Ephesians 5:1-2 – Berris Patience – 2025 12 28

1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. (NASB 1995)

Transcript:

(Disclaimer: AI generated transcript. Accuracy may vary)

Ephesians chapter five, Ephesians chapter five, and we’ll be looking at the first two verses this morning into this afternoon. Ephesians chapter five, Paul writes, therefore be Imit, imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us as a sweet, as an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. God, I pray that you’ll take these words and may they go forth with power and authority and may your spirit lead and direct may your people again, as we prayed earlier to I pray that your people will be edified, encouraged, comforted, and blessed and reassured of who we are in Christ, how we ought to live our lives that you have saved us to God. I pray that you’ll use me for your glory, for your honor, and may Christ be magnified and lifted up in honor not only today, but in throughout the entirety of our lives for Christ’s sake. Amen. The call to God shaped living is a topic. The idea that I want to present from these two verses this morning, the call to a God shaped living President Calvin K or Coolidge invited some people from his hometown to dinner at the White House since they did not know how to behave at such an occasion, they thought the best policy would be just do what the President do. Just imitate the President to make sense. The time came for the serving of coffee. The President poured his coffee into a saucer and as soon as the home folk saw it, they did the same. The next step, the president was to pour some milk and a little bit of sugar in that coffee in the saucer. And again, the home folk by default followed suit. They did the same thing. They thought for sure that the next step would be for the President to take the saucer with the coffee and start sipping. Instead, the President didn’t do so. He leaned over, placed the saucer on the floor and called the cat. The idea is mimicking, following imitating, emulating whatever word you want to use the president in this context, even though they were foolishly ignorantly following him, and they had the right motives, obviously because they had no means, no way of how to present and operate themselves in the context of you’re in, you’re in the presence of the, the President of the United States. You’re in the White House. You want to um, represent the state in which you are and and the idea is this is who we are as Christians. We are constantly, we are in the presence of the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and we need to represent him well. And the only way in doing so, the only way that we’re going to represent Christ, represent God the Father. Well, and that will be pleasing in his sight, is to follow him, is to mimic him, is to imitate him. Unlike the President who was doing this for the cat, God won’t throw a curve ball in the hoop and say, oh, we weren’t supposed to do that. Every aspect He, and again, we’re gonna see this in our text. So if we are the children of God, then by default we ought to imitate our Father. This is the basis for the three admonitions that we’re going to look at that we’re gonna see not today obviously in this section of Ephesians, chapter five, God is love, John one, John four verse eight reminds us of this and therefore we should walk in love as we’ll see in Ephesians five, one and two. John also remind us that God is light and therefore we are children of light and we ought to walk in the light. Paul expounds on this in chapter verses three to 14, God is truth one, John five, six. Therefore we walk in truth, we walk in wisdom. Paul will elaborate on this in verses 15 to 17 in chapter five here. And of course, of course each of these walk is a part of the exhortation that Paul will highlight and that is to walk in purity. Imitating God doesn’t mean becoming God and that should be obvious to us. We’re not trying to be to become God, we can’t become God. That’s impossible. As well as there would be some pride and arrogance in that this imitating God means reflecting his attributes as his image bearers and those that the image was restored through Jesus Christ that was marred through sin. We are representing God and we ought to imitate who he is in his being in terms of his attributes as we’ll continue to see. It’s about resemblance, not replacement. We’re not trying to become God, as Augustine put it. We imitate God by clinging to him and by allowing his grace to shape and mold and fashion our lives. So the first thing that we see in our text is that we imitate God’s attribute as we look at this idea of our calling to a God shaped living or God shaped life. We imitate God’s attributes, con consistent demonstration of mutual love or considered a central aspect of who we are as Christians. This should be who we are in our being. John again tells us this, that the world will know that we are Christians how by our love. So it is very, very significant. It’s an, and Paul will make this clear as we go into verse two. We’re gonna see that this is a hallmark of everything else that was said even prior to this chapter. The concept of abundance. Self-sacrificial love is regarded as intrinsic to God’s nature. And Paul encourages the believers here in Ephesus by application us to reflect these qualities by emulating their father, emulating our fathers, em emulating their faith, the faith of God emulate principle, emulate the example that is set by Jesus Christ himself. The term that Paul is used for this word imitate, of course it’s in a plural, it’s a plural noun and it highlights a sense of collectivity. So Paul isn’t making this an individualized, even though we ought to do so