Walk Sacrificially in Love

If you will turn with me, please, to Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

Chapter 5, we'll be reading the first seven verses of Ephesians 5. The reality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Therefore, do not become partners with them. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for another opportunity to look into the Word, to see you revealed, and to see ourselves as we are in your sight. We pray, Father, that your Spirit would be our teacher, that the truth would change and transform us, conform us and shape us into your likeness. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.

You may be seated. Some time ago, as we began our journey through this application section of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapters 4 through 6, we saw, first of all, in the first part of chapter 4, God's intention, ultimate purpose, to make all things one in Christ. And he encouraged us to do everything that we could in loneliness and meekness and love to endeavor to keep the spirit of unity that is given us in Christ. And then the last half of chapter 4, we saw that there is a requirement of being new creations, new people, in order for us to live like that in oneness and unity with each other. No longer are we who we were before.

We are changed and transformed into the likeness of Jesus by his redemptive work. Instead of lying, we are to speak the truth. Instead of stealing, we are to work so that we have to give to others.

Instead of corrupt speech, we are to speak only that which is edifying. Instead of anger and bitterness, we are to show kindness and forgiveness. And so we turn the corner tonight as we begin our journey through chapter 5, and we read first, therefore.

This word points us to the fact that there's something new coming, a new section is beginning, but it also points us back to what has gone before. In the last verse of chapter 4, we are told that we are to forgive even as the Father has forgiven us. And now as we begin our journey in chapter 5, verse 2, we're told that we are to love even as Christ has loved. And later on in chapter 5, verse 18, we're going to be told that we are to be filled with the Spirit of God. And then he gives us almost two chapters there of how that's to live out, especially in the relationships within the family.

And so we are going to begin tonight as we look at these opening verses of chapter 5. We are confronted, first of all, with a most amazing command, be imitators of God. Imitators of God.

Several commentators that I've looked at this week try to express that. They talk about the highest standard in the world and the ultimate duty, the ultimate ideal. This is an amazing command to be imitators of God. How is it possible that mere mortals could imitate God? Well, God is so completely other than what we are, it's impossible that we could imitate his omniscience, his omnipotence, his self-existence.

Those characteristics are what theologians call the incommunicable attributes, those things that are only attributable to God alone that no one else can claim for himself. But man was created, though, to be in the image of God, to reflect who God is. And we as believers are recreated in Christ to be a reflection of God and to be in his image and to be conformed to the image of his Son. And so by God's grace we can be, in some sense, imitators of those communicable attributes of God that we are to reflect and to show in our lives.

We find things in the New Testament like this, You shall be holy, for I am holy. We are to love one another, even as God has loved us. And we are to forgive, just as God has forgiven us in Christ. And so we are to be a reflection of God. We are to imitate God in many ways.

And the problem, of course, is that sin has marred the image of God in us and corrupted us. This is seen in the evidence that Paul gives about this old self that we are to put away and put on this new. And so let's think for a few moments about this old self, this old way of life, these old patterns that are established and so ingrained in us that we have to put away and abandon. As fallen creatures, this old self, apart from Christ, is manifested in the fact that we are sinful, we are selfish, we are self-centered and driven by what we think is in our own best interest.

We look out for number one, we think. But notice some of the old ways that Paul says here are to be abandoned. In verse 3, he says we are to abandon old patterns of behavior. There's not to be any sexual immorality or impurity. We are to abandon the ways of thinking, the attitudes of the old self.

We're not to show greed and covetousness. We are to abandon the patterns of speech. He mentions filthiness and silly or foolish talk, coarse, crude jesting. These things are to be put away. And he says in verse 3 that these things should not even be named among us, not even once.

They're unbecoming, they're not proper, they're not fitting, they're unseemly. And so Paul says we're to put those things away. We've already seen in chapter 4, back in verse 25 of chapter 4, that we're to put away lying. But here in this passage we see that in a broader scope with regard to our speech.

