Please turn with me this evening in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians, the book of Ephesians chapter 5. Our text for this evening will be Ephesians 5 verses 1 and 2, but we'll begin reading at 4 verse 32 and read all the way to 5 verse 8. So, Ephesians chapter 4, beginning at verse 32. This is the Word of God. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or of any kind of impurity or of greed because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure, no immoral, impure, or greedy person, such a man is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, do not be partners with them. For once, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. So ends the reading of the word of God this evening. Let us turn to our Lord in prayer. Lord, we thank you for your holy word and we thank you for the truths it imparts to us. And we ask that you would speak to us, Lord, nourishing us through the power of your Holy Spirit and illuminate the text for us this evening. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. One of the key things I want to focus on in this text comes to us in 5 verse 2. And it's important to point out right away because in our NIVs it says to live a life of love. It has a nice alliteration, a very nice sound to it. But most simply put, what Paul says is walk in love. The verb there is walk. I think that's an important thing to note as we look at this text. We are told to walk in love. Because that phrase takes on a lot of meaning, so it makes sense that the translators would want to make it more specific to live a life of love. But I want us to take a moment and think about how we use the term walk. It's a broad term with a lot of meaning. It can have very trivial meanings. To take the dog for a walk. I'm a big baseball fan. When the batter receives four balls, he walks to first. But it can be also used in very grave circumstances, serious circumstances. Speaking of a prisoner walking the green mile. Or if a criminal is set free, you say the criminal walked. So with all these different definitions, how can we most easily break down what it means to walk? Well, the walk is to go from point A to point B. Most simply put, that is what it is to walk. And here Paul tells us to walk. And it's not an odd term to use throughout the whole of Scripture. In the Old Testament, we're told about Abraham walking to find a new land in Genesis 13. In Exodus 16, verse 4, the Israelites walked long in the desert. But in Leviticus 18, we find the most common use of this verb, to walk, where it speaks of walking in the ways of the Lord. And this is the most common use, and this is the use that the New Testament picks up, or Paul more specifically picks up. The idea of walking in the Lord, walking in His ways, walking in the faith. In Galatians 5.16, He tells us to walk by the Spirit. In Colossians 1.10, He says to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. And in 2 Corinthians 5, we are told, we walk by faith, not sight. And in Ephesians, it is no different. In the first three chapters of Ephesians, if you break down the book, Paul really sets up the hope we have in the first three chapters, verses 1 through 3. He talks about the hope we have in Christ and sets it before us. And then from chapter 4 to the end, he tells us how we are to live in this hope. Beloved, we are to walk. In 4 verse 1, he tells us to walk in a worthy manner. In 4 verse 17, to not walk as the Gentiles. In 5 verse 8, to walk as children of the light. And in 5.15, to walk, not as the unwise, but as the wise. So in chapters 5, verses 1 and 2, we are told once again to walk. We are told to walk in love. And it's not a vague command that he just gives to us. It would be easy to take this in a number of ways, but Paul tells us exactly what this walk is to look like. First, it is a walk that looks to its model. And secondly, it is a walk that clings to its motivation. So first we see the model of this walk. And the model of the walk that Paul sets forth in these first two verses of chapter 5 is none other than the Father and the Son. Our model is God Almighty. So first we see that this model is the Father. The Father is the first model given. And we see this when Paul very simply states, be imitators of God. This is a very simple statement that we can gloss over very quickly, but it doesn't appear like this anywhere else in the New Testament. It's a very unique statement to be told to be imitators of God. A few times Paul tells his readers to be imitators of me in 1 Corinthians 4 and 11. He tells them, be imitators of me. But we don't often see him saying to be imitators of God. And here most clearly what he's meaning is to be imitators indeed of the Father. Because often in Ephesians when Paul refers to God, he is referring to the Father. In 1 verse 2, 4.13 and 6.23, when he uses the term God, he's referring to the Father, that person of the Trinity. And I missed this in the first time I read this. Because it's an odd idea to some degree. Because we hear all the time, and rightfully so, that we are to model our lives after Jesus Christ. After all, he was fully God and fully man, like