individually, we should be imitating God Imit individually, we should be emulating God emulating Jesus Christ. Paul is not talking to the believers individually here. He’s talking to the church collectively say collectively we have to look like God the Father. That means everyone has to be working in that where the individuality comes in. But Paul, as we’ve seen throughout Ephesian, he talks about the collective nature of the church in building and shaping and maturing the church, the body of Jesus Christ. And it’s the same idea here. Collectively, the church should look like Jesus Christ. This church should look like God the Father. The church should imitate God the Father means yes, individually, everyone has a part, a role to play, but it reflects the entirety of the church. So from an individual application standpoint, if you are not imitating Christ, it reflects badly on the church. It reflects badly on the God who has saved you or has saved us. So he’s focusing on the collective nature here or the collective group. The church, Paul is urging the community of believers to live out the identity of God among each other and by default among the communities in which we live, in our homes, in, in our workplaces, et cetera. This is not to say that Paul does not expect the believers to model their father, as I said earlier, individually, because if you can’t do this individually, you’re not gonna be able to do it corporately either. The emphasis of course is on the collective effort, the church looking like the God who saved and transformed her. This collective imitation of God aligns with what Paul or Paul’s perspective of the church being the body of Jesus Christ. Such an outcome is achieved when each member, again, going all the way back to chapter four, utilizes their spiritual gift, their individual gifts to strengthen and support and mold and fashion the community in which they live. He uses another term, said, become therefore B or become imitators. And this indicates that the transformation is intended to be continuous. And we see Paul saying this constantly throughout this entire book so far, that these things that he’s commanding us, it’s not a one time thing. It’s a continually imitate God, continually be like God. ’cause it’s not natural for us. It’s not, it doesn’t come naturally to us to just live. So there’s an effort that is required here. So it’s a constant continuous action rather than something that is fixed or static. So again, it is a habitually imitating, habitually looking habitually mimicking your father. And Paul is urging the believers to grow into what they already are in Christ, what already grow into who they’ve been declared to be in Christ. So he is not asking for something that is out of reach. He’s not asking for, he is not being unrealistic here. This is not something that Paul is, is seeing as burdensome, but it’s a day-to-day challenge for the believer for us to be, to emulate the God that has saved us. And that is why I chose those verses that I that we read earlier, Matthew five and in one Peter two, The gene Paul uses the generative God himself here. And this means that it’s God the Father. And of course that’s very obvious from our text. That’s God the Father. We’re imitating. And of course Paul tends to use imitate Christ, imitate Christ. But here he shifts and he says, imitate God, God the Father. And of course God the Father, Jesus Christ shows us through his life what looking, what looking like God actually is how living like God actually is. He lived in accordance to the will of the Father, even though he was God in the flesh, in the Greco-Roman culture, imitation often referred to mimicking a teacher or mimicking a philosopher. And Paul radicalizes this by directing the imitation toward God himself. You’re not imitating the teacher, you’re not imitating the philosopher, you’re not imitating pastor bear, you’re not imitating Pastor Dave. You’re imitating God the Father. While it is permissible, you can emulate individuals and we should. That’s the whole a aspect, and that’s the whole idea of building and maturing, spurring each other onto love and good works. We should be able to imitate our brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul tells us this, imitate me, follow me as I follow Jesus Christ. So we should be able to imitate and emulate those who are walking the right and proper path. That’s how we grow and mature collectively in this body. When we gather like this, we see people who are living the life that God has called them, called us to live, and we say, you know what? I can follow that person. Why not? Because that person is following his own philosophies or his own ideologies. That person, that individual or those individuals are actually following Jesus Christ. They’re ing the God that saved and transformed them. And by default, you’re not really following the individual, you’re following God. So yes, we can follow individual there. It is permissible to emulate and we should and ought to emulate men and women in the church. But such imitation, again, should be grounded in them following Jesus Christ. It should be grounded in them following and emulating God the Father. It doesn’t matter how good they look, it doesn’t matter how eloquent they speak. It doesn’t matter how they present if they’re not following Jesus Christ, if they’re not following, because there’s so many in the so-called churches today that look good and they present well and they couldn’t be anything further from being, um, wanting to follow. So we have to be careful and we have to again match up the lives of those indi individuals with the word of God. And that’s how we, we follow individuals in the church. So we’re not allowed, we’re