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Be ye followers of God - Eph.5:1-2
I. A forgiving love II. A sacrificial love
Our text for tonight's message is taken from Ephesians 5:1–2.
Allow me to read for you. Ephesians chapter 5:1, “Be therefore followers of God, as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also have loved you, and have given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.”
Alexander the Great was considered one of the most decorated and successful commanders, undefeated in so many battles. One day Alexander noticed a coward in his army, and to his surprise that coward also had the name Alexander. He said to the young man, “Either you renounce your cowardice or you renounce your name.”
What about us who call ourselves Christians? Christians are people who carry God's name, but do we live up to the name?
In Ephesians chapter 4:1, Christians are called to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. In other words, we are to live a life that will measure up to our profession of faith. And here in this passage we are called to be followers of God. The word follower is a term from which we get the word mimic, someone who copies, imitates, and follows the characteristics of another person. So we are to follow and pattern after God.
To be followers of God does not mean we acquire the non-communicable attributes of God, which we have learned in our previous messages, like omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. You and I will never be all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present. But rather it is about acquiring those communicable attributes, attributes that can be communicated to us, like compassion, faithfulness, and those commonly known as the fruit of the Spirit.
In Galatians 5:22, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. These are the communicable attributes of God which the believers can manifest as he or she is controlled by the Holy Spirit. Christians are children of God, bought by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and they are to live as followers of God, worthy to be called His dear children.
Christians are to follow and pattern after the communicable attributes of God, and one of the essential virtues mentioned here is love. Verse 2 says, “We are to walk in love.” Christians are to walk differently from the world, and our daily lives must be characterised by love. Jesus said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy mind and with all thy strength, and to love thy neighbour as thyself.”
There's a need for every believer not only to love but to grow in love, and as we grow in love we will always see the need to love God and to love our neighbours even more. There will never come a time whereby we can say, “I have loved enough.” We should always grow in our love.
What kind of love is this? The word therefore refers to the preceding chapter 4:32 where the Apostle Paul said, “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” So firstly it is a love that is forgiving. Subsequently verse 2 says, “And walk in love as Christ also hath loved you and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.” That tells us it is a sacrificial love. So, the title of our message is Be Ye Followers Of God, and there are two points: a forgiving love and a sacrificial love.
In life it is a terrible thing when we know that we have wronged someone. When we know that people are hurt because of our words, our accusations, slanders, and wicked deeds committed against them, we want them to forgive us. People are in desperate need for forgiveness.
The head of a large mental hospital in England once said, “I could dismiss half of my patients by tomorrow if they could be assured of forgiveness.” Ultimately man's needs for forgiveness is from God. Above everything else man is born in sin, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, as it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment. Without God's forgiveness we would be sent to eternal damnation.
God's forgiveness is not simply overlooking our sins, as though God says, “Well, boys will always be boys, or girls will always be girls. I will overlook your sins. Just do not do it again.” Most certainly not. God takes our sins very seriously, and He dealt with it fully at the cross. And on that basis, the death of our Lord Jesus, we know we are forgiven.
God's forgiveness comes to us through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into this world the perfect Lamb of God who suffered. He was crucified and He died, shedding His precious blood to save us from our sins. That is why Ephesians chapter 1:7 says, “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”
Forgiveness is one of the greatest expressions of God's love. Sometimes we hear people say, “So-and-so is a loving person.” It can mean that person is compassionate, generous, caring, kind, and so forth. But what do you think is the greatest expression of a person's love? A forgiving heart.
It is not an easy thing to accomplish. People can be one's good friends or husband and wife, and all of a sudden they turn into bitter enemies, refusing to forgive one another. It can be so difficult to forgive someone who has hurt us. Only love can lead us to forgive others, just as love led God to forgive us in Christ Jesus.
The lack of forgiveness in our lives will prove the lack of love in our lives as well. In a similar fashion, the presence of forgiveness will prove the presence of love, because the motivation behind forgiveness is always love.
Dear friend, is there anyone whom you are unwilling to forgive?
Ask yourself these questions. Whatever another believer may do to you, no matter how hurtful it may be, is Christ able to pay the penalty for that sin? People may hurt, slander, or persecute you. Is Christ's sacrifice able to pay the penalty for those sins? The answer is most certainly.
