Outline
Background: One of the main problems of the Church of Ephesus was the division within the church. Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians were not getting along together. And in response to this, Apostle Paul gives the instruction that Christians are to be focused on imitating the heavenly father, which in turn will resolve the problems they were facing. And Christians are to imitate the heavenly father in three ways:
I. Christians are to walk in love
a. To walk mean to live one's life; the idea is that life is a long journey that we have to walk through.
b. There were four types of love in Greco Roman culture.
i. Agape: unconditional love like that of God's love to his children.
ii. Phileo: brotherly love.
iii. Eros: erotic love.
iv. Strogos: natural affection.
c. The love that Paul is referring to is agape, the unconditional love.
d. Jesus demonstrates his love to Peter despite his denials (Luke 22:61).
* In imitating the heavenly father, Christians are to first demonstrate the agape love, towardsthe fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
II. Christians are to put away the old self
a. Christians are not to continually live in sin after being saved.
b. Apostle Paul gives 6 specific characteristics of sin that Christians are to get rid of:
i. Sexual immorality: any type of sexual activities outside of marriage.
ii. Impurity: beyond the action, impurity encompasses thoughts, desires, words, intent of sexual immorality.
iii. Covetousness: any worldly thing that people may greed over (material possession to reputation).
iv. Filthiness: thoughts, words, desires, actions and everything else that are not godly.
v. Foolish Talk: any type of gossip to unnecessary talk.
vi. Crude joking: jokes or content of conversation that are derogatory.
*In imitating the heavenly father, Christians cannot continue to live in the old self, the life of sin.
III. Christians are to be apart
a. Being apart for Christians means not conforming into the patterns of this world.
b. Christians are to set themselves apart for God.
c. In biblical context, being holy refers to being apart.
d. Being holy means not engaging in certain activities or having certain lifestyles.
e. Being holy is not a suggestion, but a mandatory condition that all Christians are to have.
*In imitating the heavenly father, Christians are to set themselves apart, meaning be holy.
Conclusion: When Christians live the life of likeness of the father, there will be much less problems such as divisions within the church, as shown in the church of Ephesus.
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