EPHESIANS 5:1

The Bible says in Ephesians 5:1, “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.” Human beings are followers. That is why the Bible often compares people to sheep, and sheep are notorious for being followers. That is why just one shepherd can lead an entire flock of sheep. No one is an island. We all learn from each other. Our customs, our attitudes, our habits: a great deal of what each of us is, has come from following someone or something outside of ourselves. Be careful whom you follow. Whom you follow will determine where you end up. The word that is translated “followers” literally means “mimickers.” You want to learn to copy God. What would Jesus do? What kind of a being is God? What motivates Him? What is His interest and what is His purpose? Find out what that is and try to copy it. This verse is a great reminder of exactly whom we should be following: God.

The verse also reminds us of why we should be following God. The first reminder comes from the little word “therefore.” It refers back to the previous verse, Ephesians 4:32, that says, “…forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Because of God’s grace through Christ we are forgiven. God’s grace refers to the fact that we do not deserve or in any way earn God’s favor or God’s forgiveness but He gives it anyway through Christ and because of Christ in spite of our sins and failures. The emphasis is on Jesus and on what He has done for us. I want to follow God, not because I think that I will some day be good enough to earn His favor, but because of the favor that He has already bestowed upon me through Jesus and because of Jesus. I owe everything to Him because of the grace and mercy that He has already bestowed upon me.

Another reason for following God is given in Ephesians 5:1. This verse calls believers “dear children.” It means literally “beloved children.” If you are one of God’s children, God loves you with His great eternal love. The greatest Being to the greatest degree loves you with the greatest love ever known. That should motivate you more than anything else to do things His way: to be a follower of God. “We love Him, because He first loved us.”

Several more verses in Ephesians chapter 5 continue with this theme of following God and making it a goal to be like God. Ephesians 5:2 says, “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor.” Notice carefully that verse one said to be a follower of God, and then verse two says that Jesus is the one that we should attempt to be like. How can the Bible tell us to follow God and then tell us to follow Jesus? Jesus is God. Remember that when Jesus was born into this world, He was given the name Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” Jesus Himself said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” The way to have a relationship with God is to have a relationship with Jesus. The way to talk to God is to talk to Jesus. The way to follow God is to follow Jesus.

Ephesians 5:1-2 makes it very clear what is the most important characteristic of following God: love. Verse one says that we are beloved children. Ephesians 4:15 told us to speak the truth in love, and now Ephesians 5:2 tells us to “walk in love.” Our walk refers to everything that we do in life. Your walk refers to your life-style, your choices, and your behaviors. It refers to the person that you are in this world and everything that you do. It should be characterized by love. If you give your body to be burned and have not love, you are nothing.

Jesus is the great example of how to love. Jesus loved both God and man. The greatest commandment is to love God with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength. The second greatest commandment is like unto the first: to love thy neighbor as thyself. No one can say that they love God, and then not love his neighbor. Jesus said that we should even love our enemies. He did. He was crucified, and then prayed while hanging on the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Notice what Ephesians 5:2 says that Jesus did because of His love. It says that he “has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God.” To love is to give. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son…”

Jesus gave himself “for us,” and He gave himself “to God.” We know what it means when it says that He gave Himself for us. He died in our place. He took our sins upon Him. By His stripes we are healed. Notice carefully the phrase “an offering and a sacrifice to God.” Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb. We are told very clearly from the Old Testament what that is all about. The blood of the lambs was for the expiation of sin. It was all about the sin problem. Man is a sinner, and God is a just Judge who must punish sin. How can God punish sin, but receive man? The answer is to have a sacrifice: one who is punished in man’s place. Jesus was that sacrifice. Notice also that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross is called “a sweetsmelling savour.” If you had a son, you would wish your son to be saved from judgment and condemnation. That would be your prayer and your hope. But God gave up His Son, and that sacrifice of His Son was to Him “a sweetsmelling savor.” How much it pleased the Father that the Son gave Himself for sinful mankind. How much that proves that God loves us. No wonder that we can be assured that we are totally and completely accepted by God. We have full assurance of faith and eternal security because of His great sacrifice. No wonder that we are told to walk in love: we remember His great love with which He loved us.

What happens to those who do not conduct their life after the example of the great love of Christ? Ephesians 5:3 says, “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints.” There are three things stated very clearly here that should never be named among believers in Christ. But before we look at those three things let’s look at why those three things should not be named among believers. The last phrase of the verse says, “as becometh saints.” You are already a saint, not because of what you have done, but because of what Jesus did for you on the cross of Calvary.

