Being Imitators of God

“Therefore be 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)

Paul, in the 5th chapter of Ephesians, tells the church in Ephesus to be imitators of God, walking in love as Christ did. Quite often, there are those who love to preach how God is love and that the most important aspect of the Christian life is that we are to love others. They implore Christians to accept people as they are, affirm their lifestyles, and refrain from any kind of negative judgment. Anything that makes a person feel hurt or unaccepted is to be considered unloving. It is hateful and judgmental to tell someone they are sinning and to repent. In fact, one of the most commonly used claims in this argument is that we are to stop telling people what we against and start telling everyone what we are for. The argument boils down to, if we are to be imitators of our Savior, we need to be kind, accepting, affirming, and never, ever calling someone to abandon anything that is essential to their personal identity.

Certainly, biblical love involves a certain amount of sacrifice on our part. Christ our Savior left Heaven and willingly became a man. He left the throne room of glory and took on humanity, becoming a servant that He might redeem mankind. He endured trials and tribulations. He lived in poverty. Had those who claimed He was of questionable heritage. He was called a heretic and a blasphemer. Then He willingly went through a mock trial and allowed Himself to be executed for crimes He did not commit. All that He might rise from the grave, defeating sin and death, that He would redeem the elect for the glory of God. You cannot describe a more sacrificial love.

In doing all this, Christ never once objected and demanded His own way. He willingly endured all of it that He would glorify His Father and demonstrate His love for the saints who would be redeemed. It cost Him everything to do this, yet never once did He claim His own right as Creator to be treated differently. It was the greatest act of self-sacrificing, humble servitude. Thus, when we are called to love as God loves, this is the very behavior we are to model.

Does this mean that the progressivist or nominal Christian is correct when they say that love means never being corrective? Are we to just love people as they are and never call them to repentance since Christ Himself was so self-sacrificial to die for them? Absolutely not.

In the verses following Ephesians 5:1-2, Paul immediately tells his readers just what imitating God looks like:

“But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.” (Ephesians 5:3-12)

Paul actually commands the Ephesians of what they must not do when they are imitating God. They are commanded to turn away from the sinful acts and attitudes of the world. In other words, in order to tell the Ephesians how to imitate God, they had to first understand what God was against.

Biblical love, that which most imitates our Lord and Creator, hates sin. Such love desires to do that which God loves and to turn away from that which God hates. The very reason Christ demonstrated His love at the cross is that He was paying the price all men owe for rebelling against God. The wages of our sin is death (Romans 6:23). We deserve eternal death and condemnation for disobeying God’s commandments and choosing to live life according to our own rules. Christ’s love is sacrificial because He did that very thing, He sacrificed Himself by dying on the cross in the place of sinners. The sinless and perfect Son of God took on the role of sinful men that He might taste death in their place. He literally sacrificed Himself in love that men might be redeemed. Therefore, it was sin, that lawless rebellion against God, that required Christ to demonstrate His love as the spotless sacrificial lamb.

When Paul writes to the Ephesians to be imitators of God, the first thing he tells them is to hate sin and turn away from it. And he even names the sins that God abhors: sexual immorality; covetousness; foolish talk and crude joking. All these things are acts of rebellion against our Lord and Creator.

God created man and woman. He created the institution of marriage to between one man and woman in which sexual intimacy is to be confined. Any sexual act outside of that design is to reject His authority, His right to determine and command us in such unions. To claim any sexual “lifestyle” is acceptable and cannot be judged is to tell God He is wrong.

Covetousness (which is idolatry) is rejecting that God is our provider and sustainer. Christ taught us that God knows our needs and we are to trust in His provision (Matthew 6:25-34). When we covet, we desire that which God has not provided and act as if the only possible way we can be made whole is to have that very thing. We are telling God He either does not know our needs and cannot be trusted to provide, or He is a selfish and cruel God by denying us our heart’s desire. We are actually worshipping the item over the Provider and Sustainer of our very lives.

Foolish talk and crude jesting reveal the wickedness of our hearts. Out of the abundance of our hearts, our mouths speak (Luke 6:45). We show no restraint when we speak in such ways, allowing the wickedness that resides with us to pour forth. We cut people down, we mock and deride, we demonstrate crassness and show no sense of decorum. We reveal that we do not believe that God is Lord even over our very speech, acting as though He has no right to command how we should speak to others.

In all this, Paul is calling upon his readers to see that all such behavior is antithetical to God and His nature. To be imitators of God, we must purge ourselves of all those things which are inconsistent with who He is and that which are acts of sin against Him. You simply cannot act and love like God if you are practicing the very things that He hates.

Therefore, those who elevate God’s love to the primary and sole attribute that matters still fail to recognize that genuine, godly love rejects and hates the things that oppose His nature. Christians are not called to simply love and accept people as they are. They are called to point people, in love, to the very one who paid the penalty for the sins they callously commit against God. Furthermore, Christians are called to examine their own walk, recognizing and repenting of all those things for which Christ died. We are to urge one another to good works and call each other to repentance for sins.

The most loving thing we can do is not allow someone to live in open rebellion against God. Sacrificial love means emptying ourselves of our fear of man, our love of self, and to trust wholly in God’s Word when we confront sinners. We know that Christ willingly endured the hatred and attacks of men when He called sinners to faith in Himself. We must do likewise. True biblical and godly love means I am willing to endure the slings and arrows of the culture, to have my name and reputation be dragged through the mud, and to have all hate me if it means even one soul is brought to Christ. It means accepting the loss of status, of friends, or even family if it means that I rescue my brother or sister in the faith from the path of sin and judgment.

In sum, those who tell us to stop being against sin, that we should simply be for people and to show them “love,” simply reject God’s Word. They seek to satisfy their own desire in corrupting what true love looks like. Therefore, the world must not only know what we are for (calling people to salvation in Christ) but also what we are against (willful rebellion and sin inviting God’s wrath) if we are to imitate God and demonstrate the love He has for us.