Imitators of God
It can be an unsettling moment to realize that, whether you had set out to imitate them or not, you have somehow become just like your mother or your father. The moment often comes somewhere in mid-life. You suddenly realize that the carefully-formed, unique and slightly rebellious identity that you created for yourself is actually largely a myth. You now see that you have settled into the strange idiosyncrasies and habits that you notice in your mother or father – the ones you vowed you would never imitate. It’s natural for children to be like their parents – even to imitate their parents. But in Ephesians 5, the Apostle Paul emphasizes that we must strive to imitate our Heavenly Father, first and foremost.
We are to imitate our Heavenly Father, Paul tells us, precisely as those who are His dearly loved children. Paul writes, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children” (v. 1). There’s no doubt that children learn more from their earthly parents than they realize. And when it comes to the capacity to love, those who have been loved well as children have a huge advantage in knowing how to love others. It is a sad reality that those who have not been shown much love as children find it harder to know how to express love. Paul reminds us that we are “beloved children” (v. 1). We have received lavish love from our Heavenly Father, as those who have been adopted into God’s family. We should thus excel at loving others.
But Paul drives home the point further. In imitating God, we are to take our queue from the love shown by Jesus at Calvary. Paul writes, “And walk in love, as Christ loved us” (v. 2). This means that we are to live a very intentional and costly life of love. We are to extend love to those we find difficult, even in the hardest situations. Most of us would instinctively feel that there should be some limits to the extent we put ourselves out or make ourselves vulnerable. We would tend to think in terms of being loving insofar as it is practical and reasonable. But the inconvenient truth is that the model of love we are given in Jesus smashes through any hedge we would place around our obligations – it rides right over any barriers of convenience we might set up.
We say, “Let’s love to a point.” But how did Christ love us? Verse 2 provides the answer: Christ “gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” When we read the story of the arrest, abuse, trial, crucifixion of Jesus, it might look as though He was the victim of circumstance—that He was swept up by events beyond His control. But Paul highlights that Jesus “gave Himself up” willingly and by design. It is one thing to be swept up by a disaster or to fall victim to injustice. But to enter into suffering and death intentionally is astounding. The next words of Paul take that fact to another level. For not only did Jesus give Himself up intentionally, but He did so “for us” (v. 2). He faced the shame of the trial, the cruelty of the mockers, the agony of crucifixion – and He did it for sinners like us. In the words of a famous hymn, “Amazing love! How can it be that Thou my God shouldst die for me!” This week, may you respond by living a life of costly love, Christ-like love, with the help of the Spirit and to the glory of the Father!