00:00:00:27 – 00:00:24:49
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining us. Just a little bit of housekeeping as we start will end with it as well. But we will not be live the next two days. Tuesday and Wednesday for some staff conflict schedule things. We’ll be back on Thursday. Is our plan today, though, we’re glad that you’re with us as we move into the fifth chapter of Ephesians.

00:00:24:54 – 00:00:46:48
Clint Loveall
We’re going to start small, and we may or may not end small, but we’re just going to jump into the first two verses, which, in some ways fit better with the end of chapter four than maybe they do with the beginning of chapter five. But there’s a little bit of a tough transition that happens here, and we’ll see if we get there or not, because these are wonderful verses.

00:00:46:48 – 00:01:16:16
Clint Loveall
And I think there might be a lot to be said about them. Let me read them, for you will come back to them. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, and live in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. I, I can’t think of a more intimidating phrase, Michael, than be an imitator of God.

00:01:16:21 – 00:01:58:43
Clint Loveall
You know, Paul has been giving some thoughts on behavior. You might even call them rules. There are some more to come, some pretty strict thoughts, some some pretty harsh thoughts, in some cases, with difficult instructions following. But I think fundamentally, Paul doesn’t see the Christian life as adherence to rules. He he sees it as trying to be remade, trying to be renewed and reformed by the person of Jesus Christ, and therefore this phrase be imitators of God.

00:01:58:48 – 00:02:30:54
Clint Loveall
As beloved children and love as Christ loved us. I mean, this, I think, is a wonderful reminder of how Paul envisions our discipleship and our Christian life. We are to do whatever is within us, whatever we can bring to the task, to be a reflection of of our Lord, be a reflection of Jesus. Beyond rules, beyond do’s and don’ts, beyond yeses and nos.

00:02:30:59 – 00:03:07:10
Clint Loveall
Is this simple but incredibly profound and deep calling to be Christlike and I, I think that it’s important that we understand that, because that’s Paul’s highest aspiration for Christians. And accordingly, then it should become our highest goal as well. And I don’t maybe I’m being unfair, Michael. So push back. But I, I think that the church often settles for language that’s less than this and and maybe doesn’t.

00:03:07:15 – 00:03:21:15
Clint Loveall
This is this is, you know, loose and it’s kind of abstract and maybe a little obscure and maybe it’s intimidating to us, but but this is a wonderful way for Paul to talk about the Christian life, though. Not an easy one.

00:03:21:19 – 00:03:55:51
Michael Gewecke
I actually think that this is a fault line kind of text, and it bears a lot of different tensions from a lot of different directions, and I think that that’s a really good thing, because these words are I don’t want to go so far as to say unparalleled in the New Testament, but they stand as a kind of clarion call or kind of clear, pointing forward towards the calling of what it means to be a Christ follower in a way that we don’t often see in the scriptures.

00:03:55:51 – 00:04:17:09
Michael Gewecke
And I think that’s really powerful. And so I think the context of what comes before it, the context of what’s going to follow it all does matter because it sets us up to understand the root of what is happening here in verse one, this idea that we’ve been marked by the Spirit of God, a seal of redemption. We just had that in our previous study.

00:04:17:09 – 00:04:39:48
Michael Gewecke
And then you have, you know, put away these things that are ultimately divisive to the community, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving, as Christ has forgiven you. These are relational words. Now here’s the transition therefore. And this is critical when you’re reading Paul, you got here these transition words therefore means because of this thing that came before then.

00:04:39:48 – 00:05:12:23
Michael Gewecke
Therefore this is true. Therefore be imitators of God. That’s beloved. Children live in love. So the rootedness of community, the way that we’re imitating God is reflected in our communal life. This is one of the places, Clint, I really do think that we get it wrong as the church, as we make it all about individual moralism. If you’ve got a to do list throughout the course of a day, or a measure or a rubric of all the stuff that you did, did you by and large, get most all of it, right or not?

