Have you ever read Ephesians 5:1 where the writer Paul says "Therefore be imitators of God, as dearly loved children?" Recently our church has been walking through the book of Ephesians and I can't stop thinking about that one verse. Imitating God can be intimidating, am I right? I mean, how the heck are we suppose to copy and do everything God does? He's God and well I for sure am not. But I've come to realize there are two words in the verse that help us understand how we can do just that.
The first word that sticks out to me is the word "therefore". It is placed at the beginning of this verse to remind us to look at this verse in light of what has already been said by Paul in the chapters previously. Paul has said a lot that would take time to explain, but here are just a few highlights. God has: chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven and sealed us with the promised Holy Spirit. Who has he done this for? Ephesians 5:1 tells us that it is his “dearly loved children” which is the second word that stands out to me. Who are his children? They are those who have accepted Jesus' payment on the cross for their sins and have committed their lives to following Him.
So when Paul says “therefore be imitators of God”, we can be encouraged that God hasn't left us to ourselves to figure out how to do that. He left us the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us as we follow Him. The only way to imitate someone is to spend time with them and I'm thankful God has given us the Bible to study, the Holy Spirit to guide and prayer to communicate in order to imitate God as his “dearly loved children”.
Don't be intimidated by the task of imitating God. Matthew 11:29-30 should encourage you because Jesus says “Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Don’t let following Jesus be a burden for He has removed that burden and placed it on himself. Our response to what he has done should be to “Go Live Inspired!”
Pastor Ben