Peter Barnes | Ephesians 5:1-2
SERMON NOTES
Imitating God in Love
(Ephesians 5:1-2)
– Martyn Lloyd-Jones: ‘This is the highest statement of Christian doctrine that one can conceive of or even imagine.’
1. God’s children are to imitate their Father.
– 5:1; imitate Paul (1 Cor.4:16); imitate Christ in Phil.2:5-8; 2 Cor.8:9
– we cannot imitate God’s incommunicable attributes like His being eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent; imitate His love and mercy (Luke 6:35-36); like Father, like children (Eph.1:5).
2. We walk in love as we give ourselves sacrificially.
– 5:2; walk worthily (4:1), walk in a holy way (4:17), walk as children of light (5:8), walk wisely (5:15)
– Eph.5:25; 1 John 3:16; Eric Liddell in Weihsien internment camp in China in 1943-1945
3. We can only love as people of the gospel
– 5:2; Gen.8:20-21; sacrifice is to God, not the devil as Origen thought
– When I survey the wondrous cross/ On which the Prince of glory died,/ My richest gain I count but loss,/ And pour contempt on all my pride (Isaac Watts)