Beloved children, Eph, 5:1-2
Ephesians 5:1-2 · Vern Peterman · May 29, 2005
Ephesians & Colossians, No. 67
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262327125069

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We'll be starting into a new chapter here this morning as we begin the first couple of verses of Ephesians 5. So this is a momentous moment and we're going to make it extra special by starting with a wedding. Sort of. Kind of. A little bit.

Remember last week we went through this passage at the end of Ephesians 4 30 through 32, and 32 there was, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Now, what we're going to do is to marry the last verse there with the beginning of Ephesians 5, and so I now pronounce you one passage, okay? You may now kiss the verses. Alright, so now there's one passage here. See, what happens is our passage breakdowns, you know, with chapter and verse and things like that, sometimes divide things up that make it harder to see what's there. And this is one of those examples. So we've married the verses. We want to take a look, see what happens. And one of the things we notice, a pattern begins to develop.

Notice that in the end of chapter 4, verse 32, that there's this just as there, and now we get into 5.2, and we see this just as again, there's this comparison happening. Well, putting these two together, we begin to see some patterns, and this is just the start. Now, after some marital counseling, okay, after some marital counseling, here's what we got. We notice, and we've kind of massaged the verse a little bit to bring out the pattern, here is this central turning point verse, verse 1, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. and it's between these two verses that have this just as in the middle of it.

Start to see some pattern there? Let's go on. Notice that 4.32 and 5.2 both start out with a statement, this is how you are to live. They are imperatives, right? Followed by a just as and then a statement afterwards about our position. See, just as in each one, and then our position stated following.

Ah, interesting pattern. He's not done. So here we have in 32, this one verse with a pattern, and then that central verse, verse 1 is kind of the turning point, if you will, and then the same pattern in 5.2. He's not done. Look at this. Here is in In verse 32, starting off with, here's the imperative, the urging, be kind to one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven you. Then you see, be imitators of God. There's the imperative again, followed by your position. Then, and walk in love, this is your part, followed by your position.

Now, ready for a couple more patterns? This little winking baby here is anxious for us to get to the next one. OK. Now we see this next part. Look at this. This passage that has a pattern built into it started off with what we saw last week, talking about behaviors of the sin nature, including some of them involving how we talk. And right after this passage, what are we going to see again? Behaviors of the sin nature again, including how we talk. Interesting, huh? There's a lot of patterns.

So when Paul wrote this, he didn't just start pouring out words and letting the pen flow. There was a lot of thought given as to how this was coming across. How would they understand it? One other thing, when believers in those days in the churches would get letters, the first thing they did was not to run to the photocopy machine, okay, and run off a bunch of copies and hand them out.

We have that luxury, which is really nice. But one of the things that Paul would do is he would often write in ways that they could easily remember. And one of the ways of doing that was to build in patterns like this. So we find it often. We saw a similar kind of pattern in the end of chapter 2. So we have be kind, be imitators, walk in love. The imperatives that keep showing up, they're all present active imperatives too. So he kept that consistent from one to the next. Alright, so have you seen enough patterns? Enough wedding? Okay, let's get on to the rest of it.

What we're going to do now is drop down into the details. We're going to drop down into the details of the verse because the patterns are nice to see and I think helpful. They see how Paul has laid things out. But we need to understand the content, the nuts and bolts of how the verses are put together. And to do that, we're going to start with this first word, therefore. And this is something we pointed out before, as Paul was laying out things about our position, he frequently would use, therefore, because, so that, those kinds of statements.

He's continuing that as he lays that out here. Our behavior that he is calling for has logical basis. He doesn't say, for no reason at all, I want you to behave like this. He does it on the basis of logic. Therefore. And what does he say? He says, be imitators. Now, the Greek word there is mimetists, okay? And we, in truth, get our word mime, or mimic. Both those words come from this Greek word.

But we're not intending for you to be mimes. We don't need a church full of mimes. No, what he's saying is, here's a word that's telling us, because of your position in Christ, and here he's saying, you must. But it is not a moral imperative where your failure to do so will incur condemnation.

