HOW TO BE AN IMITATOR

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” Ephesians 5:1

Is it possible for a believer in Jesus Christ to wrap his heart and mind around such a statement? How can one be an imitator of someone he does not completely know? (How to know God).

Zophar asks these questions in Job 11:7-8:

7 “Can you find out the deep things of God?
Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?

8 It is higher than heaven—what can you do?
Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?”

Even Isaiah in his vision of God cried out, “Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips…for my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts.” Isaiah 6:1-5.

BECOME A MEMBER OF THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD

And so the first need is to become a member of the household of God. Ephesians 2:19, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…” In Galatians 6:10 the Apostle Paul writes of the “household of faith.” Truly, God is the believer’s Father who has designated the believer as beloved.

However, can a believer even imagine trying to be an imitator of God? Probably not. But notice that Ephesians 5:1 does not have a period after ‘God’ but rather a comma. So it reads, “imitators of God, as beloved children and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2.

Does not God speak of Jesus in the same way. Matthew 2:17, “This is my beloved Son…”. What could be more thrilling than to know that you are a part of God’s family. More than this, that you are a believer who is being conformed to the image of His Son. Romans 8:29.

Therefore the motivation to become an imitator of God is found in the fact of being a family member.

THE CONCERN OF AN IMITATOR

The believer’s second concern is with how to imitate God. Notice Ephesians 5:2, “And walk in love.” Paul firmly believed that to walk in love was the key to imitating God. Paul is encouraging the believer to allow love to be the tenor of our life. Love is to guide one’s thoughts, word, and deeds. Remember that Paul is the one who the Spirit used to give 1 Corinthians 13. Continuing in 5:2, Christ is given to us as an example of one who loved!

Carefully read Romans 5:5-8, “and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Also carefully read Romans 8:37-39, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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.”

Notice the testimony of the Apostle John: 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.” Also 1 John 4:9-11 and 16.

WALK WORTHY AS GOD’S CHILDREN

Returning to Ephesians, one finds that the apostle encourages us “to walk worthy of the invitation we have received, with all humility, and meekness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.” Ephesians 4:1-2.

Ephesians 5:8, “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” At one time the believer was in darkness but now has freedom in Christ. See Galatians 5:1. So, as children of light, we are to walk as such.

Also notice Ephesians 5:15, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise…” Walk in wisdom. Love and wisdom are closely connected in Colossians 2:2-3, “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

The exhortation is to walk in love. However, Paul warns us not “to walk as other Gentiles walk in the disappointing misery of their mind, being darkened in discernment because they are alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the callousness of their heart.” Ephesians 4:17-18. Believers should never find themselves in that situation. This warning continues until 4:31.

It is interesting that 4:32 manifests God’s heart towards the believer—be affectionate, tenderhearted, forgiving of one another. We are to do the same as we walk in love and thus become imitators of God.

If this imitation was possible for the Apostle Paul, it is possible for the saint today. We have the same Father, Savior, Spirit and the same scriptures.

May the grace of God continue to guide you into all truth.

DJHjr