Ephesians 5 1 16 commentary

EPHESIA S 5 1-16 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved
children
BAR ES, "Be ye therefore followers of God - Greek, “Be imitators - µιµηταᆳ
mimētai - of God.” The idea is not that they were to be the friends of God, or numbered
among his followers, but that they were to imitate him in the particular thing under
consideration. The word “therefore” - οᆗν oun - connects this with the previous chapter,
where he had been exhorting them to kindness, and to a spirit of forgiveness, and he
here entreats them to imitate God, who was always kind and ready to forgive; compare
Mat_5:44-47; As he forgives us Eph_4:32, we should be ready to forgive others; as he
has borne with our faults, we should bear with theirs; as he is ever ready to hear our cry
when we ask for mercy, we should be ready to hear others when they desire to be
forgiven; and as he is never weary with doing us good, we should never be weary in
benefiting them.
As dear children - The meaning is, “as those children which are beloved follow the
example of a father, so we, who are beloved of God, should follow his example.” What a
simple rule this is! And how much contention and strife would be avoided if it were
followed! If every Christian who is angry, unforgiving, and unkind, would just ask
himself the question, “How does God treat me?” it would save all the trouble and heart-
burning which ever exists in the church.
CLARKE, "Be ye therefore followers of God - The beginning of this chapter is
properly a continuation of the preceding, which should have ended with the second
verse of this. The word µιµηται, which we translate followers, signifies such as personate
others, assuming their gait, mode of speech, accent, carriage, etc.; and it is from this
Greek word that we have the word mimic. Though this term is often used in a ludicrous
sense, yet here it is to be understood in a very solemn and proper sense. Let your whole
conduct be like that of your Lord; imitate him in all your actions, words, spirit, and
inclinations; imitate him as children do their beloved parents, and remember that you
stand in the relation of beloved children to him. It is natural for children to imitate their
parents; it is their constant aim to learn of them, and to copy them in all things;
whatever they see the parent do, whatever they hear him speak, that they endeavor to
copy and imitate; yea, they go farther, they insensibly copy the very tempers of their

parents. If ye therefore be children of God, show this love to your heavenly Father, and
imitate all his moral perfections, and acquire the mind that was in Jesus.
GILL, "Be ye therefore followers of God,.... Not in his works of infinite wisdom
and almighty power, which is impossible; but in acts of righteousness and holiness, and
particularly in acts of mercy, goodness, and beneficence; as in forgiving injuries and
offences, and in freely distributing to the necessities of the saints; as the connection of
the words with the preceding chapter, and the instance and example in the following
verse show: and this should be done by the saints,
as dear children; and because they are such by adopting grace; being predestinated
unto the adoption of children, in the eternal purpose of God, and taken into that relation
in the covenant of grace; and which is declared and made manifest in regeneration, and
by faith in Christ Jesus: and they are dear, or beloved children, being loved with an
everlasting and unchangeable love, and which is the spring and source of their adoption;
and their being dear to him is seen by what he is unto them, their covenant God and
Father; and by what he has done for them, in giving his Son to them, and for them; as
well as in choosing, calling, and quickening them by his grace, and by the account he
makes of them, as his jewels, his peculiar treasure, and the apple of his eye; and by the
pity and compassion he has for them, and the care he takes of them; and therefore it
becomes them to imitate him; for who should they imitate and follow after, but their
Father, and especially when they are so dear unto him?
HE RY, 1-2, "Here we have the exhortation to mutual love, or to Christian charity.
The apostle had been insisting on this in the former chapter, and particularly in the last
verses of it, to which the particle therefore refers, and connects what he had said there
with what is contained in these verses, thus: “Because God, for Christ's sake, has
forgiven you, therefore be you followers of God, or imitators of him;” for so the word
signifies. Pious persons should imitate the God whom they worship, as far as he has
revealed himself as imitable by them. They must conform themselves to his example,
and have his image renewed upon them. This puts a great honour upon practical
religion, that it is the imitating of God. We must be holy as God is holy, merciful as he is
merciful, perfect as he is perfect. But there is no one attribute of God more
recommended to our imitation than that of his goodness. Be you imitators of God, or
resemble him, in every grace, and especially in his love, and in his pardoning goodness.
God is love; and those that dwell in love dwell in God and God in them. Thus he has
proclaimed his name, Gracious and merciful, and abundant in goodness. As dear
children, as children (who are wont to be greatly beloved by their parents) usually
resemble them in the lineaments and features of their faces, and in the dispositions and
qualities of their minds; or as becomes the children of God, who are beloved and
cherished by their heavenly Father. Children are obliged to imitate their parents in what
is good, especially when dearly beloved by them. The character that we bear of God's
children obliges us to resemble him, especially in his love and goodness, in his mercy
and readiness to forgive. And those only are God's dear children who imitate him in
these. It follows, And walk in love, Eph_5:2. This godlike grace should conduct and
influence our whole conversation, which is meant by walking in it. It should be the
principle from which we act; it should direct the ends at which we aim. We should be
more careful to give proof of the sincerity of our love one to another. As Christ also hath
loved us. Here the apostle directs us to the example of Christ, whom Christians are

obliged to imitate, and in whom we have an instance of the most free and generous love
that ever was, that great love wherewith he hath loved us. We are all joint sharers in that
love, and partakers of the comfort of it, and therefore should love one another, Christ
having loved us all and given such proof of his love to us; for he hath given himself for
us. The apostle designedly enlarges on the subject; for what can yield us more delightful
matter for contemplation than this? Christ gave himself to die for us; and the death of
Christ was the great sacrifice of atonement: An offering and a sacrifice to God; or an
offering, even a sacrifice - a propitiatory sacrifice, to expiate our guilt, which had been
prefigured in the legal oblations and sacrifices; and this for a sweet-smelling savour.
Some observe that the sin-offerings were never said to be of a sweet-smelling savour; but
this is said of the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. As he offered
himself with a design to be accepted of God, so God did accept, was pleased with, and
appeased by, that sacrifice. Note, As the sacrifice of Christ was efficacious with God, so
his example should be prevailing with us, and we should carefully copy after it.
JAMISO , "Eph_5:1-33. Exhortations to love: And against carnal lusts and
communications. Circumspection in walk: Redeeming the time: Being filled with the
spirit: Singing to the Lord with thankfulness: The wife’s duty to the husband rests on
that of the Church to Christ.
therefore — seeing that “God in Christ forgave you” (Eph_4:32).
followers — Greek, “imitators” of God, in respect to “love” (Eph_5:2): God’s
essential character (1Jo_4:16).
as dear children — Greek, “as children beloved”; to which Eph_5:2 refers, “As
Christ also loved us” (1Jo_4:19). “We are sons of men, when we do ill; sons of God, when
we do well” [Augustine, on Psa_52:1-9]; (compare Mat_5:44, Mat_5:45, Mat_5:48).
Sonship infers an absolute necessity of imitation, it being vain to assume the title of son
without any similitude of the Father [Pearson].
CALVI , "1.Be ye therefore followers. The same principle is followed out and
enforced by the consideration that children ought to be like their father. He reminds
us that we are the children of God, and that therefore we ought, as far as possible, to
resemble Him in acts of kindness. It is impossible not to perceive, that the division of
chapters, in the present instance, is particularly unhappy, as it has made a
separation between parts of the subject which are very closely related. If, then, we
are the children of God, we ought to be followers of God. Christ also declares, that,
unless we shew kindness to the unworthy, we cannot be the children of our heavenly
Father.
“ your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray
for them who despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of
your Father which is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the
good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
(Mat_5:44.) (153)

(153) “ institute an action against one who has injured us is human; not to take
revenge on him is the part of a philosopher; but to compensate him with benefits is
divine, and makes men of earth followers of the Father who is in heaven.” — Clem.
Ep., quoted by Eadie.
BURKITT, "Our apostle having, in the conclusion of the foregoing chapter,
exhorted the Ephesians to mutual offices of love and kindness towards each other, in
the beginning of this chapter he makes use of several very cogent arguments to
excite and quicken them thereunto.
The first of which is drawn from the example of God: as he had been kind to us, and
for Christ's sake forgiven us, let us therefore be followers of him, not as our God
only, but as our Father: Be ye followers of God, as dear children.
Where note, 1. The duty exhorted to: Be ye followers of God; that is, in all the
excellences of his communicable attributes, and particularly in the exercise of
universal goodness and kindness, mercy and forgiveness.
The argument exciting to this duty; as dear children; you are children, and who
should children imitate but their father? And you are dear children, will you not
imitate such a Father?
Learn from both, That such as lay claim to a relation to God, without imitation to
him, are not children, but bastards: they may be of his family, but not of his
household; of his family by instruction, but not by descent. There is no implantation
into Christ without an imitation, both of the Creator and Redeemer, Christ as a Son
over his own house: whose house are we, if we hold fast, & c. Heb_3:6
ISBET, "THE HIGHEST DIG ITY OF MA
‘Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also
hath loved us.’
Eph_5:1-2
We can follow God in love. In this ability our highest dignity as men resides, because
this allies us perfectly to God, as children to a father. Let us look first at some other
views of the dignity of man which are more popular.
I. Some discourse to us of the dignity of our humanity, whilst they describe the God-
like power of intellect, and how, in what it has done, and will do, it elevates us above
all other orders of creation, and allies us to God. There is truth in this, but it is not
the whole truth. We shall not discover the firmest ground of our alliance with God if
we seek it in that direction. The path of intellect leads us up towards God, but it
does not reach God.

