Ephesians – Part 8

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Exhortation Regarding Personal Righteousness ~ Part 2

Imitate God in Love

In your public life, you may encounter situations where it’s easy to blend in with crowd behavior that doesn’t reflect Yeshua’s love. When you feel the pressure to act in ways contrary to Ephesians 5:1-20, remind yourself to live as light. This can mean standing up for ethical practices at work or showing kindness to a stranger while others are indifferent. Challenge yourself each week to perform a public act of kindness—like paying for someone’s coffee—and watch how it inspires others to act similarly.

5¹ So imitate God, as his dear children;

Believers are challenged to be imitators of God. Previously, they had been urged to learn about Yeshua (4:20–21) and not to grieve the Spirit (4:30). Believers cannot imitate God in power, knowledge, or presence, but they can imitate Him in self-sacrifice and in manifesting a forgiving spirit (4:32).

² and live a life of love, just as also the Messiah loved us, indeed, on our behalf gave himself up as an offering, as a slaughtered sacrifice to God with a pleasing fragrance.

This verse specifies the characteristic of God that the Believers should imitate. Being imitators of God means being imitators of Yeshua in His sacrificial love.

Be Morally Pure

³ Among you there should not even be mentioned sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or greed; these are utterly inappropriate for God’s holy people. ⁴ Also out of place are obscenity and stupid talk or coarse language; instead, you should be giving thanks. ⁵ For of this you can be sure: every sexually immoral, impure or greedy person—that is, every idol-worshipper—has no share in the Kingdom of the Messiah and of God.

All of God’s gifts, including sexuality in the bonds of marriage, are to be subjects for thanksgiving, not of crude joking.

⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty talk; for it is because of these things that God’s judgment is coming on those who disobey him. ⁷ So don’t become partners with them!

Viewed actively, God’s wrath is His firm, ongoing opposition to evil; He is eternally opposed to everything that is contrary to His design and His holy nature. God’s new community is to reflect the character of God’s Kingdom and the character of God’s wrath by presenting a witness against evil.

Walk As Children of Light

⁸ For you used to be darkness, but now, united with the Lord, you are light. Live like children of light, ⁹ for the fruit of the light is in every kind of goodness, rightness, and truth—

Living as children of light means adopting values that are the opposite of the surrounding culture.

¹⁰ try to determine what will please the Lord.

Discerning what is pleasing to the Lord makes duty and Believers living a delight, investing service with joy.

¹¹ Have nothing to do with the deeds produced by darkness, but instead expose them, ¹² for it is shameful even to speak of the things these people do in secret. ¹³ But everything exposed to the light is revealed clearly for what it is, ¹⁴ since anything revealed is a light. This is why it says,

“Get up, sleeper! Arise from the dead,

and the Messiah will shine on you!”

The quotation is not from the Tanakh. “Like the Essenes, the early Believers used to sing hymns at dawn in praise of the ‘Sun of Righteousness’ (cf. Malachi 4:2). [1]

Live Spirit-Filled Lives

¹⁵ Therefore, pay careful attention to how you conduct your life—live wisely, not unwisely. ¹⁶ Use your time well, for these are evil days.

These words provide a solemn warning that Believers should be wise and careful in all things, including their use of time. Our use of time is not neutral; it can be evil if it is not invested for good (Psalm 90).

¹⁷ So don’t be foolish, but try to understand what the will of the Lord is.

Understanding what the Lord’s will is summarizes the two philosophies of life described in verses 1–17. The world’s lifestyle is characterized by moral and spiritual darkness. The philosophy for Godly living is characterized by moral and spiritual light, and its goal is to imitate God and His love.

¹⁸ Don’t get drunk with wine, because it makes you lose control. Instead, keep on being filled with the Spirit—

Sha’ul’s imperatives contrast the differences between being under the influence of wine, which leads to loss of control, and being under the influence of the Ruach, which results in joyful living. The commands are plural, thus the commands refer not merely to individuals, but to the corporate community of faith.

¹⁹ sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to each other; sing to the Lord and make music in your heart to him; ²⁰ always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. [2]

The Ruach’s fullness is demonstrated in spiritual understanding, praise, and thanksgiving that are constant and comprehensive. The kehilah that is filled with the Ruach will be characterized by praise and thanksgiving to God.

In our next post, we continue to examine Sha’ul’s Letter to the Ephesians.

^[1]  David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary, Ephesians 5:14.

^[2]  Ephesians 5:1-20