Not just lying, but filthy talk, foolish, silly talk, jesting. These things are out of place, this coarse speech. We get caught up in the culture and the pattern of things around us sometimes. And we get so used to what is around us sometimes that we forget what the real meaning and root of some of it is. There's a thing called minced oaths, where it's described as a kind of a euphemism where we substitute a word for profanity that is slightly altered. So it's not quite as offensive, not quite as coarse. And we don't really abandon the patterns of speech.

You say, well, don't really think that's going on in my life. And yet the reality is that these things become so prevalent in our life and our culture and around us that sometimes we get caught up in using words that we don't even recognize as being what they are. And rooted in profanity and obscenity and things like that.

And we have to be careful. Sometimes we excuse speech that is suggestive or risqué because it's humorous. And we excuse these things. This doesn't mean that there's not a place for humor in the life of a believer.

Somebody once said that we have to know that God has a sense of humor because he made monkeys. But we have to recognize that there is a line that should not be crossed in our speech. We need to remember the admonition back in chapter four that we are to speak only that which is edifying and which ministers grace to the hearers. So we need to be careful and we need to be thoughtful in our words and never flippant or careless with our speech. We should be especially guarded against trivializing holy things in our speech and using the things that are holy and sacred in humorous ways.

So we are to be careful in our behavior and our thought and our speech. And toward the end of this section, Paul gives us a rather dire warning in verse five. He says that those who are engaged in sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, which is idolatry, that these have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. And so in case we miss the weight of that, he goes on then in verse six to say that it's because of these very things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. There's a parallel passage in Colossians chapter three where Paul says, Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

And so we are to be careful and to put these things away. You all know, are familiar with the first chapter of Romans where Paul goes through that progression of sin and how we start off with a little suppression of the truth and we end up with a debased mind. In Romans 1.18 he says, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

And then he goes on to talk about how there's this progression where men suppress the truth that they know. They claim to be wise and yet they exchange the glory of God for images and creeping things and ultimately God gives them over to a debased mind. I think for the most part we tend to avoid thinking about the wrath of God. It is true that for those who are in Christ there is now no condemnation. And yet we need to recognize that God's wrath is revealed against ungodliness. And when we engage even as believers in doing our own thing, going our own way, we may experience the wrath of God. In this life there are consequences for sin.

And we can see this all around us. There is of course the final judgment and the wrath of God at end times that is something unique. But the wrath of God against sin and evil is evident in our world right now. All of the death and the disease and disaster that's a part of life in this fallen creation reveals the certainty of God's wrath. Paul expresses it in Romans 8. He says the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation but we ourselves groan inwardly as we wait eagerly the redemption of our bodies. The corruption that so plagues every aspect of our life in this fallen world is evidence of God's wrath against sin.

He has said that where there is sin there is death and we see it all around us. And so we come then to the final verse of our text. In verse 7 Paul says, excuse me, Paul says, Therefore do not become partners with them. And of course he's speaking of the sons of disobedience there. It's interesting to me that this passage is sort of bookended. At the beginning he says, become imitators of God.

It's the same Greek word in both verses. Become imitators of God. Do not become partners with the sons of disobedience. We are to become imitators of God, to be like him. So let's go back then to the beginning of the chapter, Al, and look at God's solution to our problem of that old self that has to be put away and the new self that should be evidence in us. First of all, as Paul gives us this example that we are to follow, he says that we are to be imitators of God as beloved children. God has loved us. We are to be imitators of God as those who love others, as reflections of the Father. We are to be his children and to reflect who he is. God is love and his love is a self-sacrificing, self-giving love.

Probably the most famous verse in all of scripture is known around the world in John 3.16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that we might be redeemed from the sin that is so much a part of who we are. So we are to reflect this love of God. God's love is not based on the loveliness of the object of his love. God's love is based in who he is. He is love and he shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God's love is self-giving, self-sacrificing and is grounded in who he is. And we are to have that same kind of love because of who we are in Christ and the fact that Christ is in us. God not only is love but God is also holy.