we are. So to hear that we are to imitate the Father can rub us the wrong way, and rightfully so. Because we would never want to make the claim that we ourselves are becoming like God. But when you think of it, beloved, it makes perfect sense that we are to imitate our Father in heaven. It's a very natural thing for us to imitate our fathers. I've had the opportunity to preach in a number of churches, and I've been told more than a few times that I imitate my Father. Maybe the most striking note or mannerism is that I go up on my toes a lot, like he tends to, even though I don't have the same necessity to do it for his reasons of height. But it's a very natural thing for us to imitate our fathers. And what we see, what we need to be careful about then, is to know exactly what we mean when we say we are imitating our Father in heaven. Well, Paul explains that throughout the rest of this text. And he tells us that we imitate our Father in the fact that we are created in the image of our Father. So just as he is holy and righteous and blameless and upright, we are to take these communicable attributes of our Father and live lives in that way. And he fleshes this out in the following verses. He refers to sexual impurity, covetousness, greed, foolish talk. And ultimately, what all these sins do is they are set up as idols, which is what he further goes on to say. He says, for all such things are idolatry. So when we fail in these endeavors, when we fail to look to our model, we set up another person as our father. We set up an idol out of sexual impurity, covetousness, greed, and foolish talk. And so when Paul exhorts us to look to our Father as our model, he is exhorting us to live in the ways our Father in heaven commands us to do. Upholding the law of God is imitating our Father in heaven. And we see certainly that Paul points us to this model. But furthermore, he also points us to the Son of God as a model of walking in love. walking in love is basically a summary of Jesus Christ's life is it not when we think about the gospel's account of Christ he healed and cared for all he ministered to certainly we don't have the same gifts that Christ had we can't tell the leper to be healed we can't tell the lame man to stand up and walk but what we do have is that same message that Christ proclaimed we preach Christ and Him crucified and so when we share that gospel to any who will hear it we show this love of our Savior we imitate the model of love Jesus Christ our Lord and we also see that we are to imitate the Son in a sense because we are told He is held up as a sacrifice so we too are to be living sacrifices as Paul tells us in Romans chapter 12 verse 1 we are to be living sacrifices we are to be thanksgiving offerings to our Lord in all that we do and as I said before Ephesians 5 goes on to cover these various areas even beyond the text that we read this evening Paul tells us in all situations whether it be in our work, in our play in our relationships when we are alone we are to look to these models the Father and the Son and we are to walk in love. And beloved, as noble as this model is so often and so sadly this is where a sermon would end in so many of our churches today. Sadly, this model of walking in love becomes the whole story. Becomes everything that Christ came to tell us to do. We are far too willing to talk about this walk, this necessity to walk in love, without considering why we walk in love. And so just as Paul gives us the model for this walk, he also gives us the motivation for this walk and once again we see that it is the Son of God and the Father they are not merely models for good living they are not merely a self-help book when we look at the scripture but the Son of God and the Father are the very reason why we walk in love and we see this first in the fact that we are loved by the Son. We read in verse 1 that Christ, I'm sorry, in verse 2, that Christ loved us. What a simple statement that conveys so much hope and meaning that Christ loved us. This term of love is used throughout the New Testament. We know it well from John 3.16 for God so loved the world and in John 15 verse 9 we're told as the Father has loved me so I have loved you now abide in my love and in this book of Ephesians earlier in chapter 2 we read because of his great love for us God who is rich in mercy made us alive in Christ and in 1 John 4 19 we love because he first loved us and that is what Paul is reminding us of here is that in this charge to walk in love it's useless, it's worthless if we aren't reminded and told that Christ loved us and indeed because He loves us we may now love because we often think of Christ as raising us with Himself from the dead how can the dead love? and the answer is they cannot so as we look at this model we must remember the motivation is that Christ has raised us and only with that comfort and joy may we seek to walk in love because first Christ loved us and secondly he gave himself up for us what's really interesting about that term he gave himself up is a way that it's translated elsewhere in scripture is betrayed and those who would hear this would most certainly think of