The day that I bowed before Jesus and asked Him to forgive me of all my great sins, He made me a saint: one of His holy ones. That is my new nature. That is the new creation that He gave me: holiness. When He sees me, He sees my new man: forgiven and holy. Even though from a practical standpoint it is not true, it is true as far as my standing before God is concerned. One day He will call me to heaven. In a twinkling of an eye, the old man will be left in the dust, and the new man will be with Him forever. Because I am a saint, I should do the things that saints do. Everyone knows that true saints do not commit fornication or any other sexual sin. The phrase “all uncleanness” refers to all sexual sins. God designed sex, but only for husband and wife in marriage. “The bed in marriage is undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

According to Ephesians 5:3 there are three things that saints should not ever have named among them: fornication, all uncleanness, and covetousness. Notice the third one in this list: covetousness. Most Christians understand the grave error and the shameful error of fornication and uncleanness; but how many have that same attitude towards covetousness? Covetousness is the one great sin that is at the root of all other sins. There are Christian leaders who commit the sin of covetousness every day, and they seem to have no shame. They will have shame at the judgment. Covetousness is human selfishness. Covetousness is that strong human desire that can motivate you to do whatever. To some people the Christian organization that they are in is the corporate ladder that they are climbing, and they will step on people’s backs to climb it just like the people of the world. Why? Covetousness. Covetousness is the reason that people commit fornication. They are thinking of their own physical gratification. But Jesus is merciful. If you have tasted of His love that He gave to you, then make sure that you are a giver of yourself and not a taker. Do not be covetous.

Ephesians 5:3 speaks of the correct use of your body, if you are to live the life of a saint. Ephesians 5:4 goes back to the same idea and also speaks of the correct use for your tongue. It says, “Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.” The first word in this list is “filthiness.” It means literally that which is shameful or base or disgraceful. In other words it is a general term that refers to any kind of behavior that is less than optimal. The Christian should always take the high ground, the straight way, and the narrow path. The second thing in the list, “foolish talking,” is much more specific. It emphasizes once again the fact that there is a right way of talking and a wrong way of talking. The wrong way is called “foolish” talking. This is the kind of talking that unwise people engage in. Have you ever heard anyone say something that caused problems either for themselves or for someone else, and then you realized that the whole problem was because of foolish talking. Go to God for wisdom, and ask Him to keep you from such errors. God can give you wise words instead of foolish words.

Can we be more specific about what is foolish talking? Perhaps the next thing named in Ephesians 5:4 will help us to do so. It says that Christians should avoid “jesting.” There is a certain kind of joking around that should not be done by Christians. This is not just talking about lewd jokes, which should obviously be avoided, but this is talking about any kind of joking around. Christianity is involved with the most serious of all matters: of life and death, or heaven and hell, and of good and evil. These are not matters to joke around about. Jesus did not tell jokes. Also, when you tell jokes, you can easily offend people, and easily cross the line of that which is appropriate.

If a Christian should not have foolish talking or jesting, then what kind of talking should be characteristic of a Christian? The last part of Ephesians 5:4 makes that clear. It says, “but rather giving of thanks.” The giving of thanks is tied directly to the faith that you have in the Lord Jesus and in His Word. If I have faith, then I can be thankful at all times and for all things. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose.” If I have faith, then there is always hope that things will change for the better no matter what bad things have happened to me because Jesus said, “With God all things are possible.” If I have faith, I can face any challenge and any responsibility because the Bible says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

In Ephesians 5:5 the Bible turns to the warning against sexual sins and says, “For this you know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” Of course, back in verse 3 the Bible said that fornication and uncleanness should not be named even once among believers in Christ. Notice carefully the difference between verse three and verse five. Verse three is saying that the individual acts of fornication or uncleanness should not be named among the saints; but it is the saints that it is talking about. They are saints because of Jesus, and their destiny is heaven. They may have committed an act that they should not have committed, but they are still a saint. What really defines who they are is their saintliness. Because they are saints, they should be living the lives of saints. But in verse 5 we are being told about people who are not saints. They are not only committing acts of sexual perversion, but the only way of describing them is to say that they are sexually perverted people. They are not saints, and therefore they have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. They keep on committing these sinful acts because it is their ongoing lifestyle. They have never repented.

And so the Bible gives every possible reason for believers to avoid acts of sexual perversion and immorality. There is no logical reason to commit such acts. You are already a saint. Therefore, only do the things that saints do. Those who are not saints are fornicators in one way or another and they are not going to heaven, so do not do the things that they do. If there are so many good reason not to commit shameful acts, then why do people do them? The principle reason is because of strong selfish desires. That is why verse three speaks of “covetousness,” and why verse five speaks of a “covetous” person. At the root of sexual immorality is human selfishness. Any human being who is largely motivated by their own personal willfulness increases the possibility of committing acts of sexual immorality. They want what they want for their own personal gratification, not caring what effect their actions may have on others. It is interesting that Ephesians 5:5 also points out that such a covetous person is an “idolater.” We understand why such a covetous person is an idolater. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength. To be full of covetousness is to love one’s self and one’s owns desires. Such a person is an idolater because they should be giving all of their love to God and not to themselves.

No wonder the Bible says that such persons will not have “any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” If that is your condition, make sure that you turn to Christ while you still have time.

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