II. But other voices dwell on natural forces and results, pointing, as in proof of the
dignity of our manhood, to the enduring monuments of our physical strength—great
cities built, the ocean covered with ships, mountains tunnelled, and the earth belted
with metallic rings for the transmission alike of mind and merchandise. Let no one
doubt that there is truth also in this, though not the whole truth nor the most
important truth.
III. But now, in the exercise of love, we may find that most real relationship with
God which gives to our nature its highest dignity. If the acts of intellect or physical
power be imperfect, the acts of love are perfect. A loving word or thought or deed
wants nothing to complete it: it does its blessed work, and does it fully, both to him
who gives and to him who receives it. The loving man is, in the full sense of the term,
a follower of God even as a child of a father.
Illustration
‘To all men of all orders and degrees—to poor and rich, servants and masters, to
labouring men and gentlefolk, to the unlearned and to scholars—the command goes
forth, “Be ye followers of God, as dear children.” You can follow God as partakers
of the Divine nature, which is Love. You can follow God in this most God-like
attribute as dear children. Let your daily life, then, be one of love. You may not be
rich in money, but be rich in love.’
BARCLAY, "THE IMITATIO OF GOD
Eph. 5:1-8
You must become imitators of God, as well loved children imitate their father. You
must live in love, as Christ loved you, and gave himself to God as a sacrifice and an
offering, a sacrifice which was the odour of a sweet savour to God. Let no one even
mention fornication and unclean living and insatiable desire among you--it does not
befit God's consecrated people to talk about things like that. Let no one even
mention shameful conduct. Let there be no foolish talking and graceless jesting
among you for these things are not fitting for people like you. But rather let your
talk be a gracious thanksgiving to God. You know this and you are well aware of it,
that no fornicator, no unclean liver, no one who gives rein to insatiate desire--which
is idolatry has any share in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you
with empty words. It is because of these vices that the wrath of God comes upon the
children of disobedience. Don't become partners with them.
Paul sets before his Christian people the highest standard in all the world; he tells
them they must be imitators of God. Later Clement of Alexandria was to say
daringly that the true Christian wise man practises being God. When Paul talked of
imitation he was using language which the wise men of Greece could understand.
Mimesis, imitation, was a main part in the training of an orator. The teachers of
rhetoric declared that the learning of oratory depended on three things--theory,
imitation and practice. The main part of their training was the study and the
imitation of the masters who had gone before. It is as if Paul said: "If you were to

train to be an orator, you would be told to imitate the masters of speech. Since you
are training in life, you must imitate the Lord of all good life."
Above all the Christian must imitate the love and the forgiveness of God. Paul uses a
typical Old Testament phrase, "odour of a sweet savour," which goes back to a very
old idea, as old as sacrifice itself. When a sacrifice was offered on an altar, the odour
of the burning meat went up to heaven and the god to whom the sacrifice was
offered was supposed to feast upon that odour. A sacrifice which had the odour of a
sweet savour was specially pleasing and specially acceptable to the god to whom it
was offered.
Paul takes the old phrase which time had hallowed--it occurs almost fifty times in
the Old Testament and uses it of the sacrifice that Jesus brought to God. The
sacrifice of Jesus was well-pleasing to God.
What was that sacrifice? It was a life of perfect obedience to God and of perfect love
to men, an obedience so absolute and a love so infinite that they accepted the Cross.
What Paul says is: "Imitate God. And you can do so only by loving men with the
same sacrificial love with which Jesus loved them and forgiving them in love as God
has done."
Paul goes on to another matter. It has been said that chastity was the one new virtue
which Christianity introduced into the world. It is certainly true that the ancient
world regarded sexual immorality so lightly that it was no sin at all. It was the
expected thing that a man should have a mistress. In places like Corinth the great
temples were staffed by hundreds of priestesses who were sacred prostitutes and
whose earnings went to the upkeep of the Temple.
In his speech Pro Caelio Cicero pleads: "If there is anyone who thinks that young
men should be absolutely forbidden the love of courtesans, he is indeed extremely
severe. I am not able to deny the principle that he states. But he is at variance not
only with the licence of what our own age allows but also with the customs and
concessions of our ancestors. When indeed was this not done? When did anyone
ever find fault with it? When was such permission denied? When was it that that
which is now lawful was not lawful?"
The Greeks said that Solon was the first person to allow the introduction of
prostitutes into Athens and then the building of brothels; and with the profits of the
new trade a new Temple was built to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. othing could
show the Greek point of view better than the fact that they saw nothing wrong in
building a temple to the gods with the proceeds of prostitution.
When Paul set this stress on moral purity, he was erecting a standard which the
ordinary heathen had never dreamed of. That is why he pleads with them so
earnestly and lays down his laws of purity with such stringency. We must remember
the kind of society from which these Christian converts had come and the kind of
society with which they were encompassed. There is nothing in all history like the
moral miracle which Christianity wrought.
JESTI G ABOUT SI
Eph. 5:1-8 (continued)
We must note two other warnings which Paul gives.
(i) He says that these shameful sins are not even to be talked about. The Persians
had a rule, so Herodotus tells us, by which "it was not even allowed to speak such
things as it was not allowed to do." To jest about a thing or to make it a frequent

subject of conversation is to introduce it into the mind and to bring nearer the
actual doing of it. Paul warns that some things are not safe even to talk or to jest
about. It is a grim commentary on human nature that many a book and many a play
and many a film has had success simply because it dealt with forbidden and ugly
things.
(ii) He says that his converts must not allow themselves to be deceived with empty
words. What does he mean? There were voices in the ancient world, even in the
Christian Church, which taught men to think lightly of bodily sin.
In the ancient world there was a line of thought called Gnosticism. Gnosticism
began from the contention that spirit alone is good and that matter is always evil. If
that be so, it follows that only spirit is to be valued and that matter must be utterly
despised. ow a man is composed of two parts; he is body and spirit. According to
this point of view only his spirit matters; his body is of no importance whatsoever.
Therefore, some at least of the Gnostics went on to argue, it does not matter what a
man does with his body. It will make no difference if he gluts its desires. Bodily and
sexual sin were of no importance because they were of the body and not of the spirit.
Christianity met such teaching with the contention that body and soul are equally
important. God is the creator of both, Jesus Christ for ever sanctified human flesh
by taking it upon himself, the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and Christianity
is concerned with the salvation of the whole man, body, soul and spirit.
(iii) That attack came from outside the Church; but an even more dangerous attack
came from inside. There were those in the Church who perverted the doctrine of
grace.
We hear the undertones of Paul's argument with them in Rom.6. Their argument
ran like this. "Do you say that God's grace is the greatest thing in all the world?"
"Yes." "Do you say that God's grace is wide enough to cover every sin?" "Yes."
"Then let us go on sinning, for God's grace can wipe out every sin. In fact the more
we sin the more chances God's grace will get to operate."
Christianity met that argument by insisting that grace was not only a privilege and a
gift; it was a responsibility and an obligation. It was true that God's love could and
would forgive; but the very fact that God loves us lays on us the obligation to
deserve that love as best we can.
The gravest disservice any man can do to a fellow man is to make him think lightly
of sin. Paul pleaded with his converts not to be deceived with empty words which
took the horror from the idea of sin.
THE CHILDRE OF LIGHT
Eph. 5:9-14
For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. You must behave as
children of the light, for the fruit of light consists in all benevolence and
righteousness and truth. You must decide what is well-pleasing to the Lord. You
must take no share in the barren works of the dark. Rather you must expose them,
for it is a shameful thing even to speak about the hidden things which are done in
secret by such men. Whatever is exposed to the light is illuminated. And everything
which is illuminated becomes light. That is why it says: "Wake, O sleeper, and rise
from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you."

Paul saw the heathen life as life in the dark; and the Christian life as life in the light.
So vividly does he wish to put this that he does not say the heathen are children of
the dark and the Christians children of the light; he says the heathen are dark and
the Christians are light. He has certain things to say about the light which Jesus
Christ brings to men.
(i) The light produces good fruit. It produces benevolence, righteousness and truth.
Benevolence (agathosune, GS 0019) is a certain generosity of spirit. The Greeks
themselves defined righteousness (dikaiosune, GS 1343) as "giving to men and to
God that which is their due." Truth (aletheia, GS 0225) is not in ew Testament
thought simply an intellectual thing to be grasped with the mind; it is moral truth,
not only something to be known but something to be done. The light which Christ
brings makes us useful citizens of this world; it makes us men and women who
never fail in duty, human or divine; it makes us strong to do that which we know is
true.
(ii) The light enables us to discriminate between that which is well-pleasing and that
which is not pleasing to God. It is in the light of Christ that all motives and all
actions must be tested. In the bazaars of the east the shops are often simply little
covered enclosures with no windows. A man might wish to buy a piece of silk or an
article of beaten brass. Before he buys it he takes it out to the street and holds it up
to the sun, so that the light might reveal any flaws which happen to be in it. It is the
Christian's duty to expose every action, every decision, every motive to the light of
Christ.
(iii) The light exposes that which is evil. The best way to rid the world of any evil is
to drag it into the light. So long as the thing is being done in secret, it goes on; but
when it is taken into the light of day, it dies a natural death. The surest way to
cleanse the depths of our own hearts and the practices of any society in which we
happen to be involved is to expose them to the light of Christ.
(iv) Finally, Paul says: "Everything which is illuminated becomes light." What he
seems to mean is that light has in itself a cleansing quality. In our own generation we
know that many a disease has been conquered simply by letting the sunlight in. The
light of Christ is like that. We must never think of the light of Christ as only
condemnatory; it is a healing thing too.
Paul finishes this passage with a quotation in poetry. In Moffatt's translation it
runs:
"Wake up, O sleeper, and rise from the dead; So Christ will shine upon you."
Paul introduces the quotation as if everybody knew it, but no one now knows where
it came from. There are certain interesting suggestions.
Almost certainly, being in poetry, it is a fragment of an early Christian hymn. It
may well have been part of a baptismal hymn. In the early Church nearly all
baptisms were of adults, confessing their faith as they came out of heathenism into
Christianity. Perhaps these were the lines which were sung as they arose from the
water, to symbolize the passage from the dark sleep of paganism to the awakened
life of the Christian way.
Again, it has been suggested that these lines are part of a hymn, which was supposed
to give the summons of the archangel when the last trumpet sounded over the earth.
Then would be the great awakening when men rose from the sleep of death to
receive the eternal life of Christ.

