“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”
It has often been said that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
To imitate someone is to compliment them by saying, “I want my life to look like theirs.” This is revealed in its purest form with our children. Seeing my kids copying things I’ve done is such a joy. I remember times when our kids put on daddy’s shoes or pushed their toy lawnmower around the yard while I cut the grass. You see their love in their imitation.
Paul reminds us to imitate the love we have seen in God. God is love. God’s children are his beloved and are called to imitate the Father’s love. Despite popular opinion, however, we are not all children of God. We are all created by God in the image of God, but not all are children of God. This points us to the doctrine of adoption that we saw at the beginning of Ephesians. Children of God have been adopted into God’s family through the gift of Jesus Christ.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as son through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:3-6
No one deserves to be a child of God, but God in his sovereign grace saved us out of sin and rebellion, adopting us his very own in Jesus Christ. A child of God becomes holy and blameless, not because of what we have done, but because of what Jesus has done for us. We don’t deserve this. We can’t earn it. It’s all a gift from God to display his glory and purpose. This gift of love is the fuel that propels us to live a life of love.
When you know that you are in a family that you never deserved and that you are receiving the perfect love of God the Father, it changes your life and fuels a life of love.
Considering what you have received, walk in love.
Remember the perfect love you have received from God and imitate your Father by extending love to others, especially those who we think least deserve it.
Taken from a sermon by George Wright, Senior Pastor, Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Birmingham, AL
DIG DEEPER
Read “Looking Like Jesus in a Modern World” by Bryant Wright
