Be Imitators of God

PRAYER PRACTICE

Spoken Prayer – Out loud, pray for God to speak to you through your reading. Praise God for giving us His word. Ask the Spirit to help you read with faith, and to live out what you hear from God through the passage.

DAILY READING

Ephesians 5:1-8

 

DEVOTION / REFLECTION

Be Imitators of God

by Pr. Dave Mann

 

“Be imitators of God.”  Wow!  What an incredible challenge!  Is that even possible?

 

But notice that this challenge in verse 1 is nuanced with the phrase “as beloved children.”  All of us have seen young children, who are in a healthy, close relationship with their parents, try to imitate Mom or Dad.  As we watch young children trying to be just like their dad or mom, we recognize that they are not really able to accomplish the goal.  Nevertheless, the intent of imitation reveals their love relationship.  The children are growing in the pattern and life-style of their parents because they long to be like them.

 

What do we long to become?  Verse 2 gives us the pattern of the heart of God – to walk in love, just like Christ.  This means that we live in a way where we give ourselves self-sacrificially to others.  We share our time, our finances, our attention with others so that they can grow and see the light of Christ.

 

Verses 3 and 4 list the behaviors that lead away from Christ – sexual immorality, impurity, greed, obscenity, foolish talk, coarse joking, etc.  Behaviors such as these damage life in at least two ways.  They hurt others who are with us, especially those in our families.  And they also hurt us.  When we engage in such actions, we allow the image of God in us to be distorted.

 

Then at the end of verse 4, we are presented with a positive characteristic of what it means to imitate God – thanksgiving.  To be grateful for all the good things that others have done for us is a key part of imitating the Lord.  We recognize that the good in us exists because of what others and God have invested in us.  As we imitate God and are changed progressively into the image of Christ, we find ourselves thanking God and others often.

 

The final verse of our text is just as amazing as the first verse – “you are now light in the Lord.”  Jesus not only stated, “I am the light of the world (John 8:12),” but he also declared, “You are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).”  As we imitate our heavenly Father as children who live in a love relationship with him, we become light as Christ is light.  Only God could pull off this transforming miracle.

 

 O heavenly Father, thank you for the assurance that I am dearly loved by you, despite my faults.  I desire to be like you, like Christ who gave himself self-sacrificially.  Help me to abandon any behaviors which lead me astray.  Allow your heart of gratitude to take root in my heart and to bear good fruit.  In Jesus’ name, Amen!