not expected to follow people blindly because Jesus Christ still remains the ultimate standard for us to follow. The imperative follows the exhortation that we see in verse 32 of chapter four where we talk, it talks about, or Paul talks about forgiving. So in that context is what Paul is saying, we’re supposed to follow and emulate our God the Father. Of course, it applies right across the spectrum as it relates to his communicable attributes. But in the context before us, he’s talking about the forgiveness that Christ offers to us through Jesus Christ. Thus imitation is rooted in God’s prior grace, our action of grace, Humanity. We have been created or we were, we are created in God’s image. We’re told this Genesis chapter 1, 26, 27, and Paul commands here echoes with that creation identity, but now reframed through the redemption of Jesus Christ. Imitation is not mere mimicry. Imitation is spirit enablement. Our spirit enabled restoration of the image of God. Spirit enabled restoration of the spirit of God that was marred in Genesis chapter three. And while the text refers of course to us being imitators or followers of God, the following verse, verse five, verse two, sorry, clarifies us. This directive is also following Jesus Christ because it says, walk in love just as Jesus Christ loves us. So in this context, Christ serves as the tangible example of divine imitation. No one showed more who God the Father is like Jesus Christ when he was on earth. And he says that if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. Why do you keep asking me? Show us the Father. If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. So again, it makes him the divine, the the the the tangible rather example of divine imitation, making the characteristic of God manifested through Jesus Christ. It was manifested through Christ. And this of course is what he talks about in verse nine of John chapter 14, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. The adjective love that we look at in verse two, derives from the verb agapao, which in the New Testament conveys love rooted in a covenantal commitment, a divine initiative rather than mere affection. Therefore, the word carries a sense of one who is deeply cherished, deeply esteemed, held in a special regard. It is not casual affection, but a recognition of profound worth and belonging. This is what the idea of this word means. This kind of language beloved children says, follow God as his beloved children. I wonder if we’ve reflected on that word before. This is who we are to God. We are beloved King James says, dear children, this is a better capture. Captures best what the la the, the original language is trying to depict. And if you haven’t caught onto this word yet, let me remind you of who this very word was used to describe now that we are being described as John Mark chapter 11, one verse 11. And of course the parallel verses Matthew three 17, Luke 3 22, the heavenly voice declares you are my beloved son. Who was he referring to? Hear this voice is Jesus Christ at the Mount of Transfiguration. Mark nine 17 parallel passages Matthew 17 five, Luke 9 35, the same designation of firms, Jesus’s unique relationship to God the Father. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. So what I’m trying to say, the same term that is used to describe the only begotten son of God, we’re now in that same category. And just like Jesus Christ lived his life wholeheartedly devoted to pleasing God the Father, regardless of what society wanted to say, regardless of what men thought, the same is expected of us. That is what Paul is trying to say. We are in the same category even though we’re, we’re not Jesus, but we are little jesuses and we’re supposed to live the same life that Jesus Christ lived on earth. In reflecting God the Father in heaven, in reflecting who God is in his nature, in his being, in his character, in his love, in his mercy, in his grace, the same life is expected of you and me. That is what Paul is trying to say without one little word. Beloved were his children, were his beloved children. So the expectation is high, it’s great. These moments highlight the ones that I just highlighted to you from his baptism. And the transfiguration highlight Jesus as the chosen dearly beloved son of God. Of course this is echoed in Isaiah 42 verse one. So the relationship that the believer experienced with God under this new covenant, this new creation that we’ve become in Christ serves as a substantial basis for you and I to emulate God the Father. Christians, we, you and I are described as beloved children of God. We belong to God. That’s a term of possess, a possessive term where his children, for us as parents, you don’t expect your child to emulate somebody who is not in your household. You don’t, I don’t expect my son to emulate somebody else who doesn’t live in my household. You is supposed to emulate me ’cause I’m the father. And the same is expected of you in terms of your household and your your biological children. Christians are described, we are described as beloved children of the Father that is possessive. We belong to him. And Paul of course reminds us of this in Ephesians where say we’re sealed, he, there’s the Holy Spirit has put a stamp of approval of on us that we belong to God. And nothing will ever change that nothing can change that. And this term, this designation not only contingent upon our personal, it’s not contingent upon our personal achievement or merits, but on our faith in Jesus Christ resulting us being adopted as sons of God included in the inheritance, included in the God’s family. This transformed relationship is further evident by the outpouring of the spirit of God in our lives, enabling