Imitate God
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.
And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints;
neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Therefore do not be partakers with them.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
(for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),
finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.
But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.
Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”
I. Imitate God by Walking in Love
I. Imitate God by Walking in Love
Imitation -
It’s what kids do. and this is the picture, that we imitate God like loved Children naturally copy what they see their parents doing.
It’s one of the Spiritual disciplines to look out for Spiritually mature Christians and watch what they do. Hebrews 6:11-12; 1 Cor 11:1
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end,
that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
But this is the only place where we are to imitate God - you might think, how can I possibly imitate God?! I’m not omniscient or omnipotent, and I’m certainly not sinless like he is? But theologians sometimes distinguish between the attributes of God that we can’t copy - those would be those that God simply is, rather than what he does. God is all-knowing, all-powerful, Three persons in one, eternal. We won’t ever be that, nor does God expect us to be. But his moral attributes are ‘communicable’, meaning we can also learn to do that. God is merciful, we ought also to be merciful Luke 6:36; God forgives us we should forgive too (v.32); God is perfect, we should also be holy Matt 5:48.
Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Walk in Love - what kind of love? we get a clue by the example.
Christ loved us by giving himself up for us - that’s love of people
Christ loved God enough to offer himself as a fragrant offering and sacrifice - a stereotyped expression for when God approved of a sacrifice under the OT Law. So that’s love of God.
Thus Jesus stated that the two Greatest commands were similar Matthew 22:36-40. That is, in reality, loving God and Loving people are never in opposition to each other. You cannot love God by hating people, and you can’t show genuine love for people at God’s expense. But in practice, it’s sometimes challenging to figure out how one works with the other, so we need both commands. Still, just as Jesus’ death was both love for us and love for God, so our good deeds are the same. So walk in Love - Love for God and Love for People, which really describe the same actions.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
II. Conduct proper for Saints
II. Conduct proper for Saints
While the three terms are clearly focused on sexual purity, it’s not entirely that
Sexual immorality refers to all sex outside of marriage
Impurity can sometimes mean all sins Matt 23:27 , but here seems to be especially focused on sexual sins. The concept derives from the OT Law, where a sin offering had to be offered to purify the offerer, not only for sin, but also for other impurities (Lev 5:1-6). However, Paul has made it clear that with the end of the OT Law, we don’t need to worry about ritual impurity anymore, just impurity caused by sin. This kind of impurity still defiles, even after the Law has ended. Eph 4:19; 2 Cor 12:21
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.
‘If a person sins in hearing the utterance of an oath, and is a witness, whether he has seen or known of the matter—if he does not tell it, he bears guilt.
‘Or if a person touches any unclean thing, whether it is the carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of unclean livestock, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and he is unaware of it, he also shall be unclean and guilty.
Or if he touches human uncleanness—whatever uncleanness with which a man may be defiled, and he is unaware of it—when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty.
‘Or if a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a man may pronounce by an oath, and he is unaware of it—when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these matters.
‘And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters, that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing;
and he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord for his sin which he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin.
who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and lewdness which they have practiced.
Covetousness obviously is a broader term, however, it includes coveting your neighbor’s wife Exod 20:17
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
They must not even be named - that is, even suggested as an alternative. ὀνομάζω is not often used of inanimate things, but when it is, it’s about suggesting some action. 1 Cor 5:1. How serious is this? 1 Cor 5:11 includes three of the items in our passage, and states that we are not even to eat with someone who claims to be a Christian and does these things - doesn’t matter if they are a member of our church or not. Paul did state earlier that we can’t have that standard with non-believers, because we would need to go out of the world.
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife!
But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
The shift to words are part of the same theme - these three terms refer to the crude “locker-room” talk that can happen when people start speaking favorably about sexual impurity. “filthiness” means “Obscenity”; Foolish talking is more generic, but would certainly include crude talking about sex; and lastly dirty jokes. Why are they wrong? they are not proper for Christians, because if we truly have shunned sexual immorality, that will need to include speech that welcomes sexual impurity, as well as the acts themselves.
the alternative to crude speech you might think is pure speech, but here it is “thanksgiving.” which fits better than it seems to at first - being content with what God has alloted you means being content with your spouse, or with being single if that is what God has allotted you.
Those who practice sexual impurity have no assurance of their salvation. Paul states in disturbingly direct terms that those who live this way will not receive the inheritance - they don’t go to heaven. That certainly doesn’t mean that sexual sins can’t be forgiven - God forgave David’s really awful sexual sin. Nor does it mean that you can lose your salvation. It does mean that those who continue to live this way must serious consider that their lives are showing everyone that all the things they claim to believe are all fake.
Covetousness is equated with idolatry - wanting something or someone that doesn’t belong to you means wanting them more than God says you should, so you’re setting that thing or person up as a rival god.
Our culture is full of empty words that sex between consenting adults is fine; that the LGBT movement is about love. Make no mistake, the wrath of God comes upon unbelievers for sexual immorality - why is our nation coming apart? the sexual revolution and it’s recent variations is part of the reason why. God is frankly extremely merciful with us, he hasn’t punished our nation’s sexual sins nearly as much as they deserve.
III. Walk as children of Light
III. Walk as children of Light
Put off the unfruitful works of Darkness, do not be partakers with them. You were Darkness at one time.
You used to live like the world, hiding in secret and doing shameful things when no one can see. People who do what they know is wrong will hide.
Today, the world will try to pressure you to conform, to live as they do. Don’t partner with them in their evil deeds, lest God also be angry with you.
The works of evil are not only done in secret, but also they are without benefit - unfruitful.
Put on the fruit of Light
Good deeds are fruitful - they benefit you and others
Good deeds are “light”, just like light illuminates things and shows them as they are, good deeds makes the darkness around you look as evil as it is. Have you ever cleaned something, and only after cleaning it did you realize just how dirty it was?
Thus, as Jesus said John 15:22
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
The quotation - as long ago as Origen who lived 1700 year ago, scholars have been trying to find this reference. Some have suggested one passage, some another, but no reference has been generally agreed upon. It’s probably not a quote of Scripture, but a quote of a hymn they sung then.
awake, sleeper - means become aware of God Rom 13:11; could also be a reference to the resurrection
And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
Rise from the dead - double meaning - people will rise from the dead someday, also, could mean to be arisen from being dead to sin.
Christ will shine on you. The Light of the World will show you the truth.