“Then He [Jesus] took the twelve aside and said to them, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.’” (Luke 18:31 [NASB])
“1Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2and 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. 15Therefore, be careful how you walk. 21Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” (Ephesians 5:1-2, 15, & 21 [NASB])
A young adult professed Jesus Christ as the Son of God. She believed in Him for salvation and confessed and repented of her sins. Later, the pastor baptized her. Before the ripples in the baptismal waters stilled, she read Ephesians 5:1-2. She wondered what it meant that she had to imitate Christ and love as He loved. The loving part would be easy, she thought, but would she have to die, experience slander and persecution, and have nothing to call her own? Fear gripped her mind and threatened to halt her daily walk with God. The next Sunday, she heard more through the sermon. The preacher spoke about the Beatitudes-blessed are the persecuted and reviled. After the turmoil rolling in her mind, she received peace. Why are the persecuted and reviled Christians blessed? They will see and be with God. They have a purpose and journey with God.
Luke wrote in Luke 18:28-34, the account of Jesus’ words to His disciples before he made His final journey to Jerusalem. Jesus told them what the prophets wrote, which soon would happen. Before He said this, though, Peter told Him he and the other disciples had left their homes and followed Him. Jesus replied to Peter’s statement by saying no one has left all behind for the sake of the kingdom who would not receive many times more now and in eternity. His statement in verses twenty-nine and thirty prepared the disciples for verses thirty-one through thirty-four. Jesus, too, left the safety of His home in heaven and would face betrayal by His earthly people, the Israelites. He left His Father’s home in heaven and the home of His birth father on earth for the sake of the kingdom of God. The key, the reason Jesus left His homes, is in verses twenty-nine and thirty-one. He did it for God’s purposes.
Consider now what Paul wrote in Ephesians 5. He taught the Christians of Ephesus (modern Turkey) to imitate God as those who looked to their Father for their example. In verse two, he added, they were to love as Christ loved. How did Christ love? He gave His life as a sacrifice for the sins of each person, as the sacrifice for people, and an offering to the Father to give righteousness to sinners. From Ephesians 5:3-21, Paul told these Christians how their lives were to be an offering and sacrifice because of love for God and people. He stated several things. The most important were from verse 18a and 21. Paul told them to “be filled with the Spirit” and “be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” By doing these, Christians could be imitators of Christ.
If you consider Ephesians 5:1 and Luke 18:31, Jesus and Paul taught, in word and by example, each Christian is to imitate Christ. Jesus would not have explained what would occur to Him soon, nor would He have told them, in reply to Peter’s statement, that His followers would receive more when following God, if He did not expect His disciples would imitate Him and incur the same treatment of hate, persecution, ostracism, and death by other people’s hands. He, to the disciples, was first their Rabbi, their Teacher. When they called Him Teacher and Lord in John 13, Jesus told them they were correct in calling Him that. So, He spoke to them as Teacher in Luke 18 and as the Savior. Jesus’ life, in the days soon after that lesson, would teach them by example what following Him required. This explains why Jesus reminded them if they gave up everything, including their homes and families, for the sake of the kingdom of God, then God would give them even more than they sacrificed for His purposes. Jesus’ example of sacrifice and submission to the Father’s purposes, to provide the sacrifice for the sin judgment of each person, would replay in their minds and spirits the rest of their lives. It would show them how, why, and of whom they would imitate (Ephesians 5). They would follow Jesus’ example because of their love for God and for people. The disciples received redemption like any other person who trusts in Jesus. They gave their hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits to God in submission because of love for Him and His purposes and because of love for people, so they could hear about the redemption from sin Jesus provided and grow to know and become more like Him daily.
With Ephesians 5:21, Paul emphasized the new meaning of submission. He said it was part of being imitators or Christ. Just as Jesus submitted to God’s plan to live and die as the sinless sacrifice and payment of the judgment of humanity’s sins, so Christians can submit to God, too. Jesus knows people cannot submit their willful and rebellious nature to God or people in their own power. His Spirit, which He gives to live in each Christian, enables the person to be as He is. Like Jesus submitted Himself to God for His purposes, though it would cause Him immeasurable physical pain and departure from His heavenly home, Christians can submit to God’s purposes of love for Him and others through His indwelling Spirit. They can do it because of reverence of Him as the One having authority over them as Teacher, Savior, and Son of God.
Jesus told the disciples what the prophets had spoken in the Old Testament about the Son of Man dying for the sins of all people, then rising to reign in heaven. Christians’ following Christ’s example by being imitators of Him in word, thought, and action would occur because of who Jesus made them to be upon their belief in Him. He would enable them to do these things for the sake of God’s kingdom by His filling them with His Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). Christians will desire to imitate Christ because of their love for God and for all people.
Blessed are the children of God. They will experience persecution, slander, and sometimes death, yet, see God. Yes, thought that young lady. No matter what I will face as I imitate Christ, I will see God. My greatest blessing is God Himself.
“Be imitators of God as beloved children, 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.” (Ephesians 5:1-2 [NASB])