It's a logical imperative. It's the only logical conclusion you can reach based on your position. Based on the believer's eternal position, they must right now, that's the idea of a present imperative, they must right now continue to be imitators of God. That's what he's laying out before them. Passages there, 4.30 and 5.2 spell it precisely. what he means by be imitators, both in a negative and a positive sense. Now, we've heard this, accept no imitations. You've heard that repeatedly, okay? Alright.

Is Paul saying that we should try our best to copy God's behaviors? Like father, like son here, right? Is Paul saying that we should look at what God does and try really, really, really hard to do the same thing? Is that what he's saying? Is that what his instruction is all about? No. See, the imperatives are not something telling us, try really, really hard, but it's because of the basis of the position that we have.

It's who we are. That's what he's talking about. Be imitators of God. Why? Not because there's your example, try your best to do it. But because we are in Christ. That's our position. That's the reasonable, logical basis for him to call upon us to live out the life of Christ, to be imitators of God on the basis of your position. It's who you are as beloved children.

Are the imperatives saying that we should try our best to fulfill the given imperative? No. Remember, Paul has already told them at the end of chapter 3 that this is to be carried out by God's empowerment and His energizing. It's His power and energy that is to pull this off, to make this happen, and not my best efforts. I'm not going to be a better Christian because I drink a lot of coffee, got more energy, or I down a whole bunch of Snickers bars. That's not going to pull it off. It's His power and energy, not mine. Now, there are two words in the New Testament that speak, and they speak repeatedly, of copying the life of another. We're not talking about mimic here. One is mimitis, and that's the one we're seeing here.

It's where we get our word mimic in English, or imitate. Beginning with this Greek word here, the idea is to imitate another in a positive way. There's another Greek word that shows up, and that is tupas. It's we get our word type from that. And here's the way the word was used. They would take a die and we have similar technology available now. They'd take a die and a hammer and they'd go wham and they would hit the die and make the mark in the receiving typically metal. And that mark then was made by the tupos, the type, and that's what he uses when we see pattern or example in scripture. This is often the word that's being translated. It's a die mark. Bang! You've made the mark. How is the mark made? There's a master marking, and you're following that. Those are the two words that work together here, and let's take a look at how they work together.

The first one is used in this passage. But it goes like this, from Romans all the way to 1 Peter, so it's not exclusively Paul's thought, but substantially his, we see these two words show up. And in most passages, it's either one or the other. And here in Ephesians 5, 12, it's mimetis, this imitate, if you will, is how it's translated. Follow is how the King James carries it across. But that's the idea. There is a following of another.

So we see it here in Ephesians 5.12 is this.

I've marked, however, Philippians 3.17 where he uses both words in the same passage.

What had happened was this, and you may recall from two years ago, if you have a really good memory, you may recall from two years ago when we went through chapter two of Philippians, Paul gave four examples. The first example that he gave was Christ. He gave an example of Christ humbling himself, and that was the example he was setting before the believers in Philippi. He next gave his own example of his own life. Finally, one of Timothy, and then one that they all knew there at the church, Epaphroditus. So in chapter 2 he goes through those four examples, and then in chapter 3 is where he then tells them to imitate and to follow the example. He brings those words together. in a similar sense to what he's doing here. All he's saying is, you've seen the example of Christ. This is indeed what you're to follow. Here's Paul's insight into imitating. We'll look at a couple of verses here.

And we'll show this Oscar up here, because it's not an acting job. When we're being asked to imitate, it's not, how do I look like it on the outside? And actually, that's good news, because that means I don't have to do it. And believe me, I'm not a great actor. Just because someone is a great actor does not mean they can follow through on what this says, because he's acting not for a superficial imitation, however professionally done.

He is acting for an imitation that's based on our being in Christ, the real thing. He says in 1 Corinthians 11, and believe me, these people really needed to listen to this, Paul says, "...be imitators of me, just as I am also of Christ." Paul is following the Lord, imitating Him, not superficially, not his own best efforts, but following genuinely based on his position in Christ. Paul knew quite well that he was in Christ, and that was exactly what he was conveying. He says, follow me as I am also following Christ, being in Him as you are, both of us. He puts both words together in 1 Thessalonians 1, 5 through 7.

