Last year when we were just moving in to our house in Dundonald, we were also looking after our wee niece, who was about 3 at the time. She would follow us around, wanting to help, and get stuck into whatever we were doing. It was funny - if I leant against the window, she wanted to do it too. If I sat in a camping chair, she wanted to sit in one too. Wanting to do what uncle Gary did. Children imitate their parents - that’s what Paul is wanting us as Christians to do as well.
As Paul continues writing to the Ephesians, he highlights the call for us to be ‘imitators of God, as beloved children’ (5:1). What we see the Father doing, we’re also meant to be doing. And what we don’t see the Father doing, neither should we be doing that. We see this in three particular areas: Imitating God means we will be children of purity, children of light, and children of wisdom.
First of all, then, we’re confronted with the call to be children of purity. Look at verse 3: ‘But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you.’ Paul goes on: ‘Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place.’
It’s clear that our culture and society are obsessed with sex and sexual immorality. You can hardly turn on the TV, open a newspaper, or go online without some subtle or blatant references to sex and immorality. Whether it’s the Marks and Spencers advert which wouldn’t be complete without the girl in her underwear, or the way most movies have some suggestion of sexual tension or activity between the main characters, or the reporting of celebrity relationships and breakups with the sordid details in the kiss and tell newspaper stories.
The pressure from society is for us to accept immorality as normal. That everybody’s doing it and you’re out of touch if you’re not. That there are no boundaries or consequences for sex with someone who isn’t your husband or wife. These are ‘empty words’ - that if it feels good do it, and Paul says not to be deceived by them.
Paul gives us the reason why we’re to be different as Christians. We who are Christians are ‘saints’ - God’s holy ones, his beloved children. We’re to recognise who we are (saints) and whose we are - God’s, and live in the light of that - not with crude joking and easy chat about sexual immorality, because it is out of place, it is not proper among saints. It’s not that we aren’t to talk about sex - Paul isn’t calling us to be prudes, the frozen chosen - but ‘instead let there be thanksgiving’ (4). We don’t abuse the gift of God, but we thank God for the gift of sex, in its proper place within marriage. [It’s the difference between putting petrol in your car and putting petrol on the barbecue - in one place, where its meant to be used, and the other dangerous]
Especially on this Advent Sunday, though, there’s another key reason why we are called to be children of purity as we imitate God. Jesus is coming as judge, and will bring the inheritance of the kingdom. ‘For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous... has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.’ (5) Who is it receives the inheritance? The children - yet if we indulge in sin then we’re not children of God, we’re outside his kingdom. Rather, those who indulge in sin are ‘sons of disobedience’ - and the wrath of God is coming upon them.
Are you a child of disobedience? Are you outside the kingdom by your thoughts and deeds and words? Or are you a child of God, seeking to be pure in a sinful world? It’s not easy seeking purity when the world, the flesh and the devil are constantly attacking you. Let’s resolve to be children of purity, imitating our Father. What needs to change in your life? Reading those magazines? Your internet usage? Gossip?
There’s also the call to live as children of light. Paul says that as we trust in Jesus, we have been transferred, we’ve been changed: ‘For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.’ (8) It’s not something we can do for ourselves, but something that the Lord does for us - the lights come on, we can see things so much clearer.
But what does it mean to live as children of light? Clearly, there are some things that are wrong for us to do, so that Paul can say twice: ‘do not become partners with them’ (the sons of disobedience - 7), and ‘take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness’ (11). As Johnny put it the other day - when Wayne Rooney moved from playing for Everton to join Manchester United, he wouldn’t then help out Everton when they are playing his new team!
Those are the things we don’t do - but what do we do? Remember, the Christian life isn’t a series of rules - we’re not promoting legalism. Rather, it’s about our relationship with the Lord - as we ‘try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.’ (10). So as you go about your day think: ‘is what I’m doing pleasing to the Lord?’ Would the Lord be happy as he watches me tell a lie, or fiddle the books or the timesheet, or watch the unhelpful TV programme? Is what I’m doing something that I would want to be doing as the Lord returns? Verse 9 can be a help for us as we think about what pleases the Lord: ‘Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true)’ - is what I’m doing good, right, true?
