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Studies in Ephesians

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 20, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 20.

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Studies in Ephesians

Imitators of God

Chapter 5, Verses 1-12, A.R.V.

Questioning the Text

1. What are we admonished to do instead of following the past life of sin?
“Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.” Verse 1. Note 1.
2. How are we to walk?
“And walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.” Verse 2. Note 2.
3. What should not be named among us?
“But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints; nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting: but rather giving of thanks.” Verses 3, 4. Note 3.
4. What is the sure end of those who indulge in such things?
“For this ye know of a surety, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” Verse 5. Note 4.
5. Of what should we specially take heed?
“Let no man deceive you with empty words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.” Verses 6, 7. Note 5.
6. Why should we not be partakers with them?
“For ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light, . . . proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord.” Verses 8, 10. Note 6.
7. What is the fruit of the light?
“For the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” Verse 9. Note 7.
8. With what should we not have fellowship?
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of.” Verses 11, 12. Note 8.

Note and Comment

1. “Be ye therefore imitators.”—Our Common Version has “followers.” It does not mean a surface imitation, an outward pattern of the Master. In the first place, that would not touch the real heart and life; and in the second place, it would last only a little while before the hypocrisy would be apparent; for hypocrisy is simply the putting on of a mask, and an endeavor to imitate God while the heart was not in harmony with His will would simply be hypocrisy. Elsewhere the apostle has told us how this must be done,—“And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Rom. 12:2. And in Eph. 4:23 we have the same thought,—“and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” The heart must first be made right, for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the character is molded. Let the instructions given in the previous chapters of Ephesians be carried out, and it is not difficult to become imitators of God, just as the child who loves his father will follow the father; therefore “be ye . . . imitators of God, as beloved children.”
2. “Walk in love.”—Cherish it, develop it by exercising it. Live in its atmosphere by living in Christ. Keep ever before you this one example: “as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell,” instead of the stench of sin from us. So live for Him that He through you may show forth the same blessed grace and sweetness to the world.
3. Not even named.—This injunction is further emphasis laid upon what the apostle said in verse 29 of the previous chapter. Don’t talk of the things of wickedness, do not talk of the fornications and of the uncleanness and of the covetousness that is going on in the world. Christians do too much of it. “Let it not be named among you.” The heart becomes transformed by that on which it feeds, the mind by that upon which it thinks. It is not becoming to saints, to holy ones of God, to talk of those things that are evil and only evil. Let the filthiness stay where it belongs. There is no need of spotting by it the garments which Christ has made white. Leave the foolish talking and the low jesting, the “lewd turns,” as some render. They ought not to be “convenient,” as expressed in our Common Version,—better the text which we are using, they “are not befitting.” They do not become Christians, they are not an appropriate dress to wear before those outside. They are made by the wrong outfitter. There is one thing that is much more becoming—cherish that—the giving of thanks. Do not grumble. Look upon the bright side. In this way will you commend the religion of the Master.
4. “For this ye know.”—At least we ought to know it, and every one instructed in the word of God ought to know it, and every one who has had long observation in this and old world ought to know it,—that no fornicator, nor unclean person—men that give their lives up to such things—have any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. They do not have a decent living generally in this world. If they give themselves freely to such indulgences, they become marked, outcasts, even in good, decent worldly society. The wicked themselves feel that such do not belong in the kingdom of God. They would have no taste to be there anyway; and cherishing those things, they can never hope to get there. A covetous man, we are told, is an idolater. One worships that which he covets. It is possible to covet some things properly. We can earnestly desire the things which God would have us be and possess, but we are not doing that for selfish purposes. The man who covets money, or covets pleasure, or covets lust, however, so that that becomes the molding thought or power of his life, is as truly an idolater as he who bowed before the image of Baal or Ashtoreth.
5. “Let no man deceive.”—There has been, and there is growing now, a liberalism in religion which condones all kinds of sin, just as though God were a great, good-natured king that would pay no attention to the sins, however gross they were. Men are taught that while they are doing these things they are still children of God; all that they need to do is to recognize that fact, straighten up, and in their own strength be somebody; that the germ of life and the relationship with God is there, consequently God will not destroy such, nor allow sin to do it. “Let no man deceive you with empty words.” Those who are in sin, in the words of the apostle, are “separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” Eph. 2:12. They are the “sons of disobedience,” and are “by nature children of wrath.” Verses 2, 3. Note where the apostle uses the same earnest exhortation in Gal. 5:21, in which we are told that “they who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Also 1 Cor. 6:9, 10. There is hope for such, however, if they will but turn to God, for such were some of the early saints. The apostle, after naming fornicators and idolaters and adulterers and effeminate and thieves and drunkards and extortioners and revilers, declares, “And such were some of you: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.” But having been washed and justified, we must not return to the old path. Remember that it is to the disobedient that these things come. But God is able to make the most disobedient those who love obedience. Therefore because of His love, do not be partakers in such things.
6. “Ye were . . . but are now.”—It is well to be reminded of what we once were. Sometimes our hearts get lifted up in foolish pride, and we do not remember the pit whence we were digged, nor the place from which God calls us, and where we all are by nature—unregenerate. “Ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light,” and in walking as children of light, prove in your own heart and in your own life what is well-pleasing to the Lord. God gives the light in His word. He will write it again in the life, that there may be the twofold witness in His child. Read verses 8 and 10 together, omitting the parenthetical expression of verse 9, which is explanatory of the worth of light.
7. “Fruit of the light.”—Verse 9 is a further explanation of the worth of the life which walks in the light; for the fruit of the light is not death, is not corruption, is not ultimate sorrow and pain, it is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Walking in the light would bring us to the fulness of those blessed characteristics.
8. “And have no fellowship.”—A fellow is an equal. Fellowship is equally partaking with the fellows—with other fellows or equals. It is sympathy and comradeship. We are not to understand, by the text, that God would have us utterly cast off those who do not know Him, or turn away from the sinner. That is not the thought of the scripture. Neither would He have us link with the wicked in fellowship. That is an utterly impossible thing, for we have no sympathy with them in the sin. Our lives should be such that the wicked themselves would know that. But in this darkness of wickedness there are those who are longing for the light of righteousness. There are those who are longing for freedom from sin and bondage. And if they find those who have no fellowship with such things as that, such a life will be a help and inspiration and encouragement to them rather than discouragement. We do not win the soul by walking in the wickedness and darkness of that soul. God has lifted His children on a higher plane than that; but He has given them power and length of arm, by His grace, to stoop down and reach the uplifted hands crying for help in the slough of sin and despond, and He has given power to lift them above the low plane and pit of sin onto the glorious highway of righteousness. Utterly disfellowship the unfruitful works of darkness. Yea, rather even reprove them, if necessary by words, always by life. Sometimes silence is more of a reproof than outspoken speech. Let those with whom you fall into association know that when their conversation or acts are contrary to that which is true, you can not and do not approve of them.