Ephesians 5:1-7. Yesterday’s reading was sandwiched between the first verse for today and Ephesians 4:24. Both of those verses deal with being like God. Bible experts call that an “inclusio”. It’s like a literary sandwich, Ephesians 4:24 and Ephesians 5:1 are the bread and the stuff in the middle is the meat. In this case the bread gives us the basic idea and the stuff in the middle fills up the sandwich. This is a “be like God” sandwich and inside we find some attitudes and actions to help with that. As I said in the last post the examples are true examples but I think the bigger idea is the reasons behind the actions. Those reasons really had the common idea of caring about other people. That was certainly the example Jesus set for us.

Today’s reading starts out with that very idea. In verses 1-2 we are told to imitate God by imitating Jesus. There are some things to notice in these verses. First notice that we are children of God, that means we are loved by God. I’ve heard some people say bad things about adoption but the fact is that when children are adopted it is because the parents want them. Some of us may have been a “surprise” to our parent, that doesn’t mean they don’t want us, but there is no surprise with an adoption and the parents certainly chose to have those children. God wants us to be a part of his forever family. Next notice that we are to live as God’s children by loving. As the example will show, we are to love others. We also saw that in yesterday’s post. Paul then uses Jesus as our example of how to love. He actually uses the title “Christ” rather than the name Jesus. I think Paul does that to keep his readers (and us) thinking about Jesus as the one promised through out the Old Testament, he wasn’t just some random guy, he was God’s plan to make things right between us and him all along. Notice that Jesus’ love is shown by the fact that he sacrificed himself for us. Don’t miss that last part, this was a willing action by Jesus, he was not forced to die on the cross, it was voluntary. The idea of a soothing aroma or fragrant aroma goes back to the Old Testament where people would make offerings to God. Some of the offerings in the Old Testament were mandatory, as reminders of certain facts about our (broken) relationship with God.   Other offerings were voluntary and most of the references to offerings being a “soothing aroma” relate to those types of offerings. The word used in the Old Testament has the idea of smelling something that makes you sigh, takes all the stress away. We are told that, to God, those sacrifices were like walking in and smelling cookies baking, or a cake, or maybe food on the barbeque. You see God cares for and loves us and doesn’t want us to pay the price for our sins (disobedience and rebellion toward Him). In the Old Testament when someone would give an offering voluntarily it showed that they seriously wanted a good relationship with God. That attitude is what made God ‘sigh” in happiness. Jesus’ offering of himself on the cross was an important part of God’s plan to fix our broken relationship with him and so it too made God happy (even though it was painful both to Him and to Jesus).

In verses 3-4 Paul gets back to the imitating Jesus thing. Our sacrifice isn’t by going and getting crucified it has to do with how we live our lives.  In these two verses Paul uses two lists of three items to start to help the Ephesian followers of Jesus understand how they ought to act. In the first list He tells them that their lives should not involve “sexual immorality, impurity or greed”. The first word comes from the Greek (the language the New Testament was written in) “porneia”. Our English word “pornography” comes from that word. In those days the word was used for being sexually involved with someone you were not married to. The second word could just mean something dirty but in the context it is probably also referring to sexual attitudes and actions that were different from God’s design. Some Bible experts try to link the third word, “greed” with the first two and make it about sex too. They say that “coveting your neighbors wife” (Exodus 20:17) is a greedy action that involves sex. The way the sentence is built in Greek however makes that connection very unlikely. The end of verse 3 tells us that these actions are not proper for God’s holy people. That word holy means dedicated to a special purpose. It’s like special dishes that a grandma or aunt or even your own family only uses on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Or maybe like a wedding dress that is only used on that one day. Keep that idea of a special purpose in mind and we will come back to it.

The second list focuses on three types of conversation. The first word is translate “obscenity” of “filthiness”. The first word generally means “intense ugliness, extreme unnaturalness”. In the context of what Paul is talking about obscenity and filthiness (or dirty talk) are probably pretty good translations. The second and third words were often used to describe the wild conversations at drunken parties. The second one also has the idea of talkativeness. And the third word was used in the culture of a quick witted person. In James we are told to be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. In Ecclesiastes 10:12-13 Solomon tells us that a wise man’s words are gracious but a fool is swallowed by his own lips. He then goes on to say that a fools words start out stupid and end up as evil madness. Interestingly the Hebrew (the language the Old Testament was written in) word translated madness is related to the Hebrew word for praise. Solomon tells us that a fools words end up being “evil praise”. I wonder if the idea there is that it gives God a bad reputation. Those verses in Ecclesiastes fit well with what Paul said in verse 3, that type of quick talkative “funny” (dirty) conversation doesn’t fit with God’s special people.