Then when you refuse to forgive the brother or sister in Christ and you allow your heart to be filled with hatred and vengeance, you not only sin by allowing hatred to control you, but you also sin by profaning Christ's sacrifice, because you are seeking to punish the brother for the sin whose penalty has already been paid by the Lord.
Christ has paid the penalty for our sins. You and I have no right to hold any sins against our brothers and sisters in Christ, or for that matter anyone else.
Why are some people so willing to forgive while others are so indifferent to forgiveness? Because they know how much they have been forgiven. The depth of our love is shown by how much we know we have been forgiven.
Allow me to quote you one example in the Gospels. Jesus was eating dinner with Simon the Pharisee, and a woman from the city who was a sinner, most likely an immoral woman, came into the house and anointed Jesus' feet with her tears and with expensive perfume.
Simon the Pharisee was angry with what the woman did, and he was disappointed with Jesus for allowing such a sinful woman to touch Him. Jesus responded by sharing this parable.
A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed him 500 pence, the other 50 pence. Both were unable to repay him, and he graciously forgave them. Which one of them will love him more?
Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one who was forgiven more.” Jesus said to him, “You have answered rightly.”
Then He turned to the woman and explained to Simon, “Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water to wash my feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman, since I came in, she hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, ‘Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.’”
Obviously, Jesus was not comparing the sin of the woman with the sins of Simon the Pharisee, but the knowledge of how much one is forgiven. The woman knew she was forgiven much. Therefore, she loved much.
Robert Falconer, the Presbyterian Bible scholar, once shared how he evangelised to a group of beggars in a certain city, and he told them the story of the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
After he shared the story, he heard someone weeping. He looked up and saw a teen young girl. He tried to comfort her and asked her why was she crying, and she said, “I know the One who forgave the woman, and I know He will come again. Will it be soon?”
Robert replied, “He may come anytime. But why do you ask?”
Again, the girl wept intensely, and she said, “Sir, can't He wait a little while, because my hair ain't long enough yet to wipe His feet.”
Even that little girl understood how much she was forgiven, and she loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and she just hoped that when He comes she will be just like the woman, to wash His feet with her tears and to wipe them with her hair, even though it may not be necessary when our Lord Jesus comes again. But that was the love she has for Him in her heart.
People who do not realise the horror of their sins will see no need for forgiveness, and they will be unforgiving toward others, especially those whom they deem as outcast or undeserving.
Our ability to love and our ability to forgive has a lot to do with our understanding of how much we have been forgiven. The opposite of a forgiving love is self-righteousness and unbelief. As long as we still think of ourselves as a pretty good person who does not really need forgiveness, we will naturally have a hard time loving and forgiving others.
But if we know of ourselves as great sinners under God's wrath and judged by His perfect standard, and we find ourselves forgiven on the basis of Christ's death, that will surely change everything.
Dear friend, are we someone like Simon the Pharisee who think of ourselves as better than we are, people who do not understand the extent of God's forgiveness toward us? Or are we like the sinful woman who understand our wicked rebellion against God, and then we see how we have been forgiven by the grace of His forgiveness?
If you and I truly see ourselves as forgiven sinners, then we will inevitably be able to love and forgive others as God has forgiven us in Christ Jesus.
Secondly, we want to learn about a sacrificial love.
Look at verse 2: “And walk in love as Christ also have loved us and have given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.”
To understand how Christ have loved us and given Himself for us, all we need to do is to consider Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 to 8. The Bible tells us that Jesus was the eternal Son of God, yet He set aside the prerogative of His divine glory to come into this world, born in a manger. The Creator became the creature. The Son of God became the son of man.
Jesus did not simply give up certain things. The reality is that He gave Himself. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.
The heart of the passage is that Christ gave Himself even to the point of death. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
The greatest expression of love is not that you are willing to give certain things or that you are willing to give up certain things, but that you are willing to give of yourself.
So often, we hear of couples going through marital struggles, and the husband would say in frustration, “I really don't understand her. I have given her everything a woman would ever desire. I have given her a nice house. I have given her a car. I have given her all the clothes she can ever wear. I have given her money to spend. What more does she want?”
And the wife would reply, “Yes, that much is true. You have given me everything but yourself.”
And essentially, without ourselves, all the things that we render will mean nothing.