believers, enabling us to demonstrate a capacity of love that is beyond any conventional expectation that is in the world. Similarly, the son conduct his life on earth by mirroring the Father mirroring who God is. And this again is the expectation of the church. This is what is expected of us. Members of the church, members of this church, believers, Christians, saints, we are called to reflect God the Father. We need that for us, for the building up of this body. We need that for the world, the society in which we live because there’s so much godlessness in the world. And as I mentioned the church, you see more and more now the so-called church, the so-called ministers or preachers in the church. They couldn’t be more and more like the world. I saw a video and it, it was appalling to the core. They had multiple members on the platform with the, the alphabet colors. If you know what I’m referring to. And this minister I, I hate using that term that the individual that led that assembly, ’cause I don’t like to describe ’em as the church either, was standing at the side and these people are waving and dancing. And guess who song was playing? Lady Gaga. I was born this way. This is supposed to be a church. And according to those people, they’re reflecting the love of God. Now realizing that the love of God despised sin so much that he sent his son in Christmas time that we just celebrated to go to the cross and to bear that very sin that we’re now celebrating in his church. And they’re claiming, they’re reflecting Christ, they’re claiming they’re reflecting God. They’re not. They are not. The church is expected to emulate God. God hates sin. He has, he hates sin. And if you don’t realize how much hatred God has to sin, go and read the gospel account of Jesus Christ being brutally beaten, savagely mocked and scorned and spat upon and crucified. That’s how much God hates sin. So if we’re running around waving the the rainbow colors and singing Lady Gaga and saying, no, I’m reflecting God is not the God of the Bible. It’s a different God. It’s the God of this world. It’s the God of this age. We have to be different from the world. That’s what Jesus Christ said. That’s who Jesus Christ was. He was different and that’s why he was hated. So yes, we are going to be hated. We have to be different. We must be different. We’re called to be different. Math says, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. If this is how the world is gonna know that your sons of God, that you are actually living like people who are emulating their father, The calling is high. As beloved children, we have to emulate the attributes of God. That’s his mercy. His holiness is just him being just the communicable attributes. There are some obviously that we can’t, how powerful all knowing, et cetera. We can’t emulate those. But the communicable attributes we are expected to emulate. But as beloved children, we are called to fashion ourselves after the very lightness of God’s God and his attributes. In addition to being kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, which is a form of grace, Paul urges the believers to imitate God in his love for us, which is our second and final point. Imitate his affections, imitate his attributes, IMIT. And those are the communicable ones. Imitate his affections. Of course, there’s only one that is referred to here and that is love. This love I would strongly argue is twofold. It is loving God. As we saw in the call to worship text Deuteronomy called the Shima, Deuteronomy six, four, and five. This is a twofold aspect of this love that we’re supposed to imitate is loving God. ’cause again, Jesus Christ demonstrated his love for his Father, love God with all your heart, soul, soul, mind and strength. And Jesus said, this is the greatest commandment, in fact In Matthew 22. And the second aspect of this, or the second branch of this is loving each other the same way That God loved us through Christ. And this is where it’s gonna become very difficult and very challenging for us as we’ll see momentarily demonstrating that same love for each other that God has for us. And again, Jesus said, this is the second greatest commandment, loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength loving your neighbor has yourself. And he says on these two hinge, all the law, the prophets and the writings, Jesus was saying, loving God and loving each other is the entirety of the Old Testament. And the idea behind that is if you love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, going back to the decalogue, the 10 commandment, you’re not gonna bear his name in vain. You’re not gonna make false images, you’re not gonna do anything to anger God. You’re going to obey all the commandments that were written in the 10 command in the in the Old Testament. And if you love your neighbor as you love yourself, you’re not gonna steal, you’re not gonna cover it, et cetera. So that’s why Jesus says on this hinges all the law, because if we love like that, we won’t have sinful desires. We won’t s sin against God, won’t sin against our neighbor who won’t sin against even ourselves. So those are the twofold aspect. Both also I would argue comes with surrendering or being willing to surrender our lives for the saints and for God. And this we’ll see as we make our way in the text, we’ll become more evident and that that is where it’s gonna become a little bit more challenging for some of us where we’re willing to give up our lives for God and for our brothers and sisters in Christ. The word that is used in now, agape carries a sense of affection, affectionate regard or benevolence towards someone. The Sep almost always uses this word for love to translate one main Hebrew word for