Two themes that have been coming up lately are the concepts of being worthy of God’s love and living in freedom. I have spent a lot of time these last few days marinating in Ephesians 5:1. (Isn’t marinating such a great word! I get to soak it in and be changed by it, much chicken and Italian dressing). This post is a little scattered but I guarantee it is worth reading. I hope you are as encouraged by this as I am.
As dearly loved children—One way to translate “dearly loved children” is “a child worthy of love”. I like this translation better because it bears more weight. As a believer, I am a child worthy of God’s love. God’s love is not dependent on anything other than my being His child. There is a gentleness to this verse because it is a Father speaking this over His children.
Be imitators of God— When we imitate someone it is because we find something in them we want in our lives. We imitate the people we are around. As a small group leader I’ve gotten to see this in some of the girls I mentor. We were worshiping together and I noticed they were worshipping the same way I worship. When I am around the women I look up to I notice I copy things such as their hand motions or the pattern of their speech. I want to be like them so I follow what they do. This is what it means to be a disciple. We follow and copy the person we admire. God is asking us to do the same to him. We are to copy His mannerisms, His speech, His love, His forgiveness.
Right after this verse Paul gives an example of how to pattern our life after God. “Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Here he is dealing with the outward actions we have toward others. Then Paul gets to the nitty-gritty of the heart. “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.” He includes in this our speech.
Much like I can tell if there is a hint of garlic in my food, so God can see when there is even a hint of sexual immorality in my life. To properly image God, I need this to be cleaned out of my heart. We image God by seeking after Him and continually asking Him for a renewed heart and a renewed mind. We seek Him and healing comes. It is not something we can do on our own. I can try to change my thought patterns but it is only through Christ’s redemption that I can be free from that. It is a battle. This is not something Satan and the demons will let us give up without a huge fight. He comes to steal, kill and destroy (Jn 10:10). These are not passive words. They are words of action and attack. He will not deal lightly with us so we should not deal lightly with our sin. But as the rest of John 10:10 says, Jesus came that we may have life and have it to the full. He came so we could have freedom.
When the attacks do come, make sure you do not label them as God’s conviction of your sin for there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. God does not condemn those who are truly His (Ro 8:1). He will, however, confront us about our sin because He wants us to become more and more like Him. He has a soft and gentle voice (1 Ki 19:12, read the whole story). His is the quiet whisper into our soul that brings healing. His conviction is gentle and not oppressive.
Redemption through Love
Going back to Ephesians 5:1, the type of love used in this verse is agape love. In the Gospels, this word is only used to describe God’s love for Jesus. Then in Romans 1:7 we see this used of Christians: “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.” Paul frequently uses this type of love to describe God’s love for us. He made the connection that when we are true believers God sees Christ in us, and He loves us just as He loves Christ. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor 5:17). The next several verses are phenomenal:“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them... We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain... I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 5:18-6:2).
When our first parents sinned against God, mankind’s perfect relationship with God was broken. But God was not content to leave it like that. He made a way for reconciliation to occur. He sent His Son to Earth to bring about healing and restoration and reconciliation. Everywhere Jesus went we see Him restoring from brokenness. The blind would see, the lame would walk, the dead would rise. Brokenness was healed.
Then Jesus did the ultimate healing. He died and rose from the dead conquering death and sin! No one but God can do that. Now we can be restored to God. That broken relationship we had with God does not have to be our reality anymore. “If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn 1:9). “If you confess with your mouth Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved... Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Ro 10:9, 13).
We do not have to live in slavery to sin. We do not have to be controlled by shame or bitterness or envy. This is why Paul is so urgently appealing to the Corinthians to be reconciled to Christ. It is so much better to live in freedom. “It is for freedom that Christ set us free” (Gal 5:1)! We find life in Jesus (Jn 5:40). He came so that we may “have life and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10). What amazing promises!
God's Faithfulness
Because of God’s faithfulness we can trust these promises. The Bible is full of stories of God’s faithfulness and man’s failure to trust His faithfulness. I was listening to a podcast yesterday and the pastor said, “Your eyes are telling you, you are alone but your God is telling you he will never leave you nor forsake you. You are asking for wisdom, do you believe He will be faithful and give you wisdom? Is there ever a time when He is not faithful?”
Young mothers brag about their baby’s first steps and not the number of times their baby fell. When we learn something new, the main focus of our talk is on the time we succeeded. Though we will bring up some of our big failures they only make our success that much more victorious. We learn from our failures so we are better able to succeed. Similarly God focuses on the times when we trust Him and He celebrates those. Some of these moments are celebrated in the faith chapter.
So keep on persevering; you will keep falling down but you will get better at trusting God and following His voice. God is faithful and He will keep His promises. “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged” (Dt 31:8). He is faithful.
