Imitating God by loving people

As I was reading Ephesians 4 and 5 this morning, something jumped out at me. The wisdom about how to live a life worthy of the calling we have received is at the same time deeply powerful and intensely practical.

To begin to mine the depths of this wonderful calling, we must carefully understand the first three chapters of Ephesians. There is an amazing family inheritance for us given by an amazing God; we have an amazing hope and we belong to an amazing Body with an amazing Head. Really, embracing these truths will absolutely blow you away…it’s amazing!

So after those three elevated chapters about how awesome our new life in Christ really is, you might expect that the directive about how to live that life would be full of elegant platitudes and lofty principles—instead the counsel is very practical. Chapter 4 says because of what we have been called to be, what we need to do is love people.

It says: Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient. Bear with one another in love.  Make every effort to live in unity. Serve one another to build others up.

And it doesn’t stop there. Later we are told to take off the things we used to ‘wear’ and put on the ‘clothes’ that reflect the life to which we have been called—Take off falsehood and instead speak truthfully to our neighbors. Stop stealing and instead work to have something to give away to the needy. Don’t speak in an unwholesome way, but instead only use words that are helpful for building others up to meet their needs and for their benefit. Don’t do things that bring hurt (bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, malice), but instead be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving someone when they have done something that would cause bitterness, rage, etc.

And here is the key: We do those things as imitators of God. We forgive others because in Christ God forgave us. We love others with everything we’ve got because we are dearly loved children of God. We live a life of sacrifice because Christ gave his life up for us.

Imitating God by loving people results in staying away from sexual immorality, impurity, greed, obscenity, foolish talk and coarse joking. Those kind of things don’t build others up; they only tear people and relationships apart. And they tear our own souls apart, too. We were not designed to—nor were we saved to—live like that.

However, it’s very important that we know this is not simply a checklist of things we can and can’t do as believers, but it is a masterful painting of what a full-of-God person who lives a life of love really looks like. If this doesn’t look like us, we don’t need to try harder to conform; instead we return to the source of our life, and make sure we are plugged in well.

And from John 15: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit…when you obey my commandments you remain in my love…this is my commandment: Love each other in the same way as I have loved you.”