love, which is a ha a ha. The New Testament employs a term agape in two basic ways. First, it can denote love in regard in a general sense. Examples of this includes to love as an idea. John 1513, greater love has no one than this Romans th or 1310 Love does no wrong to his neighbor. So there’s that loving in that general sense and then loving love towards people. Second, the New Testament writers used the noun to refer to the love that God has for us. And you’ll hear this, and this is a side note, never even planned to say this, but you’ll hear that some will say, oh, the agape love is only and always referring to the love that God has for his people. That’s not necessarily true because we have that same love for others as well. So it’s what they will say is it’s only God is the only one that can love the the agape love that is not biblically accurate, accurate with most of the times. This is what the, what word is used in terms of God’s love for us, God’s love towards us. And again, it’s referred, this is a habitual way of life, constantly loving each other. And I’ve said, it may have said it here, but I’ve said it so many times and I’ll continue to say this is why the word, the term the idea love one another is repeated so many times in scripture, so many times in scripture, love calls for demonstration, not just words. We see this with God. Love calls for demonstration, not just word. John one. John three 18 says, my little children let us not only love in word and in in in tongue, but indeed and in truth it calls for action. At its core, this is what it means to live up to the calling that you have received that we saw in chapter one of verse chapter four, verse one. Paul also described love as the most excellent way and he hopes every believer will pursue this way. First Corinthians 12, verse 31, the love exemplified by Christ towards his followers serves as both the foundational and foundation and model for leading a life defined by compassion, by care, by love for being tender hearted towards each each other. Believers not only we not only look like our father when we exemplify the self-giving sacrificial love, we also look like Christ because of his willingness or willing participation in that divine plan of God for his people, for those whom he chose before the foundations of the world. And in John’s gospel, John emphasizes God’s love in giving his son as an atoning sacrifice. So there it is. Love is not just words, it’s action. God’s Paul says, God demonstrates Romans five, eight, God showed God emphasized God put on display his love for us by sending Jesus Christ to die for sins. He didn’t just say it, he showed it. He proved that he loved us. John three 16, very familiar passage of scripture as well. The same idea is there. Jesus was not a passive victim in this cast. A sacrifice like Isaac was in the story and the account of Abraham and Isaac, Jesus Christ gave himself up for us. And many scriptures attest to this. He gave himself up for us. That’s why Paul said love. In the same way that Jesus Christ’s love, he gave himself up for us. This self-giving decision is summed up well in Jesus’s words, in the gospel of John, my commandment is this love one another as I have loved you, greater love as no one than this, than than he. That he lay his life down for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. And the emphasis there is we are to love in the same way that God loves us and that Christ loves us. What does that mean? It means if it comes to the test, we have to give up our life for the brothers and sisters in Christ. But that’s where it comes to be, that that is where it becomes hard. That is where it’s become challenging because we look around and you’re like, okay, I don’t have a problem loving my wife the same way Jesus Christ love the church. I don’t have a problem loving my son or my daughter or my family, my grandkids the same way Jesus Christ loved the church because I know I would die for my son or my daughter or my grandkids. There’s absolutely no denying that. But would you die for the person that is sitting behind you in front of you that has no family ties biologically to you? That is where it becomes tough. But that is what Jesus Christ is saying here to the disciples in John. That’s what Paul is saying here to us. That’s what John tells us to do, that we have to love each other. To the point where if it comes to the test that bears has to die for Bowmanville Baptist church, that’s what’s gonna happen. Because that’s the kind of love that God expects for us because this is the kind of love that God shows us and demonstrates to us. And it’s tough folks. It is tough. It’s tough. Love for one another. Pattern on his own. Self sacrificial, self-giving love Jesus. John says, this is the new commandment that I give to you. And as I mentioned, this is where it gets hard. This is where we say we love you. I love you a brother. I love you sister in Christ. Just like Peter, Jesus, I would die for you. As soon as he saw the mob, mob, he was outta there. This is where it becomes hard because it’s very easy to say, I love you sister, I love you brother. But when put to the test, will that love for that saint, that brother and that sister in Christ motivate you to give up your life for their sake? That’s where it becomes challenging. But yet this is what Jesus Christ, this is what God expects of us. This is how much we ought to love each other. And it makes sense, does it not? Because we are indeed a family. We are a part of the greatest family on this planet and we are blood related because we’re joined together by the blood of Jesus Christ. So it makes sense that God expects us to love each other in this fashion, to love each other in this