OUR FATHER WHOSE EXAMPLE WE SHOULD FOLLOW

Continuing in his letter to the believers in Ephesus, the Apostle Paul begins chapter 5 with the guidance that believers shoudl imitate God in the same way that well beloved children imitate their earthly fathers.

Having admonished the Ephesians to eschew their former lives as Gentiles, now Paul gives them a model on which to base their Christian lives and that is to imitate God. The example Paul gives is that the Ephesians should follow God's leading because He loved us and gave His son as a sacrifice for us and the self-sacrificial act of Christ, being a sweet-smelling aroma before God should guide us to live lives of love and self-sacrifice as we imitate what God has done we too will have a sweet fragrance before God. 

1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

In this model of a life of shadowing God, Paul instructs the Ephesians that there is no room for:

• Fornication
• Uncleanliness of all kinds
• Covetousness
• filthiness
• Foolish talk
• Coarse joking
• Idolatry

Paul warns that practicing these things can short-circuit a believer's inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 

Paul goes onto to say that the believers should not pay heed to anyone who down-plays the seriousness of trangressing in these ways because it is for those practices that the non-believers are subject to the wrath of God and as such, are entirely inappropriate for believers to be entangled in.

3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them.

Paul contrasts the darkness from which believers originated with the light into which they were called and tells us that as children of light, we should be  yielding fruit of the Spirit (which can be summarized as goodness, righteousness and truth) where we seek out what activities are acceptable to the Lord for each of us individually. 

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

Paul advises us to be disassociated from  activities that are hallmarks of darkness and in fact we should be transparent about such activities if they intrude into our lives. Whereas leaving such practices secret make such things unpeakably shameful, revealing them so as to be exposed to the light and so doing, these activities are worked out by the light and their power to keep a hold on us is destroyed. It is this phenomenon of light on the works of darkness that is referenced by the saying ( probably a song derived from the Prophet Isaiah's call for the sleeping or the dead to awaken and arise so that the light of God would shine on them.

When works of darkness are exposed to this light, they no longer have the power of shame over believers but their redemtion is made to be an example of the power of God unto salvation. 

11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 14 Therefore He says:

“Awake, you who sleep,

Arise from the dead,

And Christ will give you light.”

In light of the option to live in light rather than continue in darkness, the Apostle Paul counsels the believers at Ephesus to be circumspect or wise so that they could use the time alloted to this earth to navigate the pathways of righteousness especially the days in which they lived were evil and every opportunity to entrap them in darkness would be deployed against them.

To avoid falling into traps that would derail us from the life that God has for us, Paul advises us understand what the will is for each of us and to avoid getting drunk with wine which is a tecchnique of darkness applied to believers to misspend their energy and annointing. Instead, we should continuously be filled with the Spirit of God and continually speaking psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and remaining immersed in the music of the heart unto the Lord and always being grateful to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and being submissive to one another in the fear of God.

15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.

Paul, having the practices of individual life in Christ, turns to the marriage relationship and likens it to the relationship between Christ and the church. In the metaphor, Christ is the husband and the wife is the church and the mystery of the Christ and His bride are revealed in the headship of the husband and in the submission of wifes to their husbands.  Husbands must demonstrate sacrificial love for their wives in the same way that Christ died for His bride the church and the wife should model respect and  obedience to Christ in the way she obeys her own husband.

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 

28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Amen.

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