And I'll kind of cut to the chase here. Verse 6, you also became imitators of us and of the Lord. See that? See the message? Having received the Word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example. See it turning around? He says, I'm an example, and the Lord's an example, and then you become an example. See that?

The two-pass pattern repeats. from the Lord to us to others. That's the pattern that he's showing here. Being an example came from them imitating Paul and the Lord. Now, he says, imitators of whom? Of God. The Greek text here actually has a definite article. It doesn't come through in the English in our translations. So the idea is the imitators of THE God. Okay? Specific.

Now, why would he have to specify that? Here are a group of people in Ephesus. They'd grown up with, so far as we have record, at least 50 gods in Ephesus. Lots of gods and goddesses of every kind and sort. Some of them we would find profoundly disgusting, but they would worship them nonetheless. There was gods to mix and match from.

Eclectic gods. Choose your pick. And so he's saying, no, not all those. The God. These other gods were nothing worth imitating. The chief god of the Greeks and the Romans. There are stories in the myths of how he would shroud himself in a mist, go off and commit adultery, and come back and lie to his wife. That's not what he's asking them to follow here.

He's saying, no, this is the God, the one I've told you about, different and separate from all the others, in sharp contrast with the others. The One who has forgiven us. We saw that last week. The One who has loved us and given Himself for us. That God. That One. The One who takes the initiative to love instead of saying, what can you do for me?

Some decades back there was a song that was popular. Cat Stevens did it. And the song ends up actually rather sadly. So does Cat Stevens, but anyway. The song is rather sad, but the last part of it goes like this. There's this little boy, grows up and he says, and as he grew, he said, I'm going to be like you, Dad. I'm going to be like you. And the chorus keeps coming back to that theme.

You notice that children have a tendency to follow the example of their parents. Notice I put tendency there in italics. Don't count on it as a guarantee, okay? But nonetheless, it is an example that kids will often be drawn to. They will look at what the parents are doing and follow. Sometimes you wish they wouldn't, right? Kids have a tendency to look at, you know, what's dad doing? What's mom doing? And to follow that example, even if it's snoozing, they will look at what are mom and dad wearing? What are they saying? What are the behaviors that I see? And Paul is drawing upon that tendency, isn't he? He's saying, as children of God, follow that example of the Lord Himself.

I remember better than 20 years ago now, Some months back I told about building this house over in Mendocino County in Northern California with this nice house that was overlooking rolling hills and a nice lake and it was you know less than a half hour from the ocean and in the redwoods and we're building on 40 acres and so I was working away there and using old hand-hewn timbers for a lot of the ceiling beams and things of that sort and At that point in time, what we did is, Randy was not quite five, and so we would go to all the sole plates and just one hit, get the nails started, and Randy would go with the heavy framing hammer and knock the rest of them in.

And I couldn't believe it because here's this kid, you know, and he's got this monster hammer. He didn't want the little one, he wanted a big one like daddy had. And he'd take those nails and about three swats and they were down. I couldn't believe it. Why would he do that? Why? It's what dad did, see?

And so we see this pattern. You've probably noticed it yourself. As beloved children. And that's something else that's key here. The King James has deer and probably both of those words together give the sense. Dearly beloved is probably even a better way to give a rounded sense of what that's talking about. Agapitas, you may recognize the name. Agape, built into that. Loved ones.

We might pass over the words quickly and easily, but there's some things that draw our attention. I'm convinced that when the believers in Ephesus first heard they almost asked the reader, the one who was reading out loud, stop, wait a minute, let me soak that in. And the reason is, being a beloved child was not something that you could assume and take for granted in Ephesus. In truth, throughout the Roman Empire, the laws were different, the culture was different. In the Roman Empire, children were dealt with as property, a father, could legally sell the children off as slaves if he wished to do so.