manner, to love each other in this way. One John three 16, we know love by this, that he laid down his life for us. And here John makes it abundantly clear, even though Paul implies it. And it’s implied in Jesus’s words as well. It’s explicit here. He laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. First John three verse 16. This verse ought to make us reevaluate both our love and it. It should make us reevaluate both our love for God and our love for each other. And this would explain why these commandments, the love God and love the saints, again, are repeated so many times in scripture. It’s a tough commandment. But again, it is not an impossible commandment because we have been, as we were reminded in chapter four, that God has enabled us through the Holy Spirit, through the giftedness of the leaders in the church, through the gifts that he has given each member, each individual in the body of Christ to build each other up. This is how we are to grow and enable. And that’s the enablement for us to get to this point where we’re demonstrating this kind of love towards each other and toward and for God. And once we get to this point, once we get this kind of love for God and our love for each other down to the verity, being tenderhearted, being kind, being forgiven, being gracious, being merciful, being compassionate, being imitators of God will not be hard. It won’t be hard. And I must admit that this truth, sacrificially loving each other is another one of those truths that is either significantly overlooked or ignored in the church. ’cause I cannot recall hearing a sermon calling the saints to love God and the other brothers in Christ to the point where they’re surrendering their lives for God or for the saints in the church. I’ve heard many sermons and love one another. I’ve heard many sermons and love God, but I’ve never, I cannot recall, I may have, but I cannot recall hearing a sermon that hits the nail on the head and saying, this is the kind of love that we ought to have for God. This is the kind of love that we ought to have for each other. That is a love, a sacrificial love, that we’re willing to lay down our lives, lay down our lives. And when we put this into perspective, if you have read the Fox’s book of martyrs or you read these, these stories of people being killed for their faith, we realize why it’s so easy for them to lay their lives down. Men singing hymns of praises to God while they’re entrenched and inflamed, being burned, being thrown to wild animals and they’re singing. And I read these, this book Fox’s, where I’m like, I, I don’t know if I’d be there. And I pray and I hope to God that when that time comes, if that time should come, this is how I’m demonstrated. I, I’m demonstrated and displaying God to the world, to the very death, showing the grace and the love and mercy of God even when I’m inflamed. Fascinating. But that’s the kind of love we’re called to have. And this is why having surface level knowledge of scripture is not enough. This is why we need to go deep in the word of God. Jesus’ willingness to lay down his life for his followers is presented as a central expression of love, intended to secure forgiveness and establish that relationship with God that was broken. His sacrifice is cied cited rather as the defining example of what genuine love looks like. This passage clarifies the phrase Christ’s love for us by showing us that this is a sacrificial love. And Paul refers to this concept using similar terminology. And we are gonna see it in 5 25 where it says, this is the kind of love that husbands need to have for their wives. And Paul of course, he’s using here a imagery of the Old Testament sacrificial system as present God Christ presenting himself as a sacrifice to God on our behalf. And this, as we know was the perfect sacrifice. This as we know, was the once for all, never repeated or never to be repeated again. Sacrifice. And Paul affirms this when he said that the sacrifice of Christ when he said that this was a sweet smelling aroma or a fragrant aroma as the text put it, this means that the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made was fully pleased to fully pleasing to God and God fully accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf. We’d also suggest that this, that his sacrifice was more than just a victorious moral example to his people. This conveys the idea that we see in scripture of a propitiatory sacrifice. Christ the the wrath of God was fully satisfied through the death of Jesus Christ. Hence why he can, could have been raised from the dead. Hence why he was exalted and is still exalted at the right hand of God. The Father, God was fully satisfied with his sin, with his sacrifice, sorry, on the cross imitating God, as we conclude, test your knowledge or it should test your knowledge. You cannot imitate that which you don’t know. It makes sense. You can’t imitate something you don’t know. You don’t see somebody going out imit making an imitation whether verbally or gest particularly. And you say, who are you trying to mimic? And they say, oh, I don’t know you, you mimic, you imitate who you know. And and the idea behind that too is how much you know about that individual is how much you’re going to imitate and mimic them. So it tests your knowledge of God. Therefore the deeper you have, the deeper knowledge that you have of God, the better you’ll be able to imitate him. Not only the more knowledge that you have of God, but the more you require, the more you’ll be required to imitate. So the more knowledge you have of God is what I’m trying to say is, is the more you’re gonna be required is the more you’re gonna be expected to imitate God. In other words, like forgetting his name, Marvel