Christlike Love
Ephesians 5: 1 –
2.
Introduction
When
our children were younger, we used to make them leave the room when we watched
the news on TV. In fact, we started
telling them we were watching the “scariest show on TV” when we watched the
news. And it is scary…a shooting in
Colorado; civil war in Syria; predictions of economic meltdown; etc… But, sometimes the news is more entertaining
than it is scary.
Last
month, a man was arrested in Maryland for impersonating a police officer. He was driving a white pick up truck with red
and blue lights on the dashboard. He
drove up behind another vehicle and turned on his flashing lights. Walked up to the driver’s window and asked
the driver for identification. The
driver identified himself as an off-duty police officer…and the tables were
turned. The criminal fled the
scene. The real officer called in back
up. And the criminal was apprehended.[1]
What
is the moral of the story? I guess we
could say, “Be careful who you pull over when you impersonate a police
officer.” But, since most of us don’t
plan to impersonate a police officer, we could probably find a better
moral… “Be careful who you impersonate.”
Impersonating
a police officer is illegal. Impersonating
the wrong kind of person can lead us to make some questionable choices. But, impersonating Jesus is always a safe
choice. In fact, that is what all
Christians are supposed to do. We are
supposed to impersonate Jesus in the way we live our lives.
Over
the past couple of weeks, I have preached about imitating (or impersonating)
Jesus. Christians are supposed to
imitate the humility of Jesus and imitate the way Jesus served other
people. Today, I want to encourage you
to imitate the love of Jesus.
Ephesians 5: 1 – 2.
“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (NIV).”
One
of the big questions facing the earliest Christians was related to how they
were supposed to live the Christian life in a pagan world. It was a question about how to define
themselves individually and how to define the community of faithful
Christians—or the church. It was a
question about boundaries.
The
Jewish people had clear boundaries that separated them from the rest of the
world—circumcision, the Old Testament Law, dietary restrictions, Sabbath
observance, and the annual feasts and festivals.
The
Romans had clear boundaries that separated them from others as well. The most obvious was their allegiance to the
Roman Emperor, which often manifested itself through the worship of the Roman
pantheon of gods, patriotism, and even worshipping the Emperor himself—Caesar
is lord.
What
about the Christian community? What made
the Christians different from both the Jews and the Romans? Paul answered these questions by discouraging
two types of behavior—legalism and the freedom to live any way you want to
live. According to Paul’s letters to the
early Christian churches, the Christian life is not about legalism and is not
about freedom from all rules. Instead,
the Christian life is about living like Jesus lived…following Jesus’ example…imitating
Jesus.
There
are two very important things we need to notice about Paul’s instructions about
Christian boundaries. On one hand, we
need to note that Paul never told us to withdraw from the world. On the other hand, Paul tells us specifically
that we are supposed to be different from the rest of the world. Yes, we are to be different from the world in
the way we live our lives. Yes, we will
often find ourselves in conflict with the world, because we do not share the
same values as those who do not know Jesus and live as imitators of Jesus. But, if we totally withdraw from the world,
the work of evangelism becomes impossible.
Be Imitators of God
Interestingly,
this is the only place where the Bible tells us to “imitate God.” In the Old Testament, we read about obeying
God and even following God. Jesus’ call
to his disciples was to “Come, follow me.”
But, even Jesus did not explicitly say “Imitate me.”
Of
course, there is probably not a big difference between “Follow me” and “Imitate
me.” Following Jesus can mean that Jesus
is our leader and guide as we live our lives.
We pray for wisdom and discernment in the day to day decisions we face. However, following Jesus can also mean
following the example Jesus set for us.
He lived a life of humility and service to others. Therefore, we should not think of ourselves
too highly. No act of service was
beneath Jesus, and no act of service is beneath us as followers of Jesus.
I
am interpreting this verse as if Paul said “Imitate Jesus.” But, that is not what he said. He said “Imitate God.” Is there a difference between imitating God
and imitating Jesus?