Perfectly legal, nobody would be running down to the police station calling the cops. No, it's perfectly alright. Sell the kids. So being a beloved child was special, real special. Children of slaves had an even lower standing because they were born into slavery. Oddly enough, If you're born into slavery, they called you a verna, anyway. The other thing is, until a child was legally accepted, a father could order or take the child into some place out on some remote roadway and leave them there, to be left to the elements or the animals or whatever, to die of exposure. If a child had been left like that, and to us it would be unthinkable, but perfectly legal, An abandoned child found by another could be used for any legal purpose. And many of those purposes we would be rather horrified and disgusted by, but they were legal nonetheless.

So now you see a dearly beloved child. Ah, that's a special place. Oh boy. You'd imagine even the children hearing this would say, oh boy, that is special. That is wonderful to hear. This is a precious position of security, acceptance, and privilege. Very special.

He was telling them something that they would say, oh, that's wonderful news. You see, the pagan gods that they had grown up with, you never knew when those pagan gods were going to do some ghastly, awful thing and strike you, and you never knew why or how or when or where it might happen. This, however, was a God that says, no, I hold these as dearly beloved. I cherish them. That was special.

The culture knew nothing of this as a guaranteed thing, but to be able to tell every single believer as beloved children, that is great. You see, this kind of love doesn't depend upon being deserved. It doesn't depend upon, oh, I acted such and such a way and therefore I'm loved. This is a God who loved us when there was nothing about our actions to love. This is the kind of love that flows entirely out of the heart of the Lord, and not out of the behavior of the one loved.

In 1 John 3, 1 and 2, and I've told in the past, when I was trying to finish up seminary, let me tell you, that last month was a little intense. I think I got about 75 questions in my email. And then I came here and, you know, I did sort of a candidate type weekend and then went back and then was trying to finish up my Greek classes as well as a couple more questions. And in the middle of that, I was translating these verses. And I just, as soon as I got them translated, I couldn't see.

Because I saw, oh, this is wonderful stuff. And we try to carry across the idea, see how great love, that see is not enough, it's behold, and to use a modern terminology is to stop and take a mental picture of this. So this is, let it ring in your ears, folks, how great, and by the way, that word great means not just greatness, but quality. Behold what a quality of permanent love the Father has given to us, irreversibly. Wow!

That we would be called children of God. And again, you know where John's writing this? Probably in Ephesus, from the evidence that we have. Telling these same people, children of God, and he underscores it, such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know him beloved, look at that word again, Now we are children of God. He underscores it again. And you notice in this passage, there's nothing in the way of exhortation. It's all statement of position. It's all who we are in Christ.

But it just struck me, these people could not count upon in their own homes that kind of beloved relationship. Some of them may have been sold off as kids. Some of them may have been found on the roadside after being abandoned. And they may have been used for awful purposes. but they could hear these words and they'd know where home was. They'd know where they were beloved, unconditionally. That was cool. This bestowed is in the perfect tense. It implies permanence. It's not a, you're one of the beloved children of God, if. It's a done deal. It's permanent. It's there.

And he says, walk in love. This word walk, peripateo, is an ordering of life, step by step. It's a present active imperative, too. Right now, be continuing. We must right now be continuing based on our position in Christ, in love. And notice this word, in love.

I mean, that's a phrase we use, but we've got a different sense of it. Here it is repeatedly in Ephesians. We talk about this walking. We're going to continue to talk about it. Paul's not done. We saw it also in the book of Colossians, once in each chapter. Here's this word, it means to walk about.

As you're going about, doing what you're doing, the ordering of your life as you're walking about is in love. Both the believers and unbelievers walk. See, everybody walks. It's, where are you walking? Are you walking in love? Since you're in Christ. Or are you walking somewhere else?

The difference is in the source and the outward walk. That's the distinction that Paul's trying to make. Because, by the way, one of the places you use the word walk is how the unbelievers walk. The difference is in their position, and that's the difference he's trying to underscore here in how it gets lived out. In love is a phrase we tend to use in our culture in romantic terms. I bring it up here as a quote. I can remember. This is a quote from my high school math teacher. This is where I went to high school. This was Dr. Simon Ashiku. He was a brilliant man. He spoke seven languages. I sure wish one of them was English. But anyway, he taught us math as best he could, and he would say in his foreign accent, it's nice to be in love.