These things are speculations, but it seems certain that when we read these lines, we
are reading a fragment of one of the first hymns the Christian Church ever sang.
BI, "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.
Imitators of God
The apostle urges us to give and forgive. If ye be imitators of God, give, for He is always
giving.
I. Consider the precept here laid down—“Be ye imitators of God, as clear children.”
1. I note upon this precept, first, that it calls us to practical duty. In this instance
there can be no cavil at the too spiritual, sentimental, or speculative character of the
text; there can be no question as to the eminently practical character of the
exhortation—“Be ye imitators of God, as dear children,” for it points to action. “Be ye
imitators”—that is, do not only meditate upon God, and think that you have done
enough, but go on to copy what you study.
2. Next, this precept treats us as children, treats us as what we are; and if we are
lowly in heart we shall be thankful that it is worded as it is. If you are not His
children you cannot imitate Him, and you will not even desire to do so.
3. Observe next, that while it thus humbles us, this precept ennobles us; for what a
grand thing it is to be imitators of God! It is an honour to be the lowliest follower of
such a Leader. Time has been when men gloried in studying Homer, and their lives
were trained to heroism by his martial verse. Alexander carried the Iliad about with
him in a casket studded with jewels, and his military life greatly sprung out of his
imitation of the warriors of Greece and Troy. Ours is a nobler ambition by far than
that which delights in battles; we desire to imitate the God of peace, whose name is
love. In after ages, when men began to be a less savage race, and contests of thought
were carried on by the more educated class of minds, thousands of men gloried in
being disciples of the mighty Stagyrite, the renowned Aristotle. He reigned supreme
over the thought of men for centuries, and students slavishly followed him till a
greater arose, and set free the human mind by a more true philosophy. To this day,
however, our cultured men remain copyists, and you can see a fashion in philosophy
as well as in clothes. Some of these imitations are so childish as to be deplorable. It is
no honour to imitate a poor example. But, oh, beloved, he who seeks to imitate his
God has a noble enterprize before him: he shall rise as on eagle’s wings. O angels,
what happier task could be laid before you?
4. While it ennobles us, this precept tests us.
(1) It tests our knowledge. He who does not know God, cannot possibly imitate
Him.
(2) It tests our love. If we love God, love will constrain us to imitate Him. We
readily grow somewhat like that which we love.
(3) It tests our sincerity. If a man is not really a Christian he will take no care
about his life; but in the matter of close copying a man must be careful; a
watchful care is implied in the idea of imitation.
(4) It tests us as to our spirit, whether it be of the law or of the gospel. “Be ye
imitators of God, as dear children”: not as slaves might imitate their master,

unwillingly, dreading the crack of his whip; but loving, willing imitators, such as
children are. You do not urge your children to imitate you; they do this even in
their games. See how the boy rides his wooden horse, and the girl imitates her
nurse. You see the minister’s little boy trying to preach like his father; and you all
remember the picture of the tiny girl with a Bible in front of her and an ancient
pair of spectacles upon her nose, saying, “Now I’m grandmamma.” They copy us
by force of nature: they cannot help it. Such will be the holiness of the genuine
Christian. Holiness must be spontaneous, or it is spurious.
5. While it tests us, this precept greatly aids us. It is a fine thing for a man to know
what he has to do, for then he is led in a plain path because of his enemies. What a
help it is to have a clear chart, and a true compass! Creatures cannot imitate their
Creator in His Divine attributes, but children may copy their Father in His moral
attributes. By the aid of His Divine Spirit we can copy our God in His justice,
righteousness, holiness, purity, truth, and faithfulness.
6. Another blessing is that it backs us up in our position; for if we do a thing because
we are imitating God, if any raise an objection it does not trouble us, much less are
we confounded. He who follows God minds not what the godless think of his way of
life.
7. This precept is greatly for our usefulness. I do not know of anything which would
make us so useful to our fellow men as this would do. I have heard of an atheist who
said he could get over every argument except the example of his godly mother: he
could never answer that. A genuinely holy Christian is a beam of God’s glory, and a
testimony to the being and the goodness of God.
8. A close imitation of God would make our religion honourable. The ungodly might
still hate it, but they could not sneer at it.
II. Secondly, I invite you, dear friends, as we are helped of God’s Spirit, to weigh the
argument. The argument is this, “Be ye imitators of God, as dear children.” First, as
children. It is the natural tendency of children to imitate their parents: yet there are
exceptions, for some children are the opposite of their fathers, perhaps displaying the
vices of a remoter ancestor. Absalom did not imitate David, nor was Rehoboam a
repetition of Solomon. In the case of God’s children it is a necessity that they should be
like their Father; for it is a rule in spirituals that like begets its like. I say to any man here
who bears the name of Christian and professes to be a child of God, either be like your
Father or give up your name. You remember the old classic story of a soldier in
Alexander’s army whose name was Alexander, but when the battle was raging he
trembled. Then Alexander said to him, “How canst thou bear the name of Alexander?
Drop thy cowardice or drop thy name.” Be like Christ, or be not called a Christian. The
argument, then, is that if we are children we should imitate our Father; but it is also said
“as dear children.” Read it as “children beloved.” Is not this a tender but mighty
argument? How greatly has God loved us in that He permits us to be His children at all.
III. Next, I desire to suggest encouragements.
1. God has already made you His children. The greater work He has Himself done for
you; that which remains is but your reasonable service.
2. God has given you His nature already. It only remains for you to let the new
nature act after its own manner.
3. The Lord has given you His blessed Spirit to help you.

4. The Lord allows you to commune with Himself. If we had to imitate a man, and
yet could not see him, we should find it hard work; but in this case we can draw nigh
unto God. You know the Persian story of the scented clay. One said to it, “Clay,
whence hast thou thy delicious perfume?” It answered: “I was aforetime nothing but
a piece of common clay, but I lay long in the sweet society of a rose till I drank in its
fragrance and became perfumed myself.”
IV. Certain inferences.
1. God is ready to forgive those who have offended Him.
2. God is an example to us, therefore He will surely keep His word. He must be
faithful and true, for you are bidden to copy Him.
3. Another inference—only a hint at it—is, if you are told to be “imitators of God, as
dear children,” then you may depend upon it the Lord is a dear Father.
4. Lastly, when the text says, “Be ye imitators of God,” it bids us keep on imitating
Him as long as we live: therefore I conclude that God will always be to us what He is.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The deity of believers to imitate God
I. We are required to imitate God.
1. We were originally created in the Divine image and likeness; and it is God’s design
to restore us to it.
2. Several things must precede this.
(1) We must be convinced of sin.
(2) We must be pardoned and purified.
(3) We must have the spirit of adoption bestowed upon us.
3. There are some great and important points in which we never shall resemble
God—in which it would be impiety even to attempt it.
(1) We shall never resemble Him in form.
(2) Nor in His independence.
(3) Nor in His majesty and greatness.
4. Still there are several points in which we may, and must, resemble God.
(1) In knowledge. The Lord is a God of knowledge; and His people are to be a
wise and understanding people. It is the will and pleasure of God that we should
examine, investigate, and explore; and the more we know of truth and wisdom
the nearer do we approximate to His own infinite intellect and understanding.
(2) In purity of heart.
(3) In love of truth.
(4) In justice and rectitude of mind.
(5) In mercy, beneficence, long suffering.
(6) In tranquillity.

(7) In love.
(8) In holiness.
II. The manner in which this is to be accomplished.
1. There is God’s part in this matter. He must give us grace; and He has promised to
do so.
2. Our part.
(1) We must contend with the evil passions and principles of our corrupt nature.
(2) We must aim at this imitation.
(3) We must look at our Model—the Lord Jesus Christ.
(4) We must use the appointed means of grace. (James Stratten.)
Followers of God
First, if we are followers of God, we have perfect trust in Him, “we know in whom we
have believed.” Next, if we are His followers, we must expect to be led sometimes into a
path of sorrow and trial. Then again, if we are followers of God, we must expect to pass
through the wilderness of temptation and self-denial. Again, we are bidden to be
followers of God, “as dear children.” What does that imply? Surely it means obedience,
simplicity, purity. Then, following God, as dear children, means purity. The child who
goes out with his father feels it a privilege and an honour, and so he is washed and clean,
and wears his best clothes. My brethren, if we are followers of God, we shall strive to
keep ourselves pure. (H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, M. A.)
Following God
I. The duty enjoined—“Be ye followers of God.” The word “follower” does not merely
mean one in the retinue—an attendant. It means more—an imitator. It is applied to
those who personate others, and appropriate their looks, manners, and gait. From the
original word we have our English translation, “mimic,” which, although often used in a
ludicrous sense, here is to be understood in a very solemn and important signification.
Wherein then can we imitate God?
1. In character. So far as revealed to us, we may imitate the character of God.
2. In desire. We may be actuated by the same desires as actuate the Almighty.
3. In feeling. God hates sin. To follow is more than to profess. It is carrying into
action the principles of Christian life. It must be—
(1) invariable;
(2) persevering;
(3) faithful;
(4) sincere.
II. The plea by which it is urged—“as dear children.”

