Be Imitators of God

Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. ² And walk in love, as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. Ephesians 5:1-2

Brothers and sisters I want to start this blog entry by apologising for not being faithful in the ministry as I should. I’ve become lukewarm and I have not been ‘fighting the good fight’ as I should. Part of the reason (and I’m not saying this as an excuse) is that I have torn a ligament in my shoulder at work and have been off work for almost four weeks. It seems rather irrational to be off work for so long, but I work as a labourer in construction, so not many builders would want someone who is limited to light duties. Thankfully my boss has decided to keep me on despite the fact that they continue to pay out workers compensation. So I’ve been feeling like my place has felt like the constraints of a prison over the last four weeks and I’ve been in and out of depressive stages by not working regardless of having an income.

 I was watching a video last night with Sola church and there was something in the video that struck me. The video was about a Christian professor who gave insight into how worldviews are established and its purpose in everyone’s lives. He mentioned that as a Christian, we resume a Christian worldview, whereby our entire presuppositions are formed solely for the purpose of glorifying God. The second we wake up and consider anything outside of glorifying our Lord, than we have essentially given in to alternate presuppositions, much like giving into our fleshly desires (Romans 8:13).

Many of you might think that I’m a legalist in saying that our presuppositions need also to be focused on Christ and need alteration from our Lord as well. But that’s simply not the case at all! In fact the very reason why Christ died on the cross for us, gives us reason to be radically transformed in such a way that our thinking, actions and the way we speak are no longer a service for ourselves, but rather to glorify the Lord. This is synonymous with what Christ teaches us in Matthew 7:24-27, having our lives concreted on the Rock (that is Christ). And for the very reason why the apostle Paul gives us this command to be imitators of God! I don’t know of any greater command that is given in scripture than to be imitators of God.

Often we see scriptural reference to love mentioned on these almost motivational Christian posters, sometimes you might see them on social networking websites like Facebook within Christian circles. But here, Paul reiterates the meaning of love in the second verse. “Gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.” Without this perfect and pure action of our Lord Jesus Christ, none of us would know what true love is! And this in itself is true, if we know that all knowledge, wisdom and understanding of love comes from our great God! Without the demonstration of what Christ did for us on the cross, we would never have such a great command for us to follow. We wouldn’t know how to love, nor could anyone be able to love. We know love, as it was first given to us by our Lord “but God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” (Romans 5:8).

Our lives should reflect that we follow Christ who opposed culture radically! We follow the powerful and mighty God who gave us a command to love as Christ has loved us sacrificially. And we should likewise be imitators of our great Lord. This doesn’t mean that you will be perfect at doing this, but our daily focus should be to imitate our Lord knowing the depth of what He has done to redeem a people for Himself! Everything we have; thoughts, actions, words, resources and skills/abilities are all for Christ’ service. This is something that we as Christians should pay very careful attention to, that our lives to honour Christ do not end up like two hours to a week. Sunday church is not a place where you can fool God into presuming your Christianity, either you’re there to serve God and to hear the word preached to your soul, or you’re not there at all. Let us all love like our Lord has demonstrated and press on to ‘fight the good fight!’