Imitators of God — There Is No Other
A Two-Part Sermon Series on Ephesians 5:1–10 Pastor Matthew Diehl • May 3 & May 10, 2026
What better way to encourage someone toward a successful life than to imitate God? Over two Lord's Days this May, we worked through Ephesians 5:1–10 together — first looking at what it means to walk in love as God's beloved children, and then turning to the deceptions that pull us away from that calling. Pastor Matthew's full sermon recordings for both parts are below.
— PART ONE —
Part 1: Imitating God in Love
May 3, 2026 — Eighteenth Lord's Day
Ephesians 5:1–2 (NAS)Therefore, 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.
From his house arrest in Rome, awaiting his trial by Caesar (61–62 A.D.), Paul continues in his letter to build up his friends in Ephesus, focusing on God and His incarnation as the Christ/Messiah. This is accomplished by the gifts of God's Holy Spirit at work in their lives. Here, in verses 5:1ff, Paul has additional instruction and observations about the Believer's life practices.
What better way to encourage someone to have a successful life than to imitate God? Godly character starts with love, grace, and forgiveness — as opposed to selfish unforgiveness, bitterness, and hate.
Our Parent-Child Relationship with God
With this goal in mind, Paul describes the Believers in Ephesus as children of God who are to live lives in the love of God. It is noteworthy that God wants us to see ourselves as His children, thereby establishing our parent-child relationship with Him. The responsibilities of parents are to guide and protect their children. In reality, God, the creator, is the Father of all people. Obviously, He created us and has provided guidance to follow His plan for our lives.
First, God asks us to choose to surrender our hearts to Him. God asked Adam to do this in Genesis 2:17 when He gave Adam instructions not to eat from the forbidden tree. To comply with God, Adam was challenged to surrender his will to God's will. Adam and Eve, by exercising their God-given free will, did not follow God's will. They "prided up" and chose their own way. However, it was not their way — they chose to follow the Deceiver's way, that is Satan. In reality, we do not have our own way. Satan deceives people into adopting his ways as their own and then chooses to rebel against God. It is the Deceiver at work in them.
When we surrender our will to God and His plan for our lives, we receive a layer of protection from this fallen world. We still feel the effects of this fallen world, but we are greatly insulated from its full effects. With God's Spirit at work in us, we are better prepared to face the daily challenges life brings. Faithful Believers willingly pursue God's family plan. With this administration, the father's lead position in the family is to protect and guide his wife and children. Reading ahead in Ephesians 5, we see this in verse 25, where the husband may be called to lay down his life to protect his wife and family. This is accomplished physically and through spiritual instruction
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Psalm 78:5 For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they should teach them to their children.
Christ's Sacrifice as the Ultimate Love Offering
In verse 2, Paul highlights Christ's sacrifice as the ultimate love offering. From Paul's Jewish roots, he points to the Jewish sacrificial tradition as a portrait (fragrant aroma) symbolizing the price paid for sin in the sacrifice of Christ. He uses the Greek title "Christ" for Jesus, and not the Hebrew Messiah, perhaps to appeal to the Greek culture that God is for them too, not just the Jews. For God loves the whole world that whoever believes in Him will never perish (John 3:16). The Jewish sacrificial system was a symbol of what the Cross actually accomplished — what it could not do. We know that the animal sacrifices were never intended to pay the price of sin (Hebrews 10).
Idolatry Causes an Ungodly Life
In the following verses (Ephesians 5:3–5), Paul returns to warning the Ephesians of wrong, sinful life-choices that are not in God's plan for them. Once again, we see that Paul is concerned about the behavior of people he has known for years and has worked with. Paul must have known that some of them continued practicing life under the influence of the popular culture around them. Verse 3 depicts an alarming portrait of people within a Christian assembly. Paul's words are strong. He concludes that God will not allow such people into His kingdom.
I see this as a historical problem throughout Church history — people claim and want to be Christian, but they hold onto their former lifestyle to some degree. This is consistent with 1 John 1:6. Please observe in verse 5 that the catalyst for such an ungodly lifestyle is idolatry.
Ephesians 5:3–5 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
I recently listened to a sermon by Billy Graham, delivered in Denver in 1987. He likened idol worship to America's life-addictions of drugs, immoral pursuit of money, immoral entertainment, and political party power politics, to name a few. His warning to America was that people had slipped into idol worship by the lifestyle they pursued, away from God. The Evangelist Billy Graham made it clear that many things in our modern life can become unhealthy spiritual focuses that take us away from God's plan for our lives.
Speaking of idol worship in pagan life — it is easy to think of idol worship as praying to a personified rock or a rock image. Did the real God and His Word not say that Jesus was the only mediator?
1 Timothy 2:5–6 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. (See also Hebrews 9:15, 12:24)