1. Children will follow their parents from love and respect.
2. Children will follow their parents from a desire to gain their approval.
3. Children follow their parents in order that they may fit and prepare themselves,
when grown up, for the same sphere and position of life. So with the Christian. He is
looking forward to the period of his maturity when he shall be like his. Father in
heaven. (Preacher’s Analyst.)
The duty of imitating God
Let us illustrate the spirit in which the exhortation before us ought to be obeyed.
1. The spirit, therefore, in which such men ought to comply with the exhortation is,
in the first place, the spirit of reverence and humble subjection to the Divine law.
2. But, I observe, that the spirit expressed in the text—the spirit in which we should
comply with the exhortation, is the spirit of grateful, cheerful compliance with the
will of God, as dear and beloved children. The love of children to an earthly father is
always conjoined with admiration of the virtues of the father, and a desire to imitate
him.
3. In the last place, the spirit in which the exhortation ought to be obeyed is the
spirit of humble dependence for grace from God to help us. The spirit or disposition
of children is the spirit of conscious weakness and dependence. (P. McFarlan, D. D.)
Christians must resemble God
I. Wherein we are to resemble Genesis The context mentions one thing in particular,
viz., pardoning and forgiving the wrongs done us by others. We need not confine our
thoughts, however, to that only. In Scripture we are pressed to follow God in two
things—in holiness and mercy. Well, then, let us now state the matter.
1. Negatively. This following and resembling of God standeth not in His natural, but
moral perfections. God doth not say, Be ye strong, as I am strong, or, Be ye happy, as
I am happy; but, Be ye holy, as I am holy; merciful, as I am merciful. Our loss by sin
is more in point of goodness than of power and knowledge.
2. Positively. The chiefest excellencies are—
(1) His holiness.
(2) His goodness. “God is love.”
2. He hath given us the example of Christ, or God in our nature, who came for this
end and purpose, that we, who cannot fathom the unsearchable depth of the
Godhead, might see the Divine perfections shining forth in the human nature of
Christ, who was the character and express image of His Divine glory (Heb_1:3):
Christ was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Heb_7:26). They that
cannot directly look on the sun may see the motion of it in a basin of water. To
express an image, there must be similitude or likeness, and a means of deduction or
conveying the likeness.
II. What provision God hath made that we may be followers of Him.

1. He hath given us His Word to stamp His image upon our souls.
2. He hath given us the example of Christ, or God in our nature.
3. He hath given us His spirit to change us into the likeness of Christ (2Co_3:18).
None else is able to renew us to the image of God, there being such an averseness in
man’s heart, which cannot be cured by our bare thoughts.
III. I prove the point by these reasons.
1. This image of God was our primitive glory and excellency. “Let us make man in
Our image, after Our likeness.” (Gen_1:26).
2. This is the effect, of our new creation and regeneration; for it is said (2Pe_1:4),
that to us are given exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might
be partakers of the Divine nature, Nothing so like Him as the new creature.
3. This is that which we hope shall be completed in heaven, and therefore it must be
endeavoured here. “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1Jn_3:2;
Psa_17:15). The heaven that we look fro’ is such a vision as maketh way for
assimilation, and such an assimilation to God as maketh way for complete
satisfaction and blessedness in Him.
4. We must not omit the argument of the text—“as dear children”; wherein two
things are considerable.
(1) The relation;
(2) The love that accompanieth it.
1. The relation. Ye are children. Children usually resemble their parents, either by
nature, in the lineaments of their face, or by institution and education, in the quality
of their minds. It may fail there, but it always holdeth good here; for none are God’s
children but those that are like Him.
2. The love that accompanieth and goeth along with this relation—“as dear children.”
(1) There was a great deal of love showed in giving us our new nature in
regeneration, and taking us into so near a relation to Himself as that of children
(1Jn_3:1).
(2) There is a great love and tenderness exercised towards those that are in this
relation. They are His “dear children,” and they shall know it by His fatherly
dealing with them.
(3) The more like to God we are, the more dear we are to Him, and the more
amiable in His sight; so that you are not only loved, but lovely.
(4) Our chief worship of God consists in imitation; not in contemplation or
admiration only, or in bare praise and adoration, but in imitation, when we study
to be like Him. Now to this end—
1. Get a due conception of God.
2. Esteem these things as amiable. We can neither praise, nor love, nor imitate, what
we do net esteem. Is holiness the glory of God? and will you either scorn it in others,
or neglect to get it yourselves?
3. Desire God to change your natures, that you may bear the image of the heavenly
One (1Co_15:49).

4. Bewail your imperfections, and come nearer to your Pattern every day. (T.
Manton, D. D.)
Imitators of God in wisdom and power
I. The imitation of God’s wisdom. It is written—I take one example—it is written, “No
man knoweth the Son but the Father”; they, therefore, who are studying the Son under
the Father’s teaching, are in the most direct way imitating God Himself in the matter of
knowledge. Again, we may imitate God in the knowledge of human nature.
II. The imitation of God in power. This would seem, like the other, to be almost an
unintelligible precept till we begin to ponder it more thoughtfully. Then we must be
struck with several passages of Scripture which represent power as one of the
characteristic Christian endowments, as when St. Paul says, “Ye received not a spirit of
fear, but ye received, when ye became Christians, a spirit of power”; or our Lord, “that ye
receive power, in that the Holy Ghost is come upon you”; or St. Paul again, “I can do all
things,” or, more literally, “I have strength for all things, through Christ which enableth
me”; or St. John in the opening verses of the Apocalypse, “He hath made us kings”; “I
appoint unto you a kingdom as My Father hath appointed unto Me.” We must dismiss
altogether the first idea of power as a selfish or personal ascendency over a multitude of
subjects or inferiors. If we examine it we shall find that the power in which we are to be
imitators of God consists in two things—the one a power over ourselves, and the other
an influence over others, both alike due to the same cause—the ever-present help and
strength of the Holy Spirit. We are forever misreading and miscalling power. We look for
it, we seem to see it, in some form or other of the self-strength. We call a man powerful
who by the force of intellect, or of eloquence, or of station, can overbear his opponents,
enthral his hearers, or make a nation bow down to him. In all these workings of power it
would be ridiculous, it would be irreverent, to see any approach, however infinitely
distant, to the imitation of God. But it is otherwise when we come into successful
conflict, however insignificant may seem to be the form of it, with God’s one foe, which
is the power of evil. And yet once more, and finally, the imitation of God’s power in
conquering a sin passes on into the imitation of God’s power in the exercise of influence.
That marvellous word influence, which is the flowing in into one soul of a mysterious
something out of another soul; is it not the very highest of God’s operations and power?
Is it not that which quickens dead men out of the sleep of death? Is it not that which
changed Saul of Tarsus into the blessed apostle and evangelist St. Paul? Is it not that
which even in these late days of the earth is every day bringing some new wicked rebel
into the gracious obedience of Jesus Christ? Is it not just that flowing in of the Holy
Spirit into the spirit that is in man? And is there any exercise of God’s power quite so
wonderful as that? (Dean Vaughan.)
Following as children
This figure of following may be drawn from any of several sources. A soldier follows his
leader; and sometimes in Holy Scripture following is set forth by that figure. Scholars,
also, according to the Oriental method of instruction, where the teacher walks in some
shaded garden, follow their instructor. The Rabbi, in Palestine, with a band of disciples,
moved from village to village, teaching the people; and so this, too, is a Scriptural figure.
But the image we have here is that of little children following after their parents; and no
picture could be more charming than that which rises to the imagination of everyone

who has been blest in his childhood’s home—the figure of little children watching their
mother, running after her if she leaves the room, crying for her, clinging to her, asking to
be lifted by her, dependent, seeking their own little liberty always within the scope of her
eye. Now, we are to “follow God as dear children”; and He, therefore, is to be to us of
necessity a Father, or we cannot follow Him as children. If, to our conception, therefore,
He is a God of fate, whose decrees are fitful coercions: if our conception of God is that of
one in whom is all power, and all will, and a rightful wilfulness, it is impossible for us to
follow such an ideal of God as dear children. Or, if He be to our imagination
intellectualized into an abstract God of perfect purity, with such a revulsion from evil,
and discord, and sin that he cannot for a moment tolerate it in the universe, but sits
conscious of His own everlasting purity, demanding purity in everyone inexorably, you
cannot follow such an aspect of God as dear children. A child can follow a smiling
mother or a benignant father; but you cannot persuade a child to follow a stern-browed
stranger, nor anyone that stands in the attitude of a judge, whose face is clothed with
frowns. Children flee from such a face. It is not in nature that they should be attracted to
it. We may follow God by veneration, by a worshipful emulation; but it must be in such a
way as dear children can follow. For there are, or have been, I doubt not, to every one of
us, moments in which the goodness of our mother and the superiority of our father have
acted back upon us, and we have been made to feel how inferior we are to them; and we
look up to them, and we rejoice in that greatness which maker us feel how inferior we
are. And so, a loving child of God may rejoice in his own sense of abasement and
inferiority, because he loves God; and out of love there may come veneration,
humiliation, and prostration of soul. The whole system by which men are meant,
through a sense of their own sinfulness, to be humble and prostrate before God, is not
only derogatory to the supreme idea of manhood, but is degrading to the sense of man;
and men who are all the time looking at their own imperfections and sins, and studying
them, and, as it were, stewing them in their own consciousness, and living upon a
perpetual sense of their inferiority—such men are not wholesome-minded. That is not
the way that dear children live at home. You would not let them. As little as you have of
the Divine nature in you, you are conscious that that could not be the proper aspect of
the experience of children at home; and that, if they love you and feel the warmth of your
love, they cannot forever be abiding in a morbid consciousness of their own weakness,
imperfections, and misdoings. There must be the upspring of hope, and faith, and trust,
and love, or the child cannot be a dear child at home. And still less is fear compatible
with following God as dear children. There is a filial fear. There is nothing more
solicitous than love. The child, anxious to please, looks with waiting expectancy to see if
its task has pleased father or mother. The child that is learning to write, or that is
studying art, and, making sketches, brings them to the teacher or to the parent, comes
with a kind of trembling apprehension lest they should not be approved. That is
honourable. That has the approval of affection itself, and it is ennobling. But the fear of
anger, the fear of penalty, the fear of our own suffering and loss, is admirable only in
very remote degrees, and occasionally, when other motives fail. And yet, there is a filial
fear, a love fear, which not only is permissible, but is honouring and uplifting. (H. W.
Beecher.)
Two methods of imitating God
There are two ways of imitating a person; the one making that person our model, the
other our example. The first does the exact deeds, lives in the same way, dresses in the
same colours, without regard to the differing circumstances; and this always leads to