00:05:12:25 – 00:05:43:01
Michael Gewecke
Is the measure we hold ourselves to. That’s not the measure being discussed here. The measure here is relational. Imitating God is an entirely different thing than how many things did you get right today? And even when we’re imitating God and we’re practicing love, love never exists in a vacuum. It’s always between each other. So therefore, our practice of imitating God is, by its definition, always related to the relationships we’ve been embedded in.

00:05:43:01 – 00:06:06:28
Michael Gewecke
This is an essential key understanding of where the Christian fault line between action, moralism and relational congruence with Jesus Christ is in the faith. And we are always navigating that, and we’re never going to do it perfectly. That’s okay. We’re human. That’s why grace is the thing that binds us to this task. But friends, this is our calling.

00:06:06:39 – 00:06:12:04
Michael Gewecke
And here it’s said explicitly and cleanly and clearly and I appreciate it for that.

00:06:12:09 – 00:06:39:54
Clint Loveall
I’m not sure this is going to work, but one of the challenges that this makes me think of is if you’ve parented or if you’ve been around kids, and you realize only after the fact that they are intimidating or I’m sorry they are imitating you, which is an intimidating thing, right? The the guy pulls out in front of you and you hear your son or daughter in my case say, nice blinker, idiot.

00:06:39:59 – 00:07:03:47
Clint Loveall
And you realize exactly where they got that thing. Or they make some comment at home and you and your wife gives you the side eye because it’s clear that, you have unintentionally taught your child a thing that they probably didn’t need to know. And so I think that’s a it’s a beautiful idea. What is it we learn from watching God?

00:07:03:52 – 00:07:37:48
Clint Loveall
What is it that we as followers of Christ, see when we look to our heavenly parent? And Paul’s answer is love. We we see love in Jesus Christ, who gave himself up for us. A fragrant offering, a sacrifice to God. He loved and he gave. And I don’t know if there are two better words for the heart of the Christian life through Paul’s eyes or in Paul’s heart.

00:07:37:53 – 00:08:13:55
Clint Loveall
Then love and give. I think that I think that we’re we’re orbiting very close to what Paul considers the epicenter, the center of the Christian life. We we imitate what we see in God and what we see in God is graciousness is love is a desire for people to come to know him, a desire for people to be saved, a desire for people not to be hurt by the sinfulness of them, their own hearts or the world.

00:08:13:55 – 00:08:39:47
Clint Loveall
To to be healed and to be whole and it’s this is a really, you know, again, and I’m sure I’ve done it. You could easily read by this, be imitators of God, this is that when you stop and think about that, that that’s an incredible phrase, an incredible challenge. And and really, I mean, an incredible goal for those of us who who consider ourselves Christian.

00:08:39:52 – 00:09:06:32
Michael Gewecke
I think you’re exactly right to point out the call for love and for giving that this is the to, sides of the same coin. And I think that fundamentally, where this text is going to push us is in the end, because when we’re told to live in love and then as Christ loved us, so, so the bar is that our love might reflect the love that Jesus demonstrates.

00:09:06:41 – 00:09:43:21
Michael Gewecke
You might ask yourself, well, to what extent does that love go? What does that require of me? Let’s keep going. Gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. That is therefore the bar that we’re called to reach for when we are imitators of God, and we are seeking to practice giving as we see giving in God, the extent to which we are called to practice our giving up to is the giving of ourselves, the fragrant offering and even sacrifice.

00:09:43:21 – 00:10:08:35
Michael Gewecke
And Clint, we wouldn’t want to linger here long, but over the course of Christian history, this fragrant offering and this sacrifice language has been taken up by many theologians. And there’s been lots of conversation about what is the biblical understanding of of the gift that Jesus gave for us. And and it gets very technical, and there’s a lot written about it.

00:10:08:40 – 00:10:35:11
Michael Gewecke
The point I want to make is quite simply this. When Paul thinks about what God is willing to do, it is defined by the extent of giving up for the sake of the other, and it’s a tonal construct. It’s a total idea, and we can see the ramifications of that because of the grace that’s been afforded us, because of the salvation it’s given us, because of the offering that that has been to God.

