 | Egocentric approach |
| Christocentric approach |
Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians
Part 19
The next large section we will be studying is Ephesians 5:1-17. As we continue our study, keep in mind that the overriding topic of the last three chapters of Ephesians is believer’s walk in Christ. The break between chapters 4 and 5 is a good example of the translators missing the flow of Paul’s presentation. The first two verses of chapter 5 should be the last two verses of chapter 4 because they are a continuation of what Paul said in the two preceding verses. Let’s look at them together:
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. (Ephesians 4:31-5:2)
Before we look at our verses for today, I want to look a little deeper into the last two verses of chapter 4…
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
That’s a pretty tall order. As we discussed last week, there are two possible ways to attempt to comply with Paul’s admonition:
| Egocentric approach |
| Christocentric approach |
Let’s skip over the bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander and malice…a person might do a pretty good job of keeping those under control, at least, out of sight. But the requirement to forgive others just as God in Christ has forgiven you is another matter altogether.
How did God in Christ forgive us?
Paul said earlier in Ephesians 2:5 that God’s forgiveness came to us when we were dead in sin…notice it doesn’t say when we confessed and repented…it doesn’t say that God forgave us when we admitted our wrong and showed some remorse…no, God forgave us before we admitted our wrong and before we showed any remorse and before we even asked to be forgiven.
Not only did God in Christ forgive us, He promised never to even remember that we sinned (Jeremiah 31:34)…He cast our sin in the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19)…He separated our sins from us as far as the East is from the West (Psalm 103:12).
How does egocentric forgiveness stack up against that?
| Egocentric forgiveness asks, "How many times do I have to forgive?" |
| Egocentric forgiveness says, "I’ll forgive, but I will never forget." |
| Egocentric forgiveness says, "I’ll forgive, but I will have nothing to do with him again." |
| Egocentric forgiveness says, "Two strikes and you’re out!" |
God forgave us because of what Christ did for us…we are to forgive others because of what Christ did for them. Only the Christocentric approach gives us a chance to experience such lofty behavior. Only as we allow Christ to live in and through us will we ever be able to forgive others as God in Christ forgave us.
Now let’s look at the first two verses of chapter 5…
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
Once again, I am going to exercise my freedom in Christ and disagree with most of the commentators I’ve read who all think Paul’s admonition to therefore be imitators of God means we are to imitate our Father. Even though I disagree, I think Wiersbe makes the best case for that position:
In my opinion, this whole idea of imitating has gotten us into a lot of trouble. First of all the only God we have the wildest possibility of imitating is Jesus because He was the only God who became a human…humans can’t imitate a Spirit. But that too has perpetuated an impossible fantasy…Jesus Christ did not have sinful flesh…humans do and to try to imitate a human that does not have sinful flesh is impossible for humans that have sinful flesh.
The only possible way we can imitate God is to depend on Jesus the way Jesus depended upon His Father…and even that will be flawed unlike Jesus whose dependence was flawless. Nevertheless, when we can say as Jesus did, "Not my will, but Your will…", we are imitating God as closely as humans can.
It’s encouraging that Paul uses the words as beloved children to describe believers.
Who did God first call "beloved"?
Paul continues by urging believers as beloved children, to walk in love.
What does it mean to walk in love?
Once again, I have a choice of approaches to accomplish this walk:
| Egocentric approach |
| Christocentric approach |
Using the egocentric approach, I will do my best to love others as I live this "life"…of course I won’t be able to do that consistently, so I’ll at least try to act lovingly toward others…where will my focus be? It will be on me and how well I’m doing.
Who alone is love?
Walking in love can only happen when God is my Life Source. Will I allow Him to be my Life Source consistently? Probably not, certainly not in the beginning of this approach…but where will my focus be? When I discover that I’m not allowing Him to express Himself in and through me, I simply confess that fact and repent (change my mind)…immediately, He once again becomes my Life Source.
The closing words of this week’s lesson…
…and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
…remind me of Paul’s words in Romans 12:1:
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
The words fragrant aroma simply mean pleasing or acceptable to God…when we present our bodies for God to live inside us, that is a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to Go…that’s what it means to walk in love.