And our tendency of course is to fall in one side or the other of the balance of who God is. God is love but God is also holy and absolutely just. And so we need to recognize that God's love is a sacrificial love that requires holiness. God has from the old covenant right on into now has expressed the need for his sacrifices to be holy and without blemish. And so there's no contradiction in God between his love and his holiness. God is a God who requires holiness and yet in love he provides the holiness that is necessary. His love is a holy love and his holiness is a loving holiness.

You remember the experience of Isaiah in chapter 6 of Isaiah when he saw the Lord high and lifted up and the glory filled the temple and Isaiah realized his condition before God and he said, Woe is me for I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Then one of the seraphim flew to me he says and having in his hand a burning cold he had taken with tongs from the altar.

He touched my mouth and he said, Behold this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. God's love is a holy love. His holiness loves and provides the holiness that is necessary for us to be in his family, be a part of what he is doing and be in fellowship with him. So we as dearly beloved children are to reflect the nature and character of our father. We are children of the father, dearly beloved by him. This harkens back to the doctrine in chapter 1 where it says that in love he predestined us to adoption. We are to reflect the father's love, the father's love toward his only son and toward all those who are in him.

So in Christ we are adopted into the family and we are dearly beloved children in Christ. Not only are we loved by the father but we are also loved by the son. In verse 2 of chapter 5 he says that we are to walk in love even as Christ has loved us and has given himself up for us and offering a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor before God.

Paul is not giving us anything new here really. He has told us that love for others is to be characteristic of who we are in Christ and that of course is something that goes all the way back in the Old Testament. When Jesus was asked about the law he summarized it with the fact that we are to love God with all that we are and we are to love others as we love ourselves. In speaking to his disciples the night before he was crucified he said, This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

John talks about this again in his letters. He says, I'm writing to you no new commandment but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. Not a new commandment but the one we have had from the beginning that we love one another. Christ gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering, a sacrifice to God and he has loved us in that way. And when we love like Christ loves we too present a fragrant offering that is pleasing to God. In Paul's letter to the Philippians he was expressing his thanks to them and his gratitude to them for the gift that they had sent by Epaphroditus and he says of their giving, It is a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And so this kind of sacrificial love is only possible for believers. We don't love like that in ourselves.

That's something that is contrary to the old self. It is this new self that we are putting on in Christ that is able to express this kind of sacrificial love. And so through Christ we can offer this kind of pleasing sacrifice to God. In fact all of our thanksgiving, our praise, our loving, all of this that we give to God is only possible through Christ and in Christ. In Hebrews chapter 13 we are told in verse 15-16, Through him, that is through Jesus, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. We express the life of Christ in us as we love as he has loved us. So we are to be imitators of God, to behave like his children. We are to love as Christ has loved us, to walk worthy of the calling that is given us and to walk in unity with our brothers. We are to walk differently in newness, this new creation that God has made when he has created us in Christ Jesus.

And we are to walk in love. And again this is made possible only by the fact that God in Christ in love has predestined us to be a part of his family, to be adopted as children. So as we come tonight to the Lord's table and are reminded of the fact that Christ has loved us and God has loved us and given us his Son, we need to be reminded that we are sons and daughters of God the Father, we are brothers and sisters of God the Son, and we are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit and through him enabled and empowered to be imitators of God, to express the character and the life of God through the way we live and manifest that new life that he has given us.

And so live like who you are, put off the old self and put on the new. Paul put it this way in chapter 4, put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Be imitators of God and walk in love even as Christ loved us.

Let's pray. Father God, you have forgiven us for Christ's sake, made us your children, your dearly beloved children. Lord Jesus, you have revealed that love in your condescension to come and live as one of us. You go to the cross, even to the point of death, abandonment by the Father, taking our sin upon you and giving us your righteousness. And Holy Spirit, you have quickened us, made us alive and applied that wonderful exchange to our hearts and lives. So Father, we pray for grace and the effectual working of your Spirit's power in us that we would live as your children, reflecting the nature, the character of our Father, the fact that you have made us partakers of your divine nature. And that by your grace, we would manifest that in our daily life as we love even as Christ loved. May it be so, we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.