00:10:35:11 – 00:11:00:46
Michael Gewecke
And so, therefore, a reminder to us of the calling that we have to do the same. All of this, I think, should point us towards the fundamental reality that not only are we supposed to put away bitterness, wrath, anger, we are called to move towards self-giving for the sake of others, even to the point that our lives might be an offering, even to the point that our lives might be a kind of sacrifice of gratitude.

00:11:01:01 – 00:11:24:47
Michael Gewecke
Friends, this is the heavenly harmony that we’re called to live in tune with. This is the kingdom of God was how Jesus described it. When Jesus came, he not only changed the world, but he lived in such a way that we could live in a new and recreating form of that world. And so the invitation is to do it, to live in that relationship.

00:11:24:52 – 00:11:40:45
Michael Gewecke
This is in so many ways, contrary to the simple moralism that we often fall into in our faith, the stuff that we think we should do at the core, it’s who we’re called to be. That may sound semantic, but everything hangs on that difference.

00:11:40:49 – 00:12:16:54
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And I think, you know, simply stated, if you look at the construction of the text here, the implication is God was pleased with what Jesus did. Jesus loved and he gave himself, and that was a fragrant offering that was a pleasing or acceptable sacrifice to God. In other words, God was pleased with the way Jesus lived. And we are therefore to imitate that living one in the hopes that our own lives will also be a pleasant offering and an acceptable sacrifice.

00:12:16:58 – 00:12:40:03
Clint Loveall
We are to be imitators. Now Paul’s going to move on very quickly to contrast that with what God is displeased with and and with what God is unhappy with, and what God does not want for us and what we do not want for the church. And so, we will when we come back to this text and remember, that will be Thursday.

00:12:40:08 – 00:13:05:01
Clint Loveall
We’ll work hard to show you. I mean, these are these are pretty, distant bookends. We. Paul’s going to go off the right to the deep end of some of what he considers the other side of the coin, and I think that it’s a it can read a little jarring, but I think if we understand why Paul does it, it helps make it, a little more understandable.

00:13:05:06 – 00:13:31:44
Michael Gewecke
When we come to understand the theological truth that Paul is trying to communicate to these Christians in Ephesus in that region, the idea that God is still with us, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal. The day of redemption. God is as close to us as our own breath. The Spirit of God lives in you.

00:13:31:44 – 00:13:50:12
Michael Gewecke
I know that we say this I is really easy for us to pass by that. But Clint, to your previous point, if you slow down, we’ve only read two verses today, right? But if you slow down and you see these words, if you just read them, be imitators of God. Well, how could I do that? Because the Spirit of God lives in you.

00:13:50:16 – 00:14:14:19
Michael Gewecke
Well, I’m not capable of doing that. No you’re not, but his strength in you is greater than your strength to yourself. The this just the rings of reality extends far beyond this text. Yes, this is calling us to a kind of intentional following and discipleship of who God calls us to be. But it also intersects with all of these other things that we see throughout the scriptures.

00:14:14:24 – 00:14:40:00
Michael Gewecke
And if we’re willing to just for a moment, consider the gravity of it, the weight of it, the density of it, I think what we discover is that if we woke up every morning and we strove to answer the question, how will I imitate God today? If that was a task that we began each day with friends, that would be enough to carry us through a lifetime of this thing that we call faith.

00:14:40:04 – 00:14:50:55
Michael Gewecke
And there’s wisdom in allowing ourselves to sit with the small, short sentences and discover that within them is nearly endless depth.

00:14:51:00 – 00:14:57:20
Clint Loveall
Oh, one could easily spend the rest of their life trying to unpack those words and should. As a Christian.

00:14:57:25 – 00:15:07:17
Michael Gewecke
That’s what we have for you today. Grateful that we might spend some time together as did at the beginning. We’re going to be back next Thursday if you join us this Thursday. That’s right, and we look forward to seeing you. Then.