error. The other way is to imbibe the same spirit, to have the same character, and thus
do what our example would have done in our circumstances. Almost nothing is said of
what things Christ did as a boy, or how He lived, lest we make Him only a model. But we
are shown His spirit of obedience, and goodness, and growth, that we may take Him for
our example. (S. T. S. Nonich.)
Imitators of God
Literally: “Become ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.” These words may
be regarded as indicating the great subjective object of our lives. God’s purpose
concerning us is to conform us to the image of His own blessed Son. Our purpose
concerning ourselves in our own life and conversation should be to become “imitators of
God as dear children.” Man was originally created in the image of God; but observe, in
His image potentially rather than actually—just as the child is the image of the man, or,
as we may say, the acorn contains potentially the image of the oak, inasmuch as it
contains within itself that which will develop into the oak. Man was made innocent and
pure, and so far in the image of God. But the positive attributes and qualities which are
God’s highest glory, and by which His glory is to shine forth through humanity, could
not be exhibited till man had been submitted to a probation. Jesus Christ not only died,
but lived—lived a life of perfect and complete obedience—in order that by that life He
might bring within our view the image of God displayed in a truly perfect man. Thus the
Divine image lost in the Fall has been restored to humanity in all the completeness of its
moral beauty in the Incarnation, and as we contemplate it we learn to admire it, and
become enamoured of it. In that revelation we have an opportunity of seeing both what
God is and what man is designed by Him to become. As we have endeavoured to show,
then, we need to have an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the object to be
imitated, in order to imitate it; and then, when this is granted, we need carefully to study
it. You cannot imitate the productions of a great painter unless you give your whole
attention to that painter’s style. It is not sufficient for you to have a general idea of the
characteristics of his genius; you have to study the details of the works of art proceeding
from his pencil; and only when you have made yourself acquainted with the various
peculiarities of his style and the features of his work, are you in a position to become an
imitator of that painter. And as with painting, so with every other art: we all know this.
My friends, it is even so with our spiritual life. If we are to become imitators of God, as
dear children, we first need to have a model set before us in such a form as that we can
comprehend it, and next we need to study the model so set before us. And we have
reason to thank God that the Divine model is brought down within reach of our finite
powers of contemplation. If God had never been incarnate, and if Jesus had not come
down to show Him to us, we might have been left to barren speculations about the
Divine character and attributes, as were the ancient heathen philosophers. “Believest
thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you
I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” And this
is surely the true answer to that dreary doctrine of the incomprehensibility of the
Absolute—preached some time ago by an eminent thinker amongst ourselves, a
Christian philosopher of no small repute—a doctrine which, if carried to its ultimate and
practical issue, must be destructive alike of all true religion and morality. It was
advanced by this author that because God is absolute, He is unknowable by the finite,
and because He is unknowable, therefore His moral qualities may be totally different in
kind from all that we understand by terms employed to indicate them; that the “justice”
of God, for example, may be a totally different thing from what we understand as justice,

and His goodness a totally distinct thing from what we understand as goodness, and so
on with each moral attribute in particular. This position, as I have said, seems to me
subversive of all true morality, while it strikes at the root of all reasonable religion. For if
God’s qualities are different in kind from what I understand by the terms employed, why
may not the greatest criminals be nearer the standard of Divine perfection than the
worthiest of mankind? And how is it possible for me to admire, love, and, above all, trust
a Being, of the nature of whose moral attributes I know practically nothing? Atheism
itself were a relief as against the possibility of having to deal with such an unknown God.
But the answer to such an appalling deduction of a pitiless logic is to be found in the fact
that the perfections of the Absolute are presented to us in a concrete form in the Person
of Jesus Christ. As we gaze upon Him we see what God is, and what He desires us to
think and know of Himself. And we find here that God’s moral perfections are identical
in kind with those qualities which we recognize as such, and after which we aspire; that
the justice of God is the same as that which we understand by the word justice; that the
love, the purity, the truth, the faithfulness, which we regard as attributes of Deity, are
the same in kind, though fuller in degree, as those virtues which bear these names
amongst ourselves. For we observe that never were these so perfectly exhibited as in the
life, character, and teaching of Him who completely revealed to us the image of God. Let
me say, therefore, do not trouble yourselves because God seems so vast that you cannot
comprehend Him, or because His attributes are so infinite that your imagination cannot
grapple with them. Do not allow yourself to lose hold of the Divine Personality in the
attempt to recognize His infinity. But to become closely acquainted with this model, and
to be able to imitate it, we need not only to have it, but to study it. And hence the
necessity of the careful, painstaking contemplation of the Christ of the Gospels. But to
have the Model and to study it is not all that is required to render our imitation of God in
Christ all that it should be. We must be careful not only to imitate the one true Model,
but to imitate it in the proper way. And the true evangelical method of imitation is
indicated to us in these suggestive words, “Be ye imitators of God, as dear children.” It is
in the nature of things that the child should imitate its parent. As a matter of fact,
children for the most part do imitate their parents. The child of a carpenter will probably
never be happier than when he can get a hammer and a few nails and make as much
noise with them as possible, while he is endeavouring to imitate the skill of his parent,
although with very poor success. The child of the soldier will naturally select the toy
sword or gun or a noisy drum for its plaything. The child of the clergyman will delight in
addressing an imaginary congregation, or perhaps a congregation of chairs and stools,
with much vehemence, if with no great amount of intelligence. But why multiply
illustrations? It is a fact we are all familiar with, that the child imitates the parent, not
because it is constrained to do so, but because it finds a pleasure in doing so, and that
just because it is, as we say, its father’s own child. We may learn a great deal from this.
The child receives a certain disposition by his hereditary relationship with his parent,
and this disposition has a tendency to exhibit itself in his future conduct. How important
it is, then, that in our own personal experience we should watch over all within us that
seems to come from God—watch over it with such care as the horticulturist would
expend on some lovely flower—some rare and beautiful exotic in his greenhouse. These
holy aspirations and purer instincts of which we are conscious have been introduced to
our nature by Divine grace; they come not of earth, they have their home in the very
heart of God Himself; and hence as tender exotics they need to be guarded and protected
against the cold breath of the blighting frosts of this wintry world of ours, which would
kill and destroy if possible every flower of Paradise. Give place at once to all that you
have reason to believe comes from God, and respond at once to those inward impulses
and instincts which are of a Divine origin. These are the motives of sonship, and by

surrendering ourselves to these we shall fulfil the direction of our text, “Be ye imitators
of God, as dear children.” But there is something more than this suggested to us by the
words. It is not merely that there are certain hereditary instincts which descend from the
father to the child, but it is also the tendency of the close relationship which exists
between the son and the father to strengthen these instincts, and to develop them into
habits of life. In the first place this relationship usually evokes on the part of the child a
feeling of admiration for the father. A little boy naturally thinks his father the greatest
man in the world. If the Queen of England were introduced into his home, he would
regard her as altogether a less important person than his parents. There is nobody so
great in the eyes of a little child as his father or mother; and it is well that this should be
so. And if we are the children of the Most High God, is it not more natural still that our
whole being should be under the influence of a feeling of admiration for the great Father
of spirits, from whom we derived our existence originally, and from whom we have
received that new spiritual life—that life by virtue of which we live indeed? This feeling
of admiration yields an additional stimulus to those instincts of imitation to which I
have already referred. With what interest does the little child look on while his father
engages in his ordinary employment. What a wonder of skill it all seems to him! And this
admiration prompts those unskilful little hands to attempt an imitation, however feeble.
I cannot help thinking that it is possible for us to exhibit in our spiritual experience
something like a servile imitation of God, when we only endeavour to imitate Him
because we think it is our duty to do so, and we may bring punishment upon ourselves if
we do not endeavour to fulfil this our appointed task. This servile imitation must lead us
into the region of mere legality, and when this is the case our imitation will be a travesty
rather than a copy; for when this is our motive one essential characteristic of a true
imitation will necessarily be absent—the element of joyous spontaneousness which
makes the imitation so specially well-pleasing in the great Father’s eyes. If therefore we
desire the true imitation of God let us see to it that we imitate Him as children, and as
dear children. But, as I have said, imitation requires to be carried out in detail, and we
have to study the work imitated in all its various parts if we would produce anything
really resembling it. In the present passage, however, St. Paul calls attention to some of
the more prominent features of the Divine character, in respect of which we are to be
imitators of God; and we will confine ourselves to a very brief consideration of these.
First he speaks of that kindness and tenderness which were so characteristic of Jesus
Christ: “Be ye kind,” he says, “one to another, tender hearted.” It is not enough that we
should abstain from being unkind. There is scarcely anything in the life of Jesus that
impresses us more than this. As He goes through the world, amidst all its sickening
sights and sounds, He never seems to lose His quick sensibility. The next feature of the
character of God mentioned here is His Divine readiness to forgive—“Forgiving one
another, as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” This leads us to the third point in
which St. Paul teaches us here to imitate God as revealed to us in Jesus; and it is the
grandest feature of all in the Divine character that is brought before us here. Nay, rather
it is the common element in which all other perfections meet; for “God is love.” “Walk in
love,” exclaims the apostle, “as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.” Kindness lies on the
surface of our lives, and has to do mainly with our outward manner and conduct; but
love is of the heart, its domain is within, where it lifts us from our native selfishness, and
developes the Divine. It is the genial warmth of that life blood that floweth forth from
the heart of God into ours, and makes us live indeed! Of love we can say no less than St.
John has said of it: “He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him”; for “God
is love.” It is the very essence of Deity, and he who has most of it imitates God the best.
Walk in love. Well, how shall we do it? How shall we become imitators of God in this

