Life of the Children of God

Ephesians 5:1-21

One Southern preacher used say, “Be what you is, ‘cause if you is what you ain’t, then you ain’t what you is.” What is he saying? He is basically saying, know who you are and live that way.

That is precisely what Apostle Paul is saying in today’s text. He is urging us, as disciples of Jesus Christ, to live like disciples of Jesus.

It is difficult these days to live as followers of Christ. It is easy to find examples of how not to live like Christ followers. Pete Rose, Ben Johnson, Richard Nixon, Alex Rodriguez, etc. When you look at the things around the world, and especially Korea, it is easy to see how there are so much deceit and mistrust. Look at the current political turmoil, how families are destroyed, and how the society is functioning. They are full of deceit. But sadly, things don’t get much better when you look at how churches are operating. They live life so different from things they claim to believe in.

But what’s the difference between them and us? It is simply that they got caught and we have not. We hide our lies and deceit well. We, as Christians, must try to live truthfully and sincerely.

Ray Stedman, in his book “Authentic Christianity,” says that there are three different ways Christians respond when they have done something wrong.
First, there are extremely small number of people, who admit their fault, seek forgiveness from God and neighbors, and try to live faithfully again.
Second, there are some who just continue to live in sin and drift further away from God.
And lastly, rather than admitting their fault and seeing forgiveness, they just continue to live as if nothing has ever happened, and lie to themselves, thinking that everything is okay. These are the people who are not holy, but who act as if they are holy.

True disciples of Jesus live with one mind, faithfully and sincerely. They know what is right and what is wrong. And no matter what the circumstances may be, they choose to do the right thing.

Paul spoke of these righteous life, and encouraged Ephesians church to live this way. And in doing so, he also reminded of Ephesian Christians, as well as the readers of his epistle, who they really were in Christ.

Who are we in Christ?
v. 1 – “dearly beloved children.”
We are beloved children of God. We are loved. What kind of love? The love that allowed us to be God’s children. Through the sacrifice of God’s one and only Son, we were adopted as God’s children.

v. 2 – “[Christ] gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
How did we receive this amazing love? It is not because we deserved it. It is not because we were better than others and more deserving of it than others. It was given out of good pleasure of God. It was given to us freely. But it was not free for God to give. God paid a tremendous price to give us this love.

What kind of love is this? It is a perfect and sovereign love of God.

There was a body shop in Greensboro, called Romans 8:36 Body Shop.
Romans 8:36 – “As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’”
The body shop owner said naming his body shop with this obscure verse opens up more conversation. He is able to explain that we should not worry about suffering too much, because of what follows afterwards, which is that God will carry us through no matter what.

Romans 8:37-39 – “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Nothing can separate us from this amazing love of God. Nothing!

And we are his beloved children. We all know how special parent-child relationships are. Children have access to all that is their father’s. No child pays their parents rent or meal fees. Everything is free.

Why? It is because they are children.
And imagine that God is our father.

As beloved children of God, what do we need to do? We need to imitate God. As children imitate their parents, so we too must imitate God. Children loves to imitate their parents. They brush the teeth the same way, wash their face the same way, and they imitate everything parents do. We too need to do the same, and imitate our father, God.

How do we do that?
We need to live the life of love. To imitate God is to live the life of God. The original language better translates as walking in love. It is to continue to push forward and love more and more.

As we think about the love we received through our Lord Jesus Christ, there is only one possible response. That is to live the life worthy of our identity in Christ daily.

Following verses teaches us how to live the life of love and distinguish between what is right and what is wrong.
v. 8 – Children of light vs. children of darkness.
v. 14 – those who are awake vs. those who are asleep.
vv. 15, 17 – those who are wise vs. those without wisdom.

There are things we should avoid doing.
v. 3 – “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed…”
There should not even be any sign, not even the littlest hint of these acts.
And in v. 4 – “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking…”

To sum these up, what it is saying is that we need to live life that is different from this world. It is difficult to live in this world, but to live differently from this world.

Look how sexual temptations are rampant in this world. This world thinks it’s foolish to keep your purity. They think that there is something wrong with you if you are trying to keep your purity. This world teaches us to live as whatever feels right to you. But we all know that sort of lifestyle only leads to one’s destruction.

I am sure that many of you have heard of ashleymadison.com. When the site was hacked and the list of people were released, there were many well-known people on that list. But what was even more sad was that there were many pastors and religious leaders on that list as well. Not only this event led to destruction of families, but many also took their own lives as a result.

There are other examples as well. In order to survive in this competitive world, people lie and cheat their way. Asian students, and amongst them the Korean students, are famous for doing couple of things well. One is cheating, and the second is taking their own lives away. Since they only chase after the values of this world, it leads to destructive lives.

