Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. Ephesians 5:1 HCSB
When Paul tells the Ephesians to imitate God, it’s something we should strive to do, but what does it mean to imitate God? Paul elaborates in the following verses.
In verse 2 he instructs us to walk in love as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.
In verse 3 he warns that sexual immorality and any impurity should be unheard of among us as is proper for the saints. In case you didn’t know the saints refers to those of us who follow Christ and have accepted Him as our Lord and Savior.
In verse 4 he goes on to say coarse and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather we should be giving thanks.
In verse 5 he wants us to understand that every person who is sexually immoral, impure, greedy or who is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God.
These verses tell us we should love as Christ loved us and tells us what types of behavior to avoid. There are other things we must also consider.
I want to start out by saying the only way we can truly imitate someone is to get to really know them. We must have an intimate knowledge of who they are and how they behave. When an actor is playing the role of another person, they must study that person.
They must know their personality, their mannerisms, their beliefs, how they walk and talk. To imitate God, we must get to know God on a personal level. We do this through Bible study. We study His characteristics. We mimic them.
We know from Genesis 1:27 God made us in His image. He created us to be in close fellowship with Him, but He give us free will to choose.
We also must be careful not to follow man. It’s easy these days to become distracted. This is why we must focus on God (Matthew 6:33). We must pray for wisdom and discernment (James 1:5). King Solomon pleased God greatly when God offered to give him anything he asked for and he asked for wisdom (1 Kings 3:1-15).
Solomon prayed for an obedient heart and discernment. God gave him a wise and understanding heart. We should pray for the same.
Imitating Christ or imitating God means handling situations as He handled them. So let’s look at how Jesus handled some tough situations.
When a crowd tried to draw Jesus into the stoning of a woman caught committing adultery in John 8:7, Jesus answered, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”
When they tried to trick Jesus by asking which was the greatest of the commandments, He answered with Deuteronomy 6:7, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. He followed up by saying the second greatest commandment is to love others as you love yourself.
When He faced the most difficult time of His earthly life, the crucifixion, He prayed for God to remove it from Him in Luke 22:42 but also prayed that God’s will be done. He was obedient even to the point of death on the cross (Philippians 2:8).
Jesus said we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. He set the example for us in Luke 23:34 when He prayed for those persecuting Him, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
As a new year approaches, you may be wanting to make some changes. You may want to eat less and exercise more. You may want to get organized. You may want to read through the entire Bible.
The most important thing we can do is to imitate God. I encourage you to resolve to imitate God. Be more like Jesus. Love like Jesus loves. Forgive like Jesus forgives. Trust in Him.
And if you truly want to imitate Christ, don’t forget you must start by learning all there is to know about Him. Study His word, pray continually. Develop a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him. You will be so glad you did.
Have a great day!