respect? We cannot create love by a mere effort of our will; but we may expose ourselves
to influences favourable to its development; we may foster and cherish it, or we may
check and hinder it—a thing which I fear too many Christians do. The instincts of love
naturally exist within those who are born of God, because we inherit the Father’s
characteristics; and the disposition to feel a new love for all with whom we have to do is
an instance of that hereditary imitation to which I have already referred. But love grows,
and is developed by exercise. If instead of checking these early impulses we encourage
them, and go on to love, not “in word or tongue, but in deed and in truth,” our
disposition to love will be strengthened by loving deeds and words performed or spoken
in obedience to the instincts of love. We may foster love negatively also by watching
against the narrowing instincts of selfishness, or against anything that tends to render us
self-absorbed, for charity seeketh not her own; and to seek our own is to strangle the life
of love at its very birth. It is well, too, ever to endeavour to look at the lovelier side of
human character, for most men have a lovelier side, and in Christian men this is the
Divine element. The mention of Christ’s gift of Himself brings us to the last point
referred to here in which it is possible for us to imitate God. Let us become imitators of
God in self-sacrifice. For self-sacrifice, wonderful to say, would seem to be the law of the
Divine benevolence. Be imitators of God in this. Selfishness is no attribute of Deity,
though for Him all exist. He fulfils His will in His creatures by making them partakers of
His own blessedness, and nothing less than this will satisfy Him. Men seek for greatness
in self-assertion, in pushing their own fortunes, and advancing their social status. But
the Divine secret of true greatness lies in self-denial and self-forgetfulness, in the willing
and cheerful surrender of our own rights and comforts and pleasures for the good of
others. (W. H. Aitken, M. A.)
2
and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and
gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and
sacrifice to God.
BAR ES, "And walk in love - That is, let your lives be characterized by love; let
that be evinced in all your deportment and conversation; see notes on Joh_13:34.
As Christ also hath loved us - We are to evince the same love for one another
which he has done for us. He showed his love by giving himself to die for us, and we
should evince similar love to one another; 1Jo_3:16.
And hath given himself for us - “As Christ also hath loved us.” We are to evince
the same love for one another which he has done for us He showed his love by giving

himself to die for us, and we should evince similar love to one another; 1Jo_3:16. “And
hath given himself for us.” This is evidently added by the apostle to show what he meant
by saying that Christ loved us, and what we ought to do to evince our love for each other.
The strength of his love was so great that he was willing to give himself up to death on
our account; our love for our brethren should be such that we would be willing to do the
same thing for them; 1Jo_3:16.
An offering - The word used here - προσφορά prosphora - means properly that which
is “offered to God” in any way; or whatever it may be. It is, however, in the Scriptures
commonly used to denote an offering without blood - a thank-offering - and thus is
distinguished from a sacrifice or a bloody oblation. The word occurs only in Act_21:26;
Act_24:17; Rom_15:16; Eph_5:2; Heb_10:5, Heb_10:8,Heb_10:10, Heb_10:14, Heb_
10:18. It means here that he regarded himself as an offering to God.
And a sacrifice - θυσίαν thusian. Christ is here expressly called a “Sacrifice” - the
usual word in the Scriptures to denote a proper sacrifice. A sacrifice was an offering
made to God by killing an animal and burning it on an altar, designed to make
atonement for sin. It always implied the “killing” of the animal as an acknowledgment of
the sinner that he deserved to die. It was the giving up of “life,” which was supposed to
reside in the “blood” (see the notes on Rom_3:25), and hence it was necessary that
“blood” should be shed. Christ was such a sacrifice; and his love was shown in his being
willing that his blood should be shed to save people.
For a sweet-smelling savour - see the notes on 2Co_2:15, where the word “savor”
is explained. The meaning here is, that the offering which Christ made of himself to God,
was like the grateful and pleasant smell of “incense,” that is, it was acceptable to him. It
was an exhibition of benevolence with which he was pleased, and it gave him the
opportunity of evincing his own benevolence in the salvation of people. The meaning of
this in the connection here is that the offering which Christ made was one of “love.” So,
says Paul, do you love one another. Christ sacrificed himself by “love,” and that sacrifice
was acceptable to God. So do you show love one to another. Sacrifice everything which
opposes it. and it will be acceptable to God. He will approve nil which is designed to
promote love, as he approved the sacrifice which was made, under the influence of love,
by his Son.
CLARKE, "And walk in love - Let every act of life be dictated by love to God and
man.
As Christ - hath loved us - Laying down your lives for your brethren if necessary;
counting nothing too difficult to be done in order to promote their eternal salvation.
Hath given himself for us - Christ hath died in our stead, and become thereby a
sacrifice for our sins.
An offering - Προσφορα· An oblation, an eucharistic offering; the same as ‫מנחה‬
minchah, Lev_2:1, etc., which is explained to be an offering made unto the Lord, of fine
flour, with oil and frankincense. It means, any offering by which gratitude was expressed
for temporal blessings received from the bounty of God.
A sacrifice - Θυσια· A sin-offering, a victim for sin; the same as ‫זבח‬ zebach, which
almost universally means that sacrificial act in which the blood of an animal was poured
out as an atonement for sin. These terms may be justly considered as including every

kind of sacrifice, offering, and oblation made to God on any account; and both these
terms are with propriety used here, because the apostle’s design was to represent the
sufficiency of the offering made by Christ for the sin of the world. And the passage
strongly intimates, that as man is bound to be grateful to God for the good things of this
life, so he should testify that gratitude by suitable offerings; but having sinned against
God, he has forfeited all earthly blessings as well as those that come from heaven; and
that Jesus Christ gave himself ᆓπερ ᅧµων, in our stead and on our account, as the
gratitude-offering, προσφορα, which we owed to our Maker, and, without which a
continuance of temporal blessings could not be expected; and also as a sacrifice for sin,
θυσια, without which we could never approach God, and without which we must be
punished with an everlasting destruction from the presence of God and the glory of his
power. Thus we find that even our temporal blessings come from and by Jesus Christ, as
well as all our spiritual and eternal mercies.
For a sweet-smelling savor - Εις οσµην ευωδιας· The same as is expressed in Gen_
8:21; Lev_1:9; Lev_3:16 : ‫ליהוה‬ ‫ניהוח‬ ‫ריח‬ reiach nichoach laihovah, “a sweet savor unto the
Lord;” i.e. an offering of his own prescription, and one with which he was well pleased;
and by accepting of which he showed that he accepted the person who offered it. The
sweet-smelling savor refers to the burnt-offerings, the fumes of which ascended from the
fire in the act of burning; and as such odors are grateful to man, God represents himself
as pleased with them, when offered by an upright worshipper according to his own
appointment.
GILL, "And walk in love,.... To God; to which the saints are obliged, not only by the
law of God, which requires it, but by the goodness of God, and the discoveries of his love
to them; and which shows itself in fearing to offend him, in a conformity to his will, in
making his glory the chief end of all actions, and in loving all that belong to him: and
also the saints should walk in love to Christ; who is to be loved fervently, constantly, in
sincerity, with all the heart, and above all creatures and things; because of the loveliness
of his person, the love he bears to them, and the things he has done for them, and the
relations he stands in to them; and which is manifested in keeping his commands, in
delighting in his presence, and in a concern at his absence: and also they should walk in
love to one another, which is chiefly designed; which is Christ's new commandment, and
is an evidence of regeneration; and without which a profession of religion is in vain: and
to "walk" in love, is not merely to talk of it, but to exercise it; and to do all that is done
for God, and Christ, and the saints, from a principle of love; and to advance, increase,
and abound in it, and to go on and continue therein: the example to be copied after, and
which carries in it an argument engaging to it is,
as Christ also hath loved us; with a love exceeding great and strong, which is
wonderful, inconceivable, and unparalleled; and even as the Father has loved him; with a
love that is free and sovereign, unchangeable and everlasting, of which he has given
many instances; and a principal one is hereafter mentioned: the "as" here is a note of
similitude, not of equality; for it cannot be thought that the saints should love God, or
Christ, or one another, with a love equal to Christ's love to them, but only that theirs
should bear some likeness to his: the Alexandrian copy and Ethiopic version, instead of
"us", read "you":

and hath given himself for us; not the world, and the things of it, which are his; not
men, nor angels, nor animals, but himself; he gave away his time, service, and strength;
his name, fame, and reputation; all the comforts of life, and life itself; his whole human
nature, soul and body, and that as in union with his divine person; and that not only for
the good of his people, but in their room and stead; not for angels, nor for all men, but
for his chosen ones, the church, his sheep, his people, and when they, were sinners; in
the following manner, and for the said purpose:
an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savour; Christ was both
priest and sacrifice; he offered up himself a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of his
people, to expiate them, and make reconciliation and satisfaction for them; and this he
offered up to God, against whom they had sinned, and whose justice must be satisfied,
who called him to this work, and engaged him in it; and which was well pleasing to him,
he smelled a sweet savour of rest in it, it being an unblemished sacrifice, and voluntarily
offered up; and was complete, full, and adequate to the demands of his justice; by it sin
was put away, finished, and made an end of, and his people perfected for ever; see Gen_
8:20.
JAMISO , "And — in proof that you are so.
walk in love — resuming Eph_4:1, “walk worthy of the vocation.”
as Christ ... loved us — From the love of the Father he passes to the love of the Son,
in whom God most endearingly manifests His love to us.
given himself for us — Greek, “given Himself up (namely, to death, Gal_2:20) for
us,” that is, in our behalf: not here vicarious substitution, though that is indirectly
implied, “in our stead.” The offerer, and the offering that He offered, were one and the
same (Joh_15:13; Rom_5:8).
offering and a sacrifice — “Offering” expresses generally His presenting Himself
to the Father, as the Representative undertaking the cause of the whole of our lost race
(Psa_40:6-8), including His life of obedience; though not excluding His offering of His
body for us (Heb_10:10). It is usually an unbloody offering, in the more limited sense.
“Sacrifice” refers to His death for us exclusively. Christ is here, in reference to Psa_40:6
(quoted again in Heb_10:5), represented as the antitype of all the offerings of the law,
whether the unbloody or bloody, eucharistical or propitiatory.
for a sweet-smelling savour — Greek, “for an odor of a sweet smell,” that is, God is
well pleased with the offering on the ground of its sweetness, and so is reconciled to us
(Eph_1:6; Mat_3:17; 2Co_5:18, 2Co_5:19; Heb_10:6-17). The ointment compounded of
principal spices, poured upon Aaron’s head, answers to the variety of the graces by
which He was enabled to “offer Himself a sacrifice for a sweet-smelling savor.” Another
type, or prophecy by figure, was “the sweet savor” (“savor of rest,” Margin) which God
smelled in Noah’s sacrifice (Gen_8:21). Again, as what Christ is, believers also are (1Jo_
4:17), and ministers are: Paul says (2Co_2:17) “we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ.”
RWP, "An offering and a sacrifice to God (prosphoran kai thusian tōi theōi).
Accusative in apposition with heauton (himself). Christ’s death was an offering to God
“in our behalf” (huper hēmōn) not an offering to the devil (Anselm), a ransom (lutron) as
Christ himself said (Mat_20:28), Christ’s own view of his atoning death.