As we walk as children of light, Paul also calls us to take no part in the works of darkness ‘but instead expose them’. It’s like going into a dark room, and turning on the light - and seeing the spiders / creepers / mice dashing off into the dark corner. How do we expose them? By being who we are - children of light. As Paul puts it in Philippians: ‘children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.’ (Phil 2:15) Our lifestyle is different to those around us.
I remember one summer working in a factory in Lisburn, and every Monday morning there would be stories of what my colleagues had been up to over the weekend. Inevitably they would ask what I had been up to - and it was very different. There were opportunities to shine God’s light in the dark places through being different. What about you? Are we different to those around us in work? Can our neighbours see that we’re different to the rest of the street? Remember who you are: children of light; and whose you are: beloved children of God. Are you imitating God in how you live?
Perhaps you know that you’re in darkness. You’re still stumbling in the dark - like in a power cut with no light at all. It’s dangerous, especially in an unfamiliar place. Last night we were driving to Dromara, and it was dark and foggy. We needed the lights for the journey. You need the lights turned on, your life turned around. Jesus says: ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’ (John 8:12)
There’s one more important element of imitating God. So far we’ve seen that we’re to be children of purity, and children of light. Verses 15 to 21 call us to be children of wisdom. Wise, because the days are evil. We’ve been reminded of that this morning. Things (to misquote D:Ream) can only get worse. The time is short - the Lord is returning, but in the meantime, things are getting worse, evil is everywhere!
We’re called, therefore, to look carefully how you walk - not as unwise but as wise. That means that we know we have a short time and we want to use it wisely, by understanding the will of the Lord - again, what pleases the Lord, what he wants us to do. How will you spend the rest of your time?
When you know the Lord’s will, then go and do it - our orders haven’t changed since the Lord gave the great commission to go and make disciples. We’re called to be getting ready for heaven, and helping other people get ready for heaven.
Paul gives us one example of this: don’t spend your time partying, but praising. Will you use your time getting drunk, or encouraging one another and praising the Lord? We’re not to be filled with drink, but filled with the Spirit (not spirits, as if Paul’s saying no beer but whisky’s ok)... Wise children are marked by thanksgiving and praise, fully sober and aware of the blessings of the Lord.
We can't do this on our own - it just turns into moral effort, legalism and self-righteousness. God gives us the Holy Spirit to help us become more like Jesus.
Paul calls us to be imitators of God, as beloved children - children of purity (against the backdrop of the normality of immorality); children of light (against the darkness of the world); and children of wisdom (against the foolishness of evil). But it’s not a multiple choice question - a ‘delete as applicable’ whereby you think, well, I could be a child of light, and wisdom, but purity is beyond me. Or, I don’t like the sound of being a child of light, but I’ll take the other two. The three are interlinked, so that to be a child of purity is to be a child of light and of wisdom, through being a child of God our Father.
These things are beyond us - we need God’s help. It’s not easy to go against the flow of the world - like a mighty flood water the devil tries to sweep us away. But it all comes back to who we are - saints, God’s holy ones, light in the Lord; and whose we are - God’s beloved children, the ones whom Christ loved and gave himself up for us. We are the saved, but we also must be the sanctified, growing in holiness, growing in likeness to our Father. Think back over the past year - are you more Christlike now than back in January? What will you do next year?
We’re in this together - perhaps over coffee you’ll ask someone you trust to pray with you for a particular struggle you’re facing; or ask someone to chat it over with you. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo is lamenting the task he has been given - to carry the powerful ring to Mount Doom to be destroyed. Gandalf replies: 'All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.'
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
This sermon was preached in St Elizabeth's Church, Dundonald on Advent Sunday 29th November 2009.
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