the other places in scripture where this term betrayed appears in the New Testament when Pilate handed over Christ this term is used in all four gospels that Christ was betrayed and in Mark 3.19 we see this same term used where it says Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. This reminds us of what was entailed by Christ giving himself up. He was betrayed unto death for you and for me. For all who will believe on his name he was betrayed. He gave himself up. And we see that not only did he give himself up, but that he was also beautiful in God's sight. We read the term that he was a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. Sometimes it's rendered sweet-smelling. And we see this in Genesis 8.21, Exodus 29, and Numbers 15. This idea given that Christ was sweet before the Lord. This term is used in the Old Testament with offerings that were burnt because they were a sweet-smelling fragrance to the Lord. And what we see here is that Christ in giving Himself up was indeed this sweet-smelling fragrance that pleased the Lord in our place. He was offered up so that we might live. And in Hebrews 10, this connection is made most clearly where we see all the old sacrifices referred to and what all these old sacrifices led up to. Christ's once-for-all sacrifice. He gave Himself up and the fragrance was beautiful before the Lord. And because of this work of Christ, we are beloved children of our Father in heaven. So our motivation once again is that we are loved by the Son and now secondly that we are loved by the Father. Because remember at the beginning of our reading in verse 32 of chapter 4 it says that we are to forgive others just as in Christ God forgave you. So because Christ gave himself up and was a sweet smelling offering we are now dearly loved children. And that's the statement we find in chapter 5, verse 1, that we are dearly loved children, or beloved children. And again, this is a very unique statement. These two verses are full of unique statements that relate to our faith. Because normally Paul uses beloved not as an adjective, but as an address. Beloved in the Lord. And when it is used descriptively, it's normally Paul's beloved. He says in 1 Corinthians 4, my beloved children. In Galatians 4.19, my beloved children. But here we are reminded that we are beloved of our Father in heaven. We are beloved children. And let that comfort you, beloved. That the Father will keep you. He will watch you. He will not let you go. He will protect us. We have a Heavenly Father. Now, I know many of you after church have seen the children running around on the basketball court. A lot of the time you guys like to play after church out on the basketball court. And over the number of years having been here, I've seen a number of children fall and scuff their knee. And it can often lead to tears and seeking for mom or dad. and it's a beautiful picture when you see a father pick up the weeping child probably still carrying on conversation but the comfort that that brings to the child is immediate and beautiful that the father is holding that child and the child is comforted nothing bad can happen to him when he is in his father's arms how much more is that true for us about our Father in Heaven. How much greater is that love that He has for us? Remember this, beloved. When the diagnosis of cancer comes, when a depression will not seem to let you go, when you have instability in the workplace, in your home life, when you're in doubt over your abilities as a father, a mother, a husband, a wife remember that our father in heaven holds us in his hand as beloved children let that give us joy and comfort and therefore beloved let us walk in love in this walk we will stumble we will falter as I said loved ones pass away friends disappoint we struggle with the same sins over and over that will not seem to let us go but remember what I said about our father and remember what I said is at the nature of a walk it is going from point A to point B and what Paul is telling us in these two verses primarily has to do with point A and beyond. He's speaking of this present walk. But elsewhere, Paul also points us to point B. Glory. In 1 Timothy 2.10 we read, Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Here is a trustworthy saying. If I died with Him, if we died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure, we will also reign with Him. So though there will be hardships in this life, beloved, let us walk as beloved children. Let us walk as those whom the Son has purchased. Let us walk to glory. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for the truth of your word. And we come to you as a loving Father in heaven. Confident that you hear us. Confident that you care. Confident that you will not let us go for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for his sacrifice, Lord. We thank you that he was offered up. And we thank you that he was beautiful in your sight. Please be with us, Lord, in our struggles. Point us constantly to you. And Lord, indeed, hasten that day when our faith will be sight. Come right soon, Lord. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.