For an odour of a sweet smell (eis osmēn euōdias). Same words in Phi_4:18 from
Lev_4:31 (of the expiatory offering). Paul often presents Christ’s death as a propitiation
(Rom_3:25) as in 1Jo_2:2.
CALVI , "2.And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us. Having called on us to
imitate God, he now calls on us to imitate Christ, who is our true model. We ought
to embrace each other with that love with which Christ has embraced us, for what
we perceive in Christ is our true guide.
And gave himself for us. This was a remarkable proof of the highest love. Forgetful,
as it were, of himself, Christ spared not his own life, that he might redeem us from
death. If we desire to be partakers of this benefit, we must cultivate similar
affections toward our neighbors. ot that any of us has reached such high
perfection, but all must aim and strive according to the measure of their ability.
An offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling savor. While this statement
leads us to admire the grace of Christ, it bears directly on the present subject. o
language, indeed, can fully represent the consequences and efficacy of Christ’ death.
This is the only price by which we are reconciled to God. The doctrine of faith on
this subject holds the highest rank. But the more extraordinary the discoveries
which have reached us of the Redeemer’ kindness, the more strongly are we bound
to his service. Besides, we may infer from Paul’ words, that, unless we love one
another, none of our duties will be acceptable in the sight of God. If the
reconciliation of men, effected by Christ, was a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor,
(154) we, too, shall be “ God a sweet savor,” (2Co_2:15,) when this holy perfume is
spread over us. To this applies the saying of Christ,
“ thy gift before the altar, and go and be reconciled to thy brother.” (Mat_5:24.)
(154) “ offering, in being presented to God, was meant to be, and actually was, a
sweet savor to Him. The phrase is based on the peculiar sacrificial idiom of the Old
Testament. (Gen_8:21; Lev_1:9.) It is used typically in 2Co_2:14, and is explained
and expanded in Phi_4:18 — ‘ sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.’ The
burning of spices or incense, so fragrant to the Oriental senses, is figuratively
applied to God.” — Eadie.
BURKITT, "Here we have a second argument urged, to walk in love one with and
one towards another, drawn from the example of Christ; he also, as well as God the
Father, hath loved us; and the instance given of his love, is the highest that ever was
or can be given: He gave himself for us, an offering, and a sacrifice to God for a
sweet-smelling savour.
Observe here, 1. The great duty of the law: Walk in love. This implies the exercise of
this grace, not barely to have it in the principle and habit, but to exercise and exert

it in the act; and it implies the universal exercise of grace; whatever we do both to
God and man, must be done in love, Let all your deeds be done with charity. 1Co_
16:14
Observe, 2. As the great duty of the law, to walk in love, so the great pattern of the
gospel, as Christ also hath loved us. The particle as hath first the force of an
argument, and is as much as because Christ hath loved us; and it has also the force
of a rule to direct us in the manner how we should love one another, with an as of
identity, but not equality: not with the same degree, but with the same kind, of love
wherewith Christ hath loved us.
But why hath, rather than doth love us? Why in the past, rather than in the present,
tense?
Ans. To denote both the priority of Christ's love; that he loved us before we loved
him; yea, before we loved ourselves; nay, before we had any being in the world, we
had a being in his love, even from all eternity. And also to denote the indubitable
certainty of his love: He hath loved you; you need not doubt it, nor question it; he
hath given actual and undeniable proofs of it; follow him from heaven to earth, and
from earth to heaven again, and you will find every step he took to have been in
love: Walk then in love, as Christ also hath loved us.
Learn hence, 1. That our Lord Jesus Christ hath given an ample and full
demonstration of his great and wonderful love unto his church and people.
2. That this love of Christ towards us, should not only be an argument and motive to
excite and quicken us to walk in love one towards another, but also an exact rule
and copy to direct and guide us in our walking.
There are some incommunicable properties in Christ's love, which we cannot
imitate. As his love was an eternal love, an infinite love, a free love, without motive,
and in despite of obstacles, a redeeming love; such cannot our love be one to
another; but as Christ's love was an operative love, a beneficent love, a preventive
love, a soul love, a constant love: thus we are to imitate it, and walk in love one
towards another.
Observe, 3. The high instance and expression which Christ has given of his love unto
us: He gave himself for us, a sacrifice unto God, & c.
He gave; now gifts are expressions of love; he gave himself, that is more than if he
had given all the angels in heaven, and all the treasures on earth, for us, more than
the whole world, yea, than ten thousand worlds: he gave himself an offering and a
sacrifice, a voluntary sacrifice, a meritorious, efficacious, expiatory, and
propitiatory sacrifice, and this for us, to be stuck, and bleed to death in our stead.
And he gave himself a sacrifice to God, as an injured and offended God; to God, as
a revenger of sin; to God, as the asserter of his truth in the threatenings; he
appeared before God as sitting upon a seat of justice, that he might open to us a

throne of grace.
Lastly, For a sweet-smelling savour, that is, he gave himself with an intention to be
accepted, and God received him with a choice acceptation. Our sin had sent up a
very ill savour to heaven, which disturbed the rest of God: Christ expels this ill
scent, by the perfume of his precious blood.
Learn hence, 1. That the sacrifice and sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ were very
free and voluntary: he offered himself, and his offering was a free-will offering.
SIMEO , "CHRIST’S LOVE A PATTER FOR OURS
Eph_5:2. Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an
offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.
TO restore us to the Divine image is one great end of all that the Lord Jesus Christ
has done and suffered for us. There are indeed perfections in the Deity which are
incommunicable to any creature; but his moral perfections admit of imitation and
resemblance: and therefore we are exhorted to “be followers, or imitators, of God,
as dear children [ ote: ver. 1.].” But in the person of our blessed Lord and Saviour,
Jehovah is brought nearer to us, so that we may trace his very steps, and learn to
follow him in every disposition of the mind, and every action of the life. Hence in the
passage before us, whilst we are particularly informed of the manner in which he
has displayed his love to man, we are exhorted to “walk in love, as he has loved us.”
In our further elucidation of these words, we shall be led to speak of the Lord Jesus
Christ in a twofold view;
I. As a sacrifice to God—
It was not merely as a martyr that Jesus died, but as a sacrifice for sin. This
appears,
1. From all the sacrifices of the Mosaic law—
[For what end were these instituted, but to prefigure him? These beyond a doubt
were offerings for sin, the victims dying in the place of the offerer, and making an
atonement for him by their blood: and if the Lord Jesus Christ did not correspond
with them in this particular, and actually fulfil what those prefigured, they were all
instituted in vain, and were shadows without any substance at all.]
2. From the declarations of the prophets—
[The prophet thus plainly speaks of Christ as dying for the sins of men; “He made
his soul an offering for sin:” “He bare the sins of many:” “On him were laid the
iniquity of us all [ ote: Isa_53:6; Isa_53:10; Isa_53:12.].” What is the import of

these testimonies, if Christ did not offer himself a sacrifice for sin?]
3. From the testimony of John the Baptist—
[It was in reference to the lambs that were offered every morning and evening for
the sins of all Israel, that the Baptist spake, when he pointed out the Lord Jesus as
“the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.” If Christ were not a
sacrifice for sin, this testimony was not founded in truth.]
4. From the declarations of Christ himself—
[He constantly affirmed, that “he came to give his life a ransom for many:” that his
blood should be shed for the remission of sins; and that by being “lifted up upon the
cross, he would draw all men. unto him.”]
5. From the united testimony of all the Apostles—
[All with one voice represent him as redeeming us to God by his blood, and offering
himself as “a propitiation, not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole
world.” In a word, the whole tenour of the sacred writings proves, that “he bare our
sins in his own body on the tree,” and “died, the just for the unjust, that he might
bring us to God.”]
But in all this he was further designed,
II. As an example to us—
In the circumstance before noticed, we cannot resemble him; for “no man can
redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him.” evertheless in the love
which instigated him to this we may resemble him. Our love, like his, should be,
1. Disinterested—
[It is not possible for us to add any thing to him: we cannot make him more happy
or more glorious by any thing that we can do: “our goodness extendeth not to him;”
“nor can we by any means profit him:” yet did he in this astonishing manner display
his love to us. Thus in the exercise of our love we should not consider whether the
objects of it will ever be able to make us any suitable return: we should shew love in
every possible way, without so much as desiring any return from man, or even
desiring that our exercise of it should be known; yea, even though we knew that it
would only be requited with evil. We should love our very enemies; and, “instead of
being overcome of evil, should strive incessantly to overcome their evil with good.”]
2. Generous—
[What unsearchable riches has he purchased even for his bitterest enemies? He
would not that any one of them should fall short of the glory of heaven. True it is,