We are to be followers of God and walk in love as Christ also have loved us. The love that is mentioned here is agape love. It is God's love manifested in the giving of His only begotten Son, the purest form of love. The giving of oneself is the essence of agape love.
This love is not just having a good feeling toward others, but the giving of oneself for his welfare. Jesus did not simply have a deep feeling, an emotional concern for mankind, nor did He sacrifice Himself for people who are deserving.
In fact, Romans 5:8 says, “But God commended His love toward us.” That is agape love. “In that while we were yet sinners, undeserving, Christ died for us.”
Christ gave Himself for us purely out of His great love. So, as Christians, we are commanded to love God and to love our neighbours as ourselves with a sacrificial love.
There are missionaries who love lost sinners so much because of this sacrificial love, and they are willing to give of themselves to go into the mission fields to evangelise to the world. They are willing to go to places where people would never dream of going, even for a short trip.
There are Christians who love the church, the body of believers, with this sacrificial love, and they are willing to serve in all the different ministries while others are not willing to serve. At times, their services will be unappreciated, unnoticed, and even criticised by others, but it doesn't matter. It is this sacrificial love that causes them to serve God in the church of Jesus Christ.
There are Christian parents who love their children, children who love their parents. There are Christian husbands and wives who love one another with this same sacrificial love.
A word of advice to all the young people who are seeking for marriage: romantic and emotional love between a husband and a wife is not that which sustains the marriage. Somewhere along the course of marriage, this emotional and romantic love may subside or disappear altogether.
The love that God commanded husbands to love their wives is not a romantic love, but agape love. It is sacrificial and unconditional. It is a love that loves regardless of emotions, attractions, or whether it is deserving or not.
Romantic love may enhance and beautify the relationship between the husband and wife, but it is the agape love that is the binding force of a Christian marriage. It is the love of giving, not getting. Even though we stop to receive, we still continue to give. That is agape love.
God loves us while we were still sinners and His enemies, and He continues to love us as believers. Even though we sinned, He still loved us, and He continues to love us when we drift away from Him, when we fail to return His love, when we disobey Him, when we forget about Him, when we grieve the Holy Spirit, He still loves us.
So the believer who has experienced the love of God is to love others as God has loved him.
If Christ's love can reach out to His enemies like us, how can we refuse to love our enemies? If God loves His imperfect children with a perfect love, how can we not love our fellow believers in whose imperfections we share?
If God loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son, who willingly offered Himself as a sacrifice for ungrateful and wretched sinners like us, how can we not love other fellow sinful people in His name?
We are to love and to walk in love. Our Lord Jesus Christ has given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. This is a sacrifice that is acceptable and well-pleasing to God.
Today, this sweet-smelling savour spreads its fragrance to everyone who will come under the grace of that sacrifice, and then through our lives this fragrance will spread to others as we become true followers of God.
Just as it is natural for children to be like their parents or want to be like their parents, and they would instinctively imitate their parents' actions and behaviours, it is also natural for Christians who are the children of God to be followers of God.
Because God is holy, we want to be holy. Because God is kind, we want to be kind. Because God is forgiving, we want to be forgiving. Because God is love, as His beloved children we want to walk in love.
Now, this ability is not natural, but supernatural, through the power of the Holy Spirit flowing in us as we live in obedience to God's Word.
And how can we do that? If we do not spend time with God, if we do not learn of Him, we cannot, because we will not even know what God is like.
So what you and I must do is to spend time with God in worship, in communion, in prayers, in fellowship, in services. And then we are able to walk in love and be true followers of God.
Not only will we bear the name Christians, but we also live up to that name, to the glory of God.
Let us pray.
Our Father in Heaven, and as we learn what it means to be true followers of Thee, we want to imitate, to pattern after Thy instructions. And as we live out the truth we have learned, as we obey Thy Word, through the wonder working of Thy Spirit, as we commune with Thee in prayers, in supplications, in communion, in fellowship, in Bible studies, in services, we will learn more and more of Thee.
And as we learn more and more of Thee, we also live out the truth that Thou has taught us, walking in love. And it is a forgiving love, a sacrificial love, as Thou would teach us tonight.
May the Spirit of God enable us to live out such a life, and that all of us will be true followers of the Almighty God.
We pray all this in Jesus' name.
Amen.