We
find an answer to this by noticing the word “therefore” in verse one. When we encounter the word “therefore” it
tells us we need to pay attention to the words that came before it. “Therefore” means Paul is drawing a conclusion
from his argument.
Let’s
read Ephesians 5: 1 along with the verse that comes before it, Ephesians 4: 32.
“Be kind and compassionate to one another,
forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore as dearly
loved children… (Ephesians 4: 32 – 5: 1 NIV)”
When
we place this verse in the context of Paul’s overall argument, we see three
very important points to keep in mind.
First, it’s all about Jesus and what Jesus has done for us. Second, we are to imitate God in the way we
forgive other people. Third, God’s
forgiveness and the actions of Jesus on the cross are motivated by God’s love
for us.
Dearly Loved Children
It
makes sense that Paul wants Christians to imitate God. After all, Paul tells us that we are God’s
dearly loved children. And, it is
natural for children to imitate their fathers.
This
raises an important point about what it means to be a child of God. For example, the Bible never teaches us that
all people are children of God. Instead,
the Bible tells us that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. Jesus did not have an earthly father. He was conceived by the power of the Holy
Spirit in the womb of a young virgin.
Jesus is uniquely the Son of God.
However, you and I can become sons and daughters of God through
Jesus. The Gospel of John tells us that
we must be “born again.” Paul does not
use the phrase “born again” in his writings.
Paul prefers another image and tells us we must be “adopted by
God.” Both images mean the same
thing. No one automatically becomes a
son or daughter of God by natural, biological birth. The only way to become a son or daughter of
God is through a spiritual birth or adoption—faith in Jesus as the Son of God,
who died on the cross and rose again to demonstrate God’s love for us. God loves us so much that he provided a way
for you to be adopted as his child. Your
sins can be forgiven. You can have
eternal life and a resurrection like Jesus’.
Since
God demonstrated his love through the cross and resurrection, God is worthy of
our imitation. This is a mistake many
people make when they choose someone to imitate. Some people imitate people who are not worthy
of imitation. You should be very careful
about who you impersonate / imitate. Do
not imitate just any one. People need to
earn the right to be imitated. And don’t
think you can imitate abstract ideals like justice or equality. We need a personal example to show us how to
live our lives. God has done both. God has demonstrated his love for us in the
cross and resurrection. Jesus is the
Incarnation of God himself and gives us a personal example of the life God
wants us to live.
Live a Life of Love
“Be
imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love…”
The
most basic difference between the Christian faith and all world religions is
the concept of Grace. We do not believe
there is a set of religious principles which people ought to follow so that we
can become good enough to become God’s child.
Instead, we believe no one is good enough—and no one can become good
enough—to become God’s child. The only
way to become God’s child is to be adopted through faith.
But,
once we become God’s child there are clear expectations for how we live our
lives. God changes our behavior so that
we don’t live like the rest of the world.
We don’t live a legalistic religious life. We don’t live in total freedom to do whatever
we want because we were saved by Grace and not by works. Instead, we live a life of love.
We
see this in the teachings of Jesus.
There was a time when Jesus was asked to rank the thousands of Jewish
commandments. A Jewish expert asked
Jesus which commandment was the most important commandment. Jesus answered that the entire teachings of
the Old Testament Law and Prophets could be summarized in two
commandments. The most important
commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul,
all your mind and all your strength. The
second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.
We
see this in the writings of the New Testament as well. The Apostle John—who was one of Jesus’
closest disciples—tells us to love our brothers and sisters. Since we have been “born again” or “adopted
by God” through faith in Jesus, we have become family members with other men
and women as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Christians are supposed to love other Christians.
If
this were all the Bible said about loving others, we would have a
loophole. We only have to love
Christians and neighbors. If someone is
not a Christian, or if someone is different from us, then we don’t have to love
them. But, these are not the only
teachings about love. In the Sermon on
the Mount, Jesus tells us to “Love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your
Father in Heaven… (Matthew 5: 44 – 45 NIV).”