comic guy Stanley with great power come great responsibility. Well with great knowledge come great responsibility. If you have a wealth of knowledge about God, God is expecting you to utilize that knowledge in demonstrating that knowledge in your actions. So test your knowledge of who God is imitating God. Also test your love for God and by default test your knowledge or test your love for the brothers and sisters in Christ, the love God ought to compel us, to compel you, to imitate him. How do I know this? John again, one John four 19 says, we love Y because that’s just our nature. We’re just lovable beings. We are just oozing, overflowing with love from the inside out. No, John says we love Y because he loves us. We are loving beings because God demonstrated love towards us shows us what it means to love and how to love. Therefore as a result, as a result of us being transformed and being created as new men in Christ, we demonstrate that love that we see God demonstrating. John says, we love because he loves us, not because we’re lovable beings, not because it’s just a part of our nature. We love because he loves us. And as I mentioned above, love is the epitome of all the virtues that that Paul has already described for us. And if we truly love one another, none of the vices will be a problem in the church of God. The vices that we looked at last week and beyond, none of these will be a problem in God’s church if we truly are displaying God’s love in our lives. Wouldn’t that be amazing to have a church where there’s no schism, there’s no division, there’s no quarrels, there’s no dissension, there is no infighting, there’s no cliques because we love each other so much. These things doesn’t exist in the church of God. I go back to verse one. This is a collective command. This is what the church ought to look like. This is what the church should look like. This is what God expects of his church. Love Peter tells us, covers a multitude of sin. This don’t you think this would be and is worth striving for. Don’t you think that this kind of church to, to this put on this display in the world in which we live is worth striving for? It is Because God commands it. Not because I think it is, not because I believe it is because God commands it. It is worth striving for. This is your call. This is my call to a God shaped living. This is our calling. This is Bowman v’s. Baptist Church is calling to a God shaped living imitating our God the Father. This is our call. This is your call. This is my call to a God shaped life in a culture where many, many are mimicking celebrities. And you see videos of and and even around you, you see people mimicking the Swifts and and all of these pro high profile, so-called important figures. We are called by the grace of God through the mercy of God to imitate the God that has called us in his grace and in his mercy. And may that be who we are individually and corporately as a church in our community, in this society, in this world. And regardless of the pressure, ’cause the pressure will come. And the more you look, the more you are acting like the God that called you, the more pressure will be on you, the more the pressures will come. But God will enable us and sustain us to preserve even if it comes to the point of death. ’cause to this end, were we called, we weren’t called to a better rose’s life. He never promised us that we’ll live eternally with the moment we’re saved and we’ll never die. He said those that are godly, we’ll suffer persecution will future promise will suffer persecution. But as we’re reminded by Jesus Christ in Matthew five said, blessed are you when men revile you, persecute you and do all manner of evil against you. They did the same to the prophets before you. They did the same to Jesus Christ. You are in good company. If that’s how you’re imitating Jesus Christ to the world, you’re in the best company that you could be in. So be comforted and encouraged by that. And let us live the life that God has called us to live in this crooked, perversed and godly world. Father, we’re so grateful, so thankful for your love. Thank you for this reminder in these two verses of how we ought to live our lives with you as our example with Christ, as our example. And the God we’re grateful that you have enabled us to live. To live this life that you’ve called us, to live through your spirit, through your word, through every single individual believer that is here with the gifts that you have given them through the leadership of this church. So God, may we strive to perfection in Christ. May we strive Lord to live the life that you called us to live, to honor you, to love you with all our heart, soul minds and strength and to love each other in the same way you demonstrated your love for us. This tough Lord was not impossible. And that is our great comfort and assurance that there’s nothing in your word that you’ve commanded us to do, that you’re expecting that it’s impossible to achieve because you’ve enabled us and you’ve given us all things pertaining to life and godliness so we can live the life that you’ve called us to live. We thank you God and strengthen us in our day-to-day living. Help us Lord, when the pressures of society and the world come pressuring on us, sometimes it comes from our very own family members and close friends. Lord, may we be gracious. May we be able, may we, may we be willing to forgive. May we be compassionate, tender-hearted. And may we continue to let our lights shine in this world so that they may see your good works, our good works, and glorify you. And it will draw men to Christ. They will mature believers in Christ. And we’ll see your kingdom being built as you use us to do so for Christ’s sake. Amen.