In Ephesians 5:1 Paul admonishes us to be “imitators of God as His dear children”.

 

When Paul said that we are to imitate God as “dear children” he is implying that it is the most natural thing in the world for children to imitate their parents—and because we are children of God let’s be imitators of our Heavenly Father.

 

“Okay”, you say, “but how do I do that, what does that look like?”

 

Well, one the greatest attributes of God is love—in fact the Bible doesn’t say that God has a lot of love—it says that God is love!

 

So, with that in mind, one of the greatest ways we can imitate our Heavenly Father to the people of this world is by demonstrating God’s love as His children.

You might be thinking, “What is God’s love all about—how do we define it?”

 

Well, one of the greatest expressions of God’s love is forgiveness.

 

In fact, before Paul admonishes us to be imitators of God in Ephesians 5:1—he explained what he had in mind in the last verse of Ephesians 4 when he said:

 

And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.

 

The context is this—God in Christ has forgiven you—now be imitators of God by forgiving one another.

 

And how was God able to forgive sinners?—through the sacrificial love and death of Christ.

 

And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

 

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

 

The Old Testament is filled with commandments and exhortations to love others—that’s nothing new.  But Jesus here makes it new when He says, “Love one another as I have loved you.”  

Jesus went on to explain in John 15:12-13—

 

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

 

The only way we could have experienced God’s forgiveness was by Jesus, the Son of God, going to the cross and dying for us out of His sacrificial love—that was truly what was new in the way Jesus was commanding us to love others—sacrificially.

 

The only way others will experience our forgiveness toward them is by us going to the ‘cross’ and dying to self—letting go of the hurt and anger and bitterness out of sacrificial love (God’s love).

 

 

One of the greatest evidence of love is undeserved forgiveness—just as God demonstrated toward us.  Understand, forgiveness isn’t earned it’s bestowed—we choose to forgive and offer it freely!

 

The supreme act of God’s love was to give “His only begotten Son to a world of unworthy, undeserving sinners, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

 

God’s sacrificial love made forgiveness toward man possible.

 

 

Imitating His love is possible because “…the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5).

 

The love of God was given to us when we got saved and the Holy Spirit came to live inside of us. The only way we can become imitators of God is through the power of the Holy Spirit—we are totally dependent on His Spirit to become like Him.

 

That is why we need “to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man” in order to “be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16, 19).

 

And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

 

Paul compares Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to the Old Testament “sweet-aroma” sacrifices that were presented at the altar of the temple.  The sweet-aroma offerings are described in Leviticus 1–3; the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering.

 

The idea behind “sweet-aroma” is simply that the sacrifice is well-pleasing to God—even as Paul is saying here that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was well pleasing to God.

 

And likewise, it is well pleasing to God when we die to self and show others the kind of selfless, sacrificial love that Jesus showed us when He went to the cross and died so that we, as undeserving, guilty sinners, might have forgiveness from God.

 

Just as the depth of God’s love is shown by how much He has forgiven us, the depth of our love is shown by how much we forgive others.

 

And above all things have fervent love for one another…

 

The Greek word behind “fervent” refers to a muscle stretched to the limit as when an athlete trains or competes. Sometimes exercising Christian love is not going to feel very pleasant—sometimes it may even hurt because it stretches us beyond our human limits.

 

Christian love is something we have to work at, the same way an athlete works on their skills.

‘Work at’ in the sense that we must allow the Holy Spirit to “train” us in the use of God’s love by bringing difficult people into our lives that force us to exercise God’s love.

 

As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount—it’s easy to love those who love us (that doesn’t even take God’s supernatural love), but loving our enemies will require God’s agape love! And listen, it’s not a matter of emotional feelings (“how can I love my enemies when I have no feelings for them?”)—it’s a matter of obedience to what God has said in showing His love to others.

 

In the Christian life feelings don’t come before obedience—we obey and show God’s love to others and then feelings will follow.  When we understand that exercising God’s love is not a feeling but an act of obedience then we will understand how it’s possible for us to love and forgive people that are even our enemies.

 

And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.”

 

Peter is not telling us to condone the sins of others but to cover the sins that others commit against us. It means that God’s love in us is able to overlook the faults and failures of others, especially when they are directed at us.

 

In fact this is not voluntary—it is mandatory—we are commanded to forgive others—“even as God through Christ loved and has forgiven us”. Love does not condone sin; for, if we love someone, we will be grieved to see them sin and rob themselves of God’s best for their life (not to mention the pain their sin will often bring to them and those they love).

 

Again, love does not condone sin—rather, love covers sin.  In that love motivates us to hide the sins others have committed against us and not spread them around through retaliation and revenge in the form of gossip and slander.

 

A talebearer reveals secrets, But he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter.

He who covers a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates friend