And he was talking, of course, about romantic love. And our culture, of course, has all kinds of stories about romance and, you know, it's something there's all sorts of plays, historical accounts, everything of the sort about romance. But this is a different kind of love, quite different. This is a love that we are in that you don't fall out of. And that's a good thing. Notice how He has been using this in love already.

Ephesians 1.4, this is just after He got through telling them, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Next, it says, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. We would be holy and blameless before Him in love. This is the kind of love that isn't limited to an earthly time frame. How about in love before the world was made?

That kind of love. 317, he says, you being rooted and grounded in love. In 4, 15 and 16, he's talking to the church, and twice he uses this phrase, in love. Speaking the truth in love. The church body building itself up in love. Love is an environment in which the believer walks.

Just like we're going through the air, we don't think a thing about the fact we're breathing it, it is the environment in which we live. This love is total. It's also eternal. And that's a big distinction with the in-love term that we're accustomed to in our culture. It has its roots in the very character of love which is God Himself. He is the definition of love.

Ephesians 4, 1 and 2, he implores the believers that they walk in a manner worthy of the calling, that they show tolerance for one another in love. He describes what that walking in love looks like, doesn't he? So he's already told them to walk in love, he just gives it more description here in this passage.

In Colossians, we've already seen here, you have been knit together in love. How about that? Did you know that God knits? So I don't know, you may feel like you're a part of a sweater or socks, I'll let you decide that. God has knit us together in love. It is the position that we have as believers.

Now, I'm telling you, I'm here to tell you, you must take your condition seriously. Are you ready to do that? Take your condition seriously. I'm not kidding. You've got to take your condition seriously. Our walk is all about our daily condition. And it's the way we live and the source from which it's lived, moment by moment. Are you ready to take your condition seriously? Alright.

He says our eternal position is because of God's unconditional love. It's irreversible. It's permanent. You are permanently in love. How about that? If we are going to take our condition seriously, then we have to take our position seriously. You're in love, folks. If you're a believer here this morning, you're in love. A call to walk in love is a call in our daily condition to walk in our position. That's why we walk in love. That's our position. We're there. This is the just as. And so what has he done here? Short words, brief, nothing too complicated about them.

But what he's done is he set a basis of and a standard for our walk. What's that walk to be compared to? What's the standard? What does it mean to walk in love? We've got an incomparable measure, the way that Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us. That's the standard. That's the measure. We've seen this just-as comparison repeatedly here. The walk in love that we're to have looks like this. Christ loved and gave Himself up for us.

When Christ was nailed to the cross, He didn't go kicking and screaming, no, no, no, no, no, you can't, you won't, over my dead body. He didn't do that, no. Instead, when Pilate challenged him to defend himself, he said, nothing. Other than, he said, are you the king of the Jews? Yeah, it is as you say. But he didn't defend himself. And as he was led out to the cross, he didn't go kicking and screaming and saying, no, no, no way.

Instead, Hebrews gives us an insight, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. What joy was that? Joy with the Father. Joy with you and me. No, He gave Himself. He wasn't given. He gave Himself. It was His own doing. He loved us. Notice that this is a repeated message.

Look in Galatians 2.20. How are we to live day by day, moment by moment? What's the connection? The connection is with the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. See that? That is the basis on which I live day by day.

Galatians 1.5, 1 Timothy 2.6, Titus 2.14 also use He gave in a similar kind of way. The Lord indeed gave Himself voluntarily, not kicking and screaming, but saying, of course I will, of course I will. That kind of love. We will see again, husbands love your wives just as, recognize that? just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her.

So we're not done in chapter 5. He's going to continue to give this message. By the way, from July 17th to August 21st, we'll be teaching about husbands and wives, going in more detail in this depth of truth that's here. But we want to point ahead to it because Paul is repeating this message, isn't he?