that we cannot thus enrich the objects of our love: yet we should do all we can
towards it, by providing for them not only the things needful for the body, but,
above all, the things that may promote the welfare of the soul. Here the poor may be
on a par with those who are able to give out of their abundance: for if they are
constrained to say, “Silver and gold have I none,” they may add, “but such as I
have, give I unto thee;” and then may proceed to speak to them of the Saviour,
through whom they may obtain all the blessings of salvation. Thus, “though poor,
we may make many rich.”]
3. Self-denying—
[Our blessed Lord “emptied himself of all the glory of heaven,” and endured all the
wrath of an offended God; and became a curse himself, in order to deliver us from
the curse which our iniquities had deserved. And shall we decline exercising our
love, because it may be attended with some pain or difficulty on our part? o: we
should not hesitate even to lay down life itself, if by so doing we may promote the
eternal welfare of our brethren [ ote: 1Jn_3:16.].]
4. Constant—
[“Whom our Lord loved, he loved to the end.” There were many occasions whereon
his immediate disciples displeased him: but he did not therefore “withdraw his
mercy from them, or shut up his loving-kindness in displeasure.” There are
occasions also whereon we shall be called to exercise forbearance and forgiveness
one towards another; and we ought to meet those occasions with love proportioned
to them. We should strive with all our might to “follow peace with all men,” and to
“keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”]
Address—
1. Be thankful to Christ for all the wonders of his love—
[Think how unworthy you were of all his love: for, it was “when you were yet
enemies, that he died for you,” Think too what must have been your state to all
eternity, if He had not so “undertaken for you:” his sufferings under the hidings of
his Father’s fare, and under the strokes of Divine justice, shew what miseries
awaited you in hell for ever, if He had not become your substitute and surety to
discharge your debt. O! never for a moment lose sight of the obligations you owe to
him for that “love of his, which passeth knowledge.”]
2. Present yourselves as living sacrifices to him—
[This may be done; and it is the very end for which such astonishing mercies have
been vouchsafed to you [ ote: Rom_12:1.]. Consider all that you arc, and all that
you have, as his: and let it all be devoted henceforth to the glory of his name.]
3. Endeavour to resemble him more and more—

[Whatever attainments you may have made, you must still be aspiring after higher
degrees of love [ ote: 1Th_4:9-10.]. Look at him then, not only as the ground of
your hopes, but as the pattern for your imitation. Trace him in all the labours of his
love: trace him from heaven to earth, and from earth to heaven: trace him in all that
he either did or suffered: and study to resemble him in the whole of his spirit and
deportment. In all his labours “God smelled a sweet savour;” even as he had done in
those offerings and sacrifices by which Christ had been shadowed forth [ ote: Gen_
8:21. Lev_1:9.]: and though your labours of love can never resemble his, as making
an atonement for sin, they shall, like his, come up for a memorial before God, and
be accepted as well-pleasing in his sight [ ote: Heb_6:10; Heb_13:16.].]
BI, "And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an
offering and a sacrifice to God.
Walking in love
I. I gather out of these words something calculated to touch the heart.
1. There are many of our fellow creatures who have found but little love from man.
To them this would have been a cold, cheerless place. To them the love of God,
revealed in the gospel, comes as a strange and startling thing. It transforms life when
thoroughly realized and embraced.
2. There are others who have known the value of human affection, and have lost it. A
dark cloud has settled down upon their once happy homes and hearts. The gospel
announces that all they have lost, and far more, they may find again in Christ. When
anyone shall not only hear it, but grasp it—not only understand it, but try it—then
life will wear a new aspect, and under the influence of Christ the whole soul expands.
II. I find here something to satisfy the conscience. What should we do in the presence of
our sins, if we had no such truth as this to trust to?
III. I find here something to regulate life.
1. Walk in love as in an atmosphere of bright sunshine, bathing your soul in a
consciousness of God’s love for you. It is your privilege, let it be your joy.
2. Walk in love as an apparel. It is a beautiful sight to see a man clothed with
humility. It is a cheering sight when you look at a servant of Jesus in the armour of
light, and a worshipper of God in the garments of salvation. It is a glorious sight
when you see a holy man putting on zeal for a cloak. But above all these things put on
charity or love, for it is the bond of perfectness. In this world of sorrow the Christian
should be conspicuous for love. It was the prominent feature in Christ; it should be
prominent in Christ’s followers.
3. Walk in love, as the appointed path in which God would have His children found.
The walk of love will lead you into ways which you never once thought to find. It
often turns aside from the more crowded thoroughfares of life, and runs through
scenes where sorrow and shame have crept out of sight to weep and endeavour to
forget. But there are some of the keenest experiences of human joy to be found in
this lowly path. To stand, e.g., in the presence of despair, and watch how hope begins
again to brighten a brother’s eye; to whisper some holy truth in the ear of grief, and

then receive the rich reward of a smile of thankfulness; to put the cup of cold water
to the parched lip, and then listen to the gurgle of a new joy as some poor sufferer
drinks down what refreshes soul and body both—oh, this comes only in the lanes and
the by walks of the path of love. Sometimes the path descends into the darker regions
of trial and temptation, when the believer himself needs sympathy; and I know
nothing more sweet, nothing more soothing, than in such an hour of one’s own
sorrow to experience the sympathy which Christ shows in the tenderness of His
insight into all our need, and to feel that the world is better than we thought it to be
when some brother man comes in the warmth of his own regenerated heart and
testifies that all is not cold, all is not barren. But sometimes the walk of love rises
among the upland scenery of grace and godliness, and then, when we climb from
height to height of God’s great mystery of redemption, as we look down and back
upon all the way in which goodness and mercy have followed us all the days of our
life, as we look around on the vastness and variety and beauty and blessedness for
which our Father has given us an eye and a heart, and as we look above into that
cloudland overhead and up to those greater worlds of glory which enable us to think
what the universe must be and what the great Governor of that universe can do, why
then the walk of love rises into a sublimity which a man can feel but cannot describe,
and the climax upon earth is reached, and beyond it nothing further can go till this
winged soul of ours shall have broken the silver cord that tied it to the body, and
found the expansion of her wing feathers causing her to sear away into the presence
of God, where are fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore. It is a great bright world
that is yet known to few. Some have landed upon its shore—a great continent of joy.
They know but the fringe of flower and fruit which the search of a few short days has
found. But go through the length and breadth of the land, wander among its hills and
valleys, drink of the deep fountains of love, swim over its inner seas, and you will
never again return to the haunts of sin and the ways of shame, for the love of the
higher and the purer and the more perfect will swallow up every meaner passion, and
absorb every fainter light, and the passion, the privilege, the prerogative, the
pleasure of the sinner saved by grace, is to walk in love. (John Richardson.)
The duty of walking in love
The doctrine is that Christ showed so much love in giving Himself for a propitiatory
sacrifice to God for us, that thereby all true Christians are bound to walk in love.
I. Let me open the example and pattern here set before us. And there I begin—
1. With the principle—“Christ also loved us.” That was it which moved and inclined
Him to so strange an undertaking as to die for our sins.
2. The act—“He gave Himself for us.” Where you have the giver, the gift, and the
parties interested.
(1) The Giver, Christ. He voluntarily first assumed a body and then parted with
His life for this use.
(2) The Gift was Himself. And both put together show that Christ was both
Priest and Sacrifice; as God the Priest, as man the sacrifice: “He offered up
Himself to God through the eternal Spirit “ (Heb_9:14).
(3) The parties interested—“for us.”
II. The nature of the duty thence inferred, or what it is to “walk in love.” To walk in love

signifieth not one act or two, but the perpetual tenor of our lives; our whole life should
be an exercise of love. But what love doth He mean? Either love to God and Christ, or
love to men? I answer—I cannot exclude the former totally, for these reasons.
1. Love to men is of little worth unless it flow from love to God.
2. Because it is a genuine product of this great love of Christ to us: “We love Him
because He loved us first” (1Jn_4:19). To God Himself; we beat back His own beam
and flame upon Himself first, and then to all that belong to Him.
3. Because not only the direct improvement of the love of Christ, but so much of the
Christian life dependeth on the love of God, that it should not be excluded when we
are discoursing of it (2Co_5:14-15). The sense of this love should work in us certainly
a great fervour of love to God, that may level and direct all our actions to His glory,
and make us study to please Him. Well, then, if we take it in this sense, how are we to
walk in love?
I answer—
1. That love is to be at the bottom of all our actions and duties, that our whole
religion may be but an acting of love, “Let all your things be done with charity” (1Co_
16:14). If we pray, let us act the seeking love; if we praise God, let us act the
delighting love; if we obey God, let us act the pleasing love.
2. Let us walk in love, all will be nothing else; but let us continue constant to the
death in the profession of the Christian faith; for vehement pure Christian love
casteth out all fear in danger. If we love Christ, we will run all hazards for His sake.
III. I come now to show you how we are bound to do so by the example of Christ’s love.
And here I shall show you that it is both a motive and a pattern.
1. It is a motive to excite us to love Him, because the great thing that is remarkable in
Christ’s giving Himself as a sacrifice for us is love. You may conceive it by these
considerations.
(1) To suffer for another is more than to do or act for him, for therein is more
self-denial.
(2) To suffer death for another is the greatest obligation that we can put upon
him (Joh_15:13).
(3) This is the highest expression of love to friends, but Christ did it for enemies,
for the ungodly sinful world (Rom_5:7-8).
(4) To suffer for the faults of another is the greatest condescension.
(5) Because this is not fit to be done among mankind, that the innocent should
suffer capital punishment for the guilty. This was the wonderful act of God’s
grace to find such a strange and unusual sacrifice for us.
(6) That He should suffer to such ends, or that the consequent benefits should be
so great, as the remission of sins and eternal life.
(7) That, with respect to the end, God and Christ took such pleasure in it (Isa_
53:10).
2. It is a pattern which we should imitate.
(1) In the reality of it (1Jn_3:18).

Ephesians 5 1 16 commentary

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Ephesians 5 1 16 commentary