"Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. 2 Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
3 Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people.4 Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God.5 You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.
6 Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. 7 Don’t participate in the things these people do. 8 For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! 9 For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.
10 Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. 11 Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. 12 It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. 13 But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, 14 for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said,
“Awake, O sleeper,
rise up from the dead,
and Christ will give you light.”"
Wow, this must be important because Paul is STILL talking about how we ought to live. It would probably be a good idea to pay attention, huh? He holds nothing back here in verse 1, saying that we should imitate God! Boy, if we were really striving to imitate God in everything and in every area of our lives, what do you think THAT would look like? I also like how Paul draws on some Old Testament theology in verse 2, calling Jesus' actions and life as a sacrifice, which was a pleasing aroma to God. I'm sure those of you who have talked at any length with me about my favorite book of the Bible, my love for the Old Testament, etc, know that when I read Paul's words here I got a little giddy, haha. =) It's crazy to think that the burnt offerings in the Old Testament were said to have produced an aroma that was pleasing to God, and here in the book of Ephesians, Paul is saying that Jesus' life did the same thing! To expand on this a little more:
- Paul just said that we are to imitate God (Jesus)
- Paul said that the way Jesus' lived was a sacrifice that produced an aroma pleasing to God
- Burn offerings and other sacrifices were acts of worship in the Old Testament that produced pleasing aromas to God
- Paul tells us in Romans 12 that the way we live our lives are our acts of worship
- Connect the dots: we should imitate Jesus' life by the way we live as our act of worship, which would then produce an aroma that's pleasing to God
Verses 3-9, to me, gives more warning of the importance of how we live our lives. The same with verses 10-14, only Paul utilized the analogies of light/dark, awake/sleep, and alive/dead.
What do you guys see?
"Father send Your Spirit to fill us anew! I pray that we wouldn't fall back into sinful practices, but that we would continue to press forward in our walk and become more like Jesus, imitating Him every step of the way. May our lives be pleasing acts of worship to You, producing an aroma that You find pleasing as well! It's in Jesus' name that I pray, amen!"
I agree with everything you stated and the only part I thought you missed was stated in verse 6. Don't be fooled by others sin, and those who try to excuse sin for what other reason. This was actually a discussion today about those who post their sin on the Internet for the world and their friends to see, just to follow the next morning with a bible verse as though they are Godly. I love this bible study more and more every day. Thanks Pat :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that buddy! =)
ReplyDelete