There
are no loopholes. We are to love people
who are close to us and people who are far away. We are to love people who love us back and
people who hate us. We are to love
Christians and people who are hostile to the Christian faith (and people who
are hostile to the Christian view of ethics / right and wrong / sin).
In
my first church as pastor, Shauna and I taught a Sunday School class for young
married couples. One of our lessons has
stuck with me for 12 years. The lesson
taught that we are to love people who are hard to love. Everyone has a list of people who are hard to
love. But no one wants to admit that
your name is on someone else’s list.
Someone in your life thinks you are hard to love. Aren’t we glad other people love us when we
are hard to love? Aren’t we glad that
God loved us when we were unloveable?
Just as Christ Loved Us
“Be
imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love,
just as Christ loved us…”
I
think I am grateful that Paul is so specific in his instructions. He does not tell us to imitate love as an
ideal. He gives us a personal example of
what love is supposed to look like. It
is supposed to look like Jesus. However,
I am not necessarily grateful about the personal example Paul chose. He wants us to love others the way Jesus
loved us.
Jesus
didn’t love us with his words and his feelings.
Jesus loved us with his life.
This tells me that we are not talking about love as an emotion. Instead, this is love as an action. And, this is no ordinary action. Love is an action of self-sacrifice for
someone else’s benefit. Jesus did not
meet his own needs in his death on the cross.
He put your needs before his own and chose to meet your needs above his
own.
The
end of the verse tells us that Jesus gave himself up as both an offering and a
sacrifice. It’s possible for us to think
of “offering” and “sacrifice” as technical terms from the Old Testament. In this interpretation, “offering” usually
refers to gifts which came from the farm, and “sacrifice” refers to a living
animal whose blood was poured out on the altar.
It’s also possible to take a simpler approach. Since both words are used, it tells us that
Jesus has fulfilled all of God’s requirements.
The important thing is that Jesus voluntarily gave his life on the cross
to meet our needs—not to meet his own needs.
This is what love looks like.
This
is also how we love others like Jesus loved us.
We put ourselves in second or third place. If Jesus is our first priority and other
people are our second priority, then the best we can hope for is third place.
(In
fact, this is one way we can determine if someone loves us. If that person puts your needs and desires
above their own, it is possible they love you.
If they expect you to satisfy their desires or meet their needs, it’s
not love…it’s something else.)
If
God expects us to love others as Jesus first loved us, then we need to consider
the ways we refuse to put others ahead of ourselves. Love affects the way we spend our time and
use our money and invest ourselves in the lives of other people. Do we spend our time and money on ourselves
more than on other people? Do we invest
more in our careers and quality of life than we invest in other people?
Conclusion
“Be
imitators of God…”
We
need to be careful in the way we read these verses this morning. There is a temptation for us to think that we
have the ability to mimic the life of Jesus.
It’s possible for us to think that all we have to do is change our own
behavior so that our lives look more and more like the life Jesus modeled for
us. Such a view does not fit well with
the Christian view of Grace and salvation by faith alone.
If
we truly believe that we are not capable of becoming children of God through
our own efforts, then we also need to admit that we cannot become more like
Jesus through our own efforts. We need
spiritual help to accomplish this.
Perhaps
we should think of ourselves as an imitation of Jesus rather than imitators of
Jesus. One definition of an imitation is
a “work of art.” The artist looks at the
original and copies it. The artist looks
at a mountain landscape. Then, she uses
brushes, paints and a canvas to create an imitation. A sculptor looks at a person. Then, he uses a block of marble, hammers and
chisels to chip away at the block until it forms an imitation of the original.
Perhaps
this is a better image for us. When we
place our faith in Jesus as the unique Son of God who put our needs above his
own, dying on the cross and rising again to give us forgiveness and eternal
life, then God begins sculpting us as imitations of Jesus. When we yield to God’s work in us, he chips
away at our lives until one day we look like imitations of Jesus. One day we live a life of love, just as
Christ loved us.
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