Most people have at least one person in their lives that they respect and admire. Some may even call them a hero. As Christians we can certainly admire people but they are not to be our standard for living. God not only provided Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, He is to be our standard of living, our Hero and our Master. Jesus is our model to follow in life as He truly is our plumb line (see Isaiah 28:17).
In conjunction with being kind, compassionate and forgiving (from previous chapter and verse), Paul amplifies the concept of Christian behavior by encouraging us to be imitators of God, as a child would imitate a loving Father. He tells us that we should walk in love, loving others just as Jesus loves us. Then suddenly in verse three, Paul seemingly takes on a different persona, like a parent turning to their child with a finger extended waving madly while essentially saying, “sexual immorality or covetousness will not be tolerated!” Why is Paul making such an emotional plea? The answer is simple; he does not want any Christian to fail!
Paul is calling our attention to how serious some issues really are. Unlike the “lesser sins” listed in the previous chapter that primarily affects our ability to maintain relationships and witness to others, Paul warns us that these issues can seriously affect our relationship with God. Sins such as sexual immorality and idolatry not only prevent us from enjoying the presence of God they can also slowly erode who we are, minimizing our ability to discern right from wrong. If we lose our discernment we can then be easily persuaded to join the ranks of those who take pleasure in disobeying God.
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Is it possible to imitate God? While we certainly could never follow an act like God’s, we can imitate God in many ways beginning with love followed by kindness, humility, meekness, patience and of course peace all things we see we are all given as fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-26). These are all attributes of Jesus that, through the example of His life, be able to imitate.
As discussed in Chapter 14 (see also Romans 14:13-19; Colossians 3:14 and John 13:34-35), the word ‘walk’ used in this context is a reference to our everyday life, not something special or unique. If we “walk in love” we will always be more concerned for others than for ourselves. Paul amplifies this further by asking us to, “walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” (see also John 15:12-17; 10:11; Romans 5:6-11; Galatians 1:3-5 and 2:20-21). We are to love like Jesus who died for us, which means we need to be willing to give up everything we have, including life itself, for the sake of someone else. Jesus told us that there was no greater way to demonstrate our love for someone else (see John 15:13). But does that mean we are to just give our life away? Paul might interject, saying that he really no longer lives, but it is Christ that lives in him (see Galatians 2:20). Life is precious and valuable, life is not to be discounted and arbitrarily given or thrown away. Life in Christ has purpose, as Christians our purpose is to help others find purpose. To do that, we are to walk in the kind of love that makes a difference.
An offering is something that is done for the Lord above and beyond our normal giving (in the Old Testament, an offering would be above the tithe and any temple tax or other assessments). A fragrant offering is an offering that is particularly pleasing to God (see also Genesis 8:20-21; 2 Corinthians 2:15 and Philippians 4:18).
In the Book of Romans, Paul says that, “God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin.” (Romans 3:25a, NLT) So what does Paul mean when he says here in Ephesians that we should be like Jesus and be a, “sacrifice to God?” (see also Leviticus 22:17-33; Romans 12:1-2; Hebrews 7:27 and 10:1-18) In the Old Testament sacrifices were given to God for a number of reasons (atonement for unintentional sin, cleansing from defilement, restitution as required, worship and expression of gratitude) and there were a number of types (including burnt offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, freewill offerings and guilt offerings, see the first seven chapters of Leviticus). In the New Testament Paul connects the Old Testament worship of giving sacrifices to our obedience to God. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1-2, ESV) As Christians we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices as Jesus’ death was the final sin offering. So what are we sacrificing? We are sacrificing our previous way of life in order to be obedient to God, that is our spiritual worship! Paul says Christians are not to be involved with sexual immorality, nor anything impure and never to be greedy, in fact we are not even to talk about these things, we should never engage in any conversation that relates to any sin or offense to God. Jesus and the epistle writers regularly caution believers to be careful about what we say (read Matthew 12:33-37; Luke 6:43-45; Ephesians 4:29; James 1:26; 2:12; 3:2-11 and 4:11). As Christians we should always watch what we say, not only in public, but at all times. Our speech reveals what is important to us and it exposes what is on our hearts. Paul said near the end of chapter four that we are not to allow any corrupting (worthless) talk out of our mouths and now he adds that we are not to have any filthiness (obscenities), foolish talk or crude jokes (see Ephesians 4:29). Jesus offers this explanation, “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person…what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” (Matthew 15:11, 18-20 ESV)
Paul gives us practical advise on what we should be talking about, he advises that we should be giving thanks, something he regularly lists when he writes about prayer (see also Philippians 4:6; Colossians 2:7 and 1 Timothy 2:1-7). In Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth he extends that by saying we should we should also be involved in things that bring thanksgiving to God (see 2 Corinthians 9:11-12). If we focus on the giver, we can be better ambassadors for Him.
Paul connects the issues of being an idolator to that of the heart being greedy and covetous (see also Deuteronomy 8:17; Job 31:24-28; Psalms 96:5; 115:4-8; Mark 10:24-25; 1 Corinthians 6:9 and Colossians 3:5). An idolater can be someone who admires something or someone so intensely that they or it becomes the center of their attention and is worshipped. A greedy person admires money and the strongly desires to gather more wealth making them an idolater in God’s eyes. Anything that makes us take our eyes off God is both wrong and evil. Paul in his first letter to Timothy said, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Timothy 6:10, ESV) We should remember from Chapter 17 that Jesus also said that man cannot serve both Him and money (see Matthew 6:24).
Paul returns to the subjects of sexual immorality, impurity and covetousness in verse five and says that if anyone who practices these, “has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” (see also Galatians 3:18 and Hebrews 9:15) Paul is saying if one is sexually immoral, impure or covetous they are an idolater and they have no inheritance in heaven, as these desires and lusts can also become our idols preventing us from following Jesus. Paul pointed out earlier in verse three that Christians are not to be involved with these sins and should never engage talking about them and now in verse six, Paul Is warning us to not listen to anyone that says that this behavior is acceptable.
Paul knows how easy it is to fall into temptation and follow someone who might offer a new and different perspective, particularly something that may be appealing. He warns us to not to be deceived! (see also Colossians 2:8) How do we prevent from being deceived? By knowing the Word of God and understand it well enough to not fall for any empty words. The phrase, “empty words” means exactly that, they carry no meaning offering empty promises.
Who does the wrath of God come upon and why is Paul mentioning them here? The wrath of God comes on those who do not believe or have faith in Jesus’ offer of salvation and continue to disobey God. Paul is reminding us that there are some who will attempt to pull you away from God. Here he is calling them the, “sons of disobedience” and they will face the wrath of God (see also Romans 1:16-19; 5:9-11 and Colossians 3:5-11).