrender on the part of the infinite Fountain of all love, we can say that Jesus Christ, who is the activity of the Father’s love, spared not Himself, but, as the context puts it, ‘gave Himself up for us.’ And that is the pattern for us. That thought is not a subject to be decorated with tawdry finery of eloquence, or to be dealt with as if it were a sentimental prettiness very fit to be spoken of, but impossible to be practised. It is the duty of every Christian man and woman, and they have not done their duty unless they have learned that the bond which unites them to men is, in its nature, the very same as the bond which unites men to God; and that they will not have lived righteously unless they learn to be ‘imitators of God,’ in the surrender of themselves for their brother’s good. Ah, friend, that grips us very tight-and if there were a little more reality and prose brought into our sentimental talk about Christian love, and that love were more often shown in action, in all the self-suppression and taking a lift of a world’s burdens, which its great Pattern demands, the world would be less likely to curl a scornful lip at the Church’s talk about brotherly love. You say that you are a Christian-that is to say a child of God. Do you know anything, and would anybody looking at you see that you knew anything, about the love which counts no cost and no sacrifice too great to be lavished on the unworthy and the sinful? But that brings me to another point. The Apostle here, in the context, not for the sake of saying pretty things, but for the sake of putting sharp points on Christian duty, emphasises another thought, that Godlike love will be a forgiving love. Why should we be always waiting for the other man to determine our relations to him, and consider that if he does not like us we are absolved from the duty of loving him? Why should we leave him to settle the terms upon which we are to stand? God has love, as the Sermon on the Mount puts it, ‘to the unthankful and the evil,’ and we shall not be imitating His example unless we carry the same temper into all our relationships with our fellows. People sit complacently and hear all that I am now trying to enforce, and think it is the right thing for me to say, but do you think it is the right thing for you to do? When a man obviously does not like you, or perhaps tries to harm you, what then? How do you meet him? ‘He maketh His sun to shine, and sendeth His rain, on the unthankful and the evil.’ ‘Be ye imitators of God, as beloved children.’ Now note the all-sufficient motive for this great precept. The sense of being loved will make loving, and nothing else will. The only power that will eradicate, or break without eradicating, our natural tendency to make ourselves our centres, is the recognition that there, at the heart, and on the central throne of the universe, and the divinest thing in it, there sits perfect and self-sacrificing Love, whose beams warm even us. The only flame that kindles love in a man’s heart, whether it be to God or to man, is the recognition that he himself stands in the full sunshine of that blaze from above, and that God has loved him. Our hearts are like reverberating furnaces, and when the fire of the consciousness of the divine love is lit in them, then from sides and roof the genial heat is reflected back again to intensify the central flame. Love begets love, and according to Paul, and according to John, and according to the Master of both of them, if a man loves God, then that glowing beam will glow whether it is turned to earth or turned to heaven. The Bible does not cut love into two, and keep love to God in one division of the heart and love to man in another, but regards them as one and the same; the same sentiment, the same temper, the same attitude of heart and mind, only that in the one case the love soars, and in the other it lives along the level. The two are indissolubly tied together. It is because a man knows himself to be beloved that therefore he is stimulated and encouraged to be an ‘imitator of God’ and, on the other hand, the sense of being God’s child underlies all real imitation of Him. Imitation is natural to the child. It is a miserable home where a boy does not imitate his father, and it is the father’s fault in nine cases out of ten if he does not. Whoever feels himself to be a beloved child is thereby necessarily drawn to model himself on the Father that he loves, because he knows that the Father loves him. So I come to the blessed truth that Christian morality does not say to us, ‘Now begin, and work, and tinker away at yourselves, and try to get up some kind of excellence of character, and then come to God, and pray Him to accept you.’ That is putting the cart before the horse. The order is reversed. We are to begin with taking our personal salvation and God’s love to us for granted, and to work from that. Realise that you are beloved children, and then set to work to live accordingly. If we are ever to do what is our bounden duty to do, in all the various relations of life, we must begin with recognising, with faithful and grateful hearts, the love wherewith God has loved us. We are to think much and confidently of ourselves as beloved of God, and that, and only that, will make us loving to men. The Nile floods the fields of Egypt and brings greenness and abundance wherever its waters are carried, because thousands of miles away, close up to the Equator, the snows have melted and filled the watercourses in the far-off wilderness. And so, if we are to go out into life, living illustrations and messengers of a love that has redeemed even us, we must, in many a solitary moment, and in the depths of our quiet hearts, realise and keep fast the conviction that God hath loved us, and Christ hath died for us. But a solemn consideration has to be pressed on all our consciences, and that is that there is something wrong with a man’s Christian confidence whose assurance that he himself possesses a share in the love of God in Christ, is not ever moving him to imitation of the love in which he trusts. It is a shame that any one without Christian faith and love should be as charitable, as open to pity and to help, as earnest in any sort of philanthropic work, as Christian men and women are. But godless and perfectly secular philanthropy treads hard on the heels of Christian charity to-day. The more shame to us if we have been eating our morsels alone, and hugging ourselves in the possession of the love which has redeemed us; and if it has not quickened us to the necessity of copying it in our relations to our fellows. There is something dreadfully wrong about such a Christian character. ‘He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how shall he love God whom he hath not seen?’ Take these plain principles, and honestly fit them to your characters and lives, and you will revolutionise both.