He ends verse 4 telling them they should be thankful instead. In the 1960 there was a phrase, “Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” Young people of that generation were trying to find peace, satisfaction, fulfillment, a reason for their personal lives in those three things. Here in Ephesians we have learned that God has made us a part of His forever family, we are special, we have a place and a purpose (See Ephesians 2:8-10). This is God’s free gift to us and it takes hold in our life when we rust and believe in it (faith). In the 60’s there was a lot of talk about love, mostly they were talking about the physical kind. Here in Paul’s day it wasn’t much different people we having wild drunken sex filled parties looking for peace and satisfaction in their lives. In some respects the 1960’s were a reaction by young people to the lives of their parents. The 1950 were pretty cushy for those young people. Their parents worked hard and had a lot of stuff, most of them anyway. There was still poverty in the world though and many of those young people blamed their parents. People were poor because others were greedy, that was the thinking. Many of those young people embraced the concept of “socialism”. Socialism decides for you what work you are best suited for and puts you to work doing it. You are a piece of the machine that makes up the society. Everything that the society produces is gathered together and each person gets a piece of it. At least that’s the theory. It is “forced sharing”. The problem is when things are forced they don’t fix us where we are really broken, inside. Remember back in Ephesians 4:28 Paul told believers to work hard so they could share with those in need. That is God’s solution and it fixes the need on the outside, the poor are fed, but it fixes us on the inside as we become more like God. Wild living doesn’t give us meaning and purpose and neither does greed. Paul is telling the Ephesian believers they have what fills up a life and gives it meaning and that they should be thankful for it.

Remember I said that yesterday’s reading was a literary sandwich. It was a “be like God” sandwich and that today’s reading explains to us how to be like God. Paul has started out by telling us to avoid greed and wild living, the things that the unbelievers do. In verse 5 he tells them that those activities don’t give people what they really want. Back in the 1960 Walt Disney built Disney World. Part of that was a place called EPCOT center. His vision for EPCOT was a modern city where people would live full happy lives; it was his vision for a utopia. The original utopia was the Garden of Eden, we broke that though, but God is in the process of restoring that, the original utopia is coming back. The Bible calls it the Kingdom of God. In it we will live forever, no more crying, no more sorrow, God will care for and provide for us for all eternity. But people who try to make it on their own won’t find it, won’t be a part of it. That is the warning in verse 5. Verse 6 tells us there is a price for disobeying God and not wanting to live in peace with Him; that price is not being a part of the kingdom. You see God doesn’t force us to be a part of His forever family, He invites us to be a part of it. The downside if, if you chose not to be a art of God’s forever family, His kingdom, you aren’t, you are on the outside. Outside, not God, inside God, and the Bible tells us that every perfect gift is from God.

Verse 7 then tells the believers not “partake” with those on the outside. That word “partake” translates a word that means “to share with” or “be a partner with”. Paul doesn’t want the followers In Ephesus to follow the losing crowd. They are winners through Jesus and he wants them, and us, to live that way. It all seems pretty negative but the reason we aren’t to be a part of that world, going the way the world goes, is that it doesn’t work. What works is becoming part of God’s forever family, that is what fills people up now and forever, that is what starts to get rid of the bad stuff in life, that is what starts to feed people on the outside and change people on the inside.

Remember above I said we have a special purpose. Our special purpose is to help the world find peace with God and an eternal place in His kingdom. That is the big idea behind Ephesians 2:10, that is the goal of the “good works” we have been created for, that is the “grace” or gift our words are to give to those who hear (Ephesians 4:25).   We can spend our lives being witty and making inappropriate joke, being the “life of the Party” but we won’t bring real life to anyone’ it will all die with us. Or we can live for God and bring eternal peace and joy to those around us by using our resources, especially our words, to bring people to God.

Lord thank you for having a plan to fix our broken world. Thank you for making that original “utopia” for us. I’m sorry for the part I have played in breaking it. Thank you for taking care of my punishment, I’m so sorry that you had to become a man and suffer death because of what I have done. Thank you for making that right, though. Thank you for building a new place, your kingdom, where peace and happiness and fullness will reign for all eternity. Thank you for offering that to all of us. Help me show people what that will be like through my actions. Help me not was time being “worldly cool” let my words and actions led people to you. Let my life encourage them to chose you. Thank you for loving all of us. I hope many many many will choose you.