I don’t need to continue to give examples to make my point.

But one important thing to note is that, because we are so exposed to these things, we also become insensitive to them. When one committed a sin for the first time, it hurts their heart and mind so much, but soon, their heart become calloused and sins are not that big of deal any more. This is the scary thing. When we do not control it and be careful, it will come back to devour us.

Another thing we need to watch out for is our words. Word can heal a person, but it can also kill a person. We all know how a coarse joke can leave a huge scar. V. 6 tells us that we ought not to deceive others with empty words.

v. 11 also says “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness.”
Aren’t our lives full of empty words and fruitless deeds? It is so easy and quite natural to speak the words of criticism and bring others down. We speak as if we know other people’s situation and judge them. Rather than the words of love and encouragement, we criticize them and bring them down.

I learn a lot about myself as I raise my children. There are times I am not a great father, but now I have gotten to the point that I can act like a good father. When my children break something, before, I would have gotten mad at them first. Why did you break it? You should have listen to mom and dad. You should have been more careful. But now, I tell them, “are you okay? You are not hurt, are you? Etc.” But that’s not what is going on in my mind. I just act that way outwardly.

While we may try to be nice to our loved ones, the reality is that we speak harsh words concerning others in our lives. Do we not take pleasure in gossiping about them, rather than having a constructive and encouraging conversations?

What is the result of such criticism and gossip?
V. 6 says “because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.” Take a look at our lives once again. Are we children of God or are we children of disobedience? If there is no sign of repentance and trying to live better for God in our lives, then we should not take comfort or fool ourselves into thinking that we are saved through Christ. But if there is even a hint of love towards God, so you will try to live like God’s children, then please listen to the following.

How should we live as children of God?

Rather than speaking foolish and offensive words, we need to speak the words of thanksgiving.
Our lives are gift from God. When you receive a gift, it is proper to give thanks for that gift and use it well. You should give thanks in words, but also by using it well.

Sometimes during Christmas, many of us participate in gift swaps. And when we get something we do not like, we keep it for a year and bring it to the next gift swap. You may have expressed your gratitude to the one who originally gave it to you, but when you recycle gifts, you know it’s not proper thanksgiving.

If God has given us new life as a gift, then we must live for God and offer up our lives as thanksgiving offering. We should sing the praises of thanksgiving to God, not only with our lips, but with our lives as well. Vv. 19-20 – “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everthing…”

Some people say that you live til 30, and you die when you are 70. But Paul says that there is a better way, and that is to “make the most of every opportunity” (v. 16). We need to seize every opportunity that comes our ways. Whether our days here on earth are long or short, we need to give our best.

Give our best! That’s easy to say. No one would dispute that we need to give our best. But we know that it is easier said than done.

Romans 7:14-15 – “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

So what can we do? Two things.

One, rely on God daily.
v. 18 – “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”
This passage is not just telling us not to drink or get drunk. There is a Greek god names Dionysus (Roman god Bacchus), and he is the god of alcohol. When one is drunk, they believe that this god enters their body, so they dance and move wildly to the music, because the spirit entered their body. So this talking about not relying on the true God, but on the idols of this world. It is following after the things this world teaches us to desire after.

But as Christians, we need to the filled with the Holy Spirit, and offer our lives to God and living sacrifice. Each and every day, we need to confess our need for our Lord and that we cannot do anything apart from him.

There is a saying that “God helps those who help themselves.” Nothing is further from the Gospel truth. God does not help those who think they can help themselves. Rather, God helps those who are helpless and hopeless. When you realize that you are hopeless apart from God, then God works. When we lay everything down that his feet, then the Lord works in our midst.

Secondly, we need to help each other.
v. 21 – “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
We need to rely on each other and help each other. We need to treat each other with respect, and offer words of encouragement and prayer for one another. As iron sharpens iron, so we must grow together and become more mature in the Lord.

This world is full of deceit; everywhere you look, as well as in our hearts. That is why they betrayed Jesus, who came with the Truth of God. Some 2000 years ago today, these selfish people were shouting “Hosanna, hosanna,” but in their hearts were deceit and malice. Only few days later, they yelled, “crucify him, crucify him,” and they continued “let his blood be upon our heads and our children’s heads.” Because they were captured by deceit and selfish desires, they abandoned Jesus, who came as the True Light, but sought after the release of a robber, Barabbas. This is the reality of the world in which we live.

In this world, we need to be different. As those who became children of God, through the cleansing blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we need to be the salt and light in this world. Not by our own strength, but by the power and strength of our Lord.

II Corinthians 3:18 – “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
Let us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, be made new daily, so that whether our lives are long or short, we would live the life worthy of the Gospel to the glory of God’s holy name.