Description
Imitating God: Lessons from Ephesians 5:1
In this video, we explore Ephesians 5:1 where Paul encourages us to imitate G… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
Look at Ephesians chapter 5 verse 1. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children.
Paul is asking us to model ourselves against the Creator of the universe. Think about that. This is probably broader than we normally think of, when we ask ourselves what our lives should be like, how we should live, how we should make decisions. We are to imitate God.
And immediately before chapter 5, Paul had just gone through a whole list of things that we should and shouldn’t do, if this is our aim, to imitate God. He gives us guidelines for how we can imitate God.
And he’s not giving us a gospel of works, by the way. That would be the furthest thing from Paul’s mind. He wants us to be obedient children. And that’s why in the second half of this verse he says, "as beloved children".
For all of us who are fortunate to have a good father-child relationship, we have made our earthly fathers our role models to a greater or lesser extent. Well, this is what Paul is saying we do with God. He’s our role model. He’s the ultimate role model. And so if we want to model ourselves on God, we ask, what is his character?
And we can spend years, decades, exploring the scripture to understand the character of God, his kindness and compassion, his love, his mercy, his justice, his patience and endurance, and his grace. And if we find any of these things lacking in ourselves in a way that they should be present then this gives us reason to pray specific prayers. Personally, I highly recommend praying to God, "God, please make me more compassionate." But however we pray, we should pray in accordance with his Spirit as he leads and directs us.
Lord God, you are such an excellent role model and we do so little to imitate you. But please help us as you change and transform and guide us. Please help us to be those faithful, beloved children, modeling ourselves on our Heavenly Father. Amen.
