Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Ephesians · About this commentary
Walk in Love
Ephesians 5:1-5
1 Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. · WEB
The imitation asked for is of God himself, and the model given is a specific act of self-surrender rather than a disposition.
Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. The word behind imitators is the root of mimic, and the qualifier keeps it from presumption: children copy a parent because they belong to him, not because they are equal to him.
Verse 2 supplies the content, and it is not a quality but an event. Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us. The love to be imitated is defined by a handing over, and the letter uses the same construction of husbands three paragraphs later Ephesians 5:25.
The sacrificial vocabulary is deliberate: an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance, which is the language of the altar. What the readers are asked to imitate is described in the terms of a burnt offering.
Then verses 3 to 5 turn sharply to what love is not, and the list pairs two things a modern reader would separate: sexual immorality and covetousness. They appear together twice in three verses, and verse 5 names the second as idolatry outright. Both are ways of reaching for what is not given.
The standard for speech is set high — such things should not even be mentioned, and foolish talking and jesting are named as inappropriate. The letter has just made speech a matter of building others up Ephesians 4:29, and it is consistent here.
And the replacement offered is a single word: giving of thanks. Against covetousness, gratitude is the exact opposite motion — contentment with what has been given rather than appetite for what has not.
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