So, anyway, you can look forward to that. Okay. Now, Christ's love of us and His giving of Himself for us is something we see repeatedly in the epistles. We've taken a look for that. It's all about our position, isn't it? The character of our daily life and walk is because Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us.

You know, if He hadn't done that, there would be no sense in our meeting this morning. There would be no sense in my talking to you. Matter of fact, I wouldn't have anything decent to say were it not for this. It's that message, that message that gives significance to everything we're doing and saying here this morning. But it's about our daily condition. That's what the appeal is here.

Just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us. Now, you notice something interesting. He loved you and gave himself up for us. You notice the switch in pronouns there? I kind of puzzled at that when I first looked at it, but then I got to thinking, Now wait a minute.

He wants the audience that he's writing to, the believers in Ephesus, to really know Christ loves you. He wants them to get it. Christ loves you. Don't lose it. When it comes to giving himself, he includes himself in the us. He says you need to understand what this love is about. You are included. I'm not some special guy in this respect because I'm an apostle, he says. He wants them to get that perspective personally, and he wants them to take it home and take it to heart personally. Something else to think about, too.

We're looking back on nearly 20 centuries of time having passed. When Paul wrote this, there were believers who had gone back and forth between Jerusalem and Ephesus. It was close enough. There were people in Jerusalem who were still around, who had seen Christ crucified and resurrected and things of that sort, who could testify to it. It was very close to home.

Only about 30 years had passed. For us, it would be looking back in 1975. For a few of us, that might seem like a long time, but the older I get, the less difference that seems to make. Look here at 1 Corinthians 15, 3 through 9, and I think initially we want to draw a quick focus here. Verses 3 and 4 lay out the gospel. That's it.

If somebody ever comes to you and they say, what's the gospel? How do I become a Christian? That's the question I ask my folks when I was four and a half. How do I become a Christian? Okay? There's the answer right there. So make note of that. Somebody asks you. All you've got to tell them is that. Do you believe that Christ died for your sins, according to the Scriptures, and He was buried and He rose? Do you believe that? That's the Gospel. Do you believe it? You're saved. It's good to be able to tell them that.

But then he goes on and testifies here. Here Christ appeared resurrected, and also with the marks remaining from His crucifixion, before Peter, and then the Twelve, and then before 500 brethren. there were still, even 30 years later, a number of people around who had seen Christ crucified and buried and resurrected. Finally, it says there, he gave himself up for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. And what's happening here is he's making reference to kind of the Old Testament sacrifices, and there would be Jews in Ephesus who would go to Jerusalem Because the temple, remember, is still there.

Who would say, oh yeah, I know what that's all about. And what's happening here is he's saying that Christ is the final and last sacrifice. The one that replaces all others. The once for all sacrifice. Satisfies all the other sacrifices that had to be done repeatedly. Because they were really pointing to Christ's sacrifice. When Paul wrote these words, the sacrifices in Jerusalem were still ongoing. But he said, no, Christ Himself was the sacrifice. God is satisfied with Him. He is sufficient. That's good news for us. That's good news for us. Because we don't have to worry about, oh man, I've got to go and pay for this stuff. Hey, there's no paying to be done. It's a done deal.

Look at those passages in Hebrews if you want. Check me out on that. But the call here is to be imitators, not superficially, but by His life, by His energizing, based on the position that we have. And to walk in love because that's the environment in which we live as believers. We have in our federal government the Environmental Protection Agency. Do you know what?

God has created a spiritual environment for you as a believer that nobody needs to protect. It's His job. It's permanent. And you're in it if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ today. That's the environment. He's saying you're already in it, just walk in it. In love. Be in love. The love that he's put there permanently.

That's his. His own. The kind that's exemplified by his love for us. The one who gave his life for us. That love. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for what you have given. Thank you for the love that you have demonstrated for us. So real. so vital, so eternally valuable. Thank you for that. Thank you that we can count upon being beloved children, that we can look at these verses and see that as your multiple declaration of eternal love for us, even before we came to believe, even when we were quite unlovable. Thank you for that marvelous and inexplicable love, the unfathomable riches we have because of you. In Jesus' name, Amen.