May 31, 2025 - Ephesians 5:1,2 - "Following God as Dear Children"

Ephesians 5:1,2

"Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour."

The apostle Paul calls believers to be “followers of God, as dear children” and to “walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.” This divine exhortation flows directly from the rich Gospel Truth declared in the previous chapters: that we are “accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6), redeemed through His blood (Ephesians 1:7), and made alive together with Christ by sovereign grace (Ephesians 2:4–5).

To be followers—or imitators—of God is not a call to mimicry rooted in self-effort, but a fruit of our union with Christ, Who loved us and gave Himself for us “an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour” (Ephesians 5:2). The love we are called to walk in is not a mere natural love, but the divine, electing, Sacrificial Love demonstrated at Calvary, where the Lamb of God bore the sins of His people (John 10:11, Romans 5:8). We walk in love not to become children of God, but as dear children—already chosen, redeemed, justified, and adopted by grace (Ephesians 1:4–5). Our obedience flows from our position in Christ, Who “loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). This love is not general, hypothetical love, but a definite, effectual love that guarantees the salvation of God’s elect. Thus, these verses call us to reflect the Gospel we have received: a life shaped by the sovereign, Sacrificial Love of Christ.

For a true child of God, the command here to be a follower of God is not something tedious. It's not burdensome. It shouldn't make you fearful, no more than saying to a child, "follow your father." If that father is a true father, you as a child are going to desire to follow in his steps. Where God has done a work of grace in a sinner's heart and given that sinner His Spirit, the scriptures call that being born again. That word literally means "to be born from above." That's how you become, in your experience, a child of God. There's the giving of the Spirit, and where the Spirit has done that work, there's going to be two things:

One, you're going to search out those things that pertain to God. That's where the spiritual interest for the things of God originates. We're not born with this. We're not born thinking of God as a Father. It takes the Spirit of God to teach us.

Two, where the Spirit has done that work, there is a searching. There's a seeking after God and His glory. "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God" (1 Corinthians 2:9,10).

What then is it to be a follower of God?

First, it's to be an imitator of God. Not an imitator in the sense of imitation. The word "follower" here is the word that we get our word mime from. Have you ever watched a mime? They're not saying anything, but you see them sometimes in the streets, some of these actors, they will mime without words certain characters or events, and as they do it, you recognize it. Now, they're not actually that person or they're not actually that event, but you recognize by their actions what they're communicating.

With regard to being imitators of God, it is one thing to say that you are a child of God and to profess it—that's using words. It is another thing entirely to live it. That is to communicate something even without speaking a word. Now, there are certain attributes of God that we cannot imitate.

• God is omniscient. What does that mean? It means He knows everything. Can you imitate that? You can act like you know it, but you cannot. Not in that sense.

• God is omnipotent—He is all-powerful. He can do whatsoever He wills. Can you imitate that?

• God is omnipresent. Have you ever thought about trying to be everywhere at the same time—or in two or three different places at once? Sometimes it feels like that’s how life is. But we are so finite. He is not limited by space—we are.

  
  

Yet there are certain attributes of God that, as we read the Scriptures, we find that we are called to imitate. If we are God's children, we are called upon to reflect these. Truth. What is truth? It is that which characterizes God. "Be ye therefore followers of God," as He is in Truth. Don't you suppose that if the Spirit of God is in you, you will desire to follow the Truth, as God is revealed in the Scriptures?

David said, "Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way" (Psalm 119:104). That desire to know God in Truth affects who we are. It affects our direction in life. That is why we read this Word. We hear it. We study it. We want to know the Truth with regard to God.

Second, it is to value above all else, the privilege of being His child. Why did the Spirit of God put "dear children" in there? Because that's who His people are to Him. They are dear. It doesn't say just as children, but dear children. Why are the Lord's people dear to Him? You know what that word "dear" means? It means "beloved". In fact, it means "well-beloved". I know if I'm beloved or well-beloved of God, it's not for anything in me. It's because He willed to love such as we are. Our being in Him and walking in fellowship with God has everything to do with what Christ accomplished in sacrificing Himself. That is what we see in Colossians 1:12, where Paul says, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." 

Why are sinners called saints? It is because of that perfect Righteousness that God the Father has imputed to their account when the LORD Jesus finished His work on the cross. Verse 13 continues, "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son." It can also be rendered, "into the kingdom of the Son of His love." That is the work of the Spirit—He brings us out of darkness into light. This is the only way God could ever call any of us "beloved"—because of the Son of His love and what He accomplished. At the cross, when the Lord Jesus laid down His life, we were saved. There, God’s elect were redeemed from the legal condemnation of the law and from the guilt of their sins. This is what Christ did—He saved His people at the cross, and when called by the Spirit of God to Him, they follow HIM.