The Hope of Truth
April 14, 2024
Preached by Ron Smith
Scripture Reading
Ephesians 5:1-21
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Let’s take a quick poll. Thumbs up if you agree, thumbs down if you disagree. We live in a crazy time. The world around us seems to be falling apart. Christian values are vanishing from society.
Well, I think we can all agree that the world we are living in for the most part has no interest in being led by Christian principles and values. So, how do we respond? How do we respond to the way we see our society heading that is totally opposed to Biblical truth?
How do we not get deceived ourselves and get wrapped up in it?
Maybe one more question, how do we not grow weary and just give up? Facing opposition day in day out can be tiring. There is the temptation to just give up. Or at least to retreat and hide.
Today we are starting a new series. We are calling it “Awake O Sleeper: Walking as Children of Light in a World Darkened by Lies.” What we want to do is to examine some of the lies our culture is telling us and the craziness that we see around us in the light of Scripture.
We are going to consider what we are being told about the family, what we should think about racism, what we should think about sexuality, and a few other things. And then we will dive into passages from Ephesians; not going through verse by verse, but just limiting ourselves to Ephesians to see what Paul has to say about living in this dark world. What the Bible has to say to us about these things is good news for us. As we look to Jesus we will see that there is a path forward.
We will also see that as Christians we do have a voice and we need to understand how the Bible interprets the culture around us so that we can speak the Gospel into it. And do so with courage. We can’t hide our head in the sand. We need to wake up.
However, we are not doing this series in order to provide more one liners to answer your friends. Or so that we can engage more fervently in the culture wars taking place. Our desire is identifying the path that we need to walk, and then to courageously walk it.
This morning, we are going to start off by looking at how the world says we should determine who we are and how we are to find meaning in life. I think what we will see as the series progresses is that this first topic is the starting point for the other lies we will go on to consider.
Lie of the world
Live your own truth. Be true to yourself. Be authentic. How many of you have heard things like this? This is what our society tells us is the ultimate way to live life. This way of thinking shows up in ad campaigns. Nike wants you to “find your greatness.” Doritos is “For the bold in everyone.” Dove wants you to find “Beauty on your own terms.” The Gap had a campaign encouraging you to embrace your own path, that is, what we define to be true for ourselves.
The message is clear: you just need to be true to yourself. Don’t let people tell you what to do or how to express yourself. You alone determine who you are. You express yourself the best way you see fit. You do you. All of this is an effort to discover the answer to the question, who am I?
If the discussions around sexuality are any indication, it seems that now more than ever people are struggling to find their identity. The solution that is put forth to find it is by looking inward, inside yourself, and then expressing your own feelings and desires. It is all about being happy and having a sense of fulfillment.
We see this inward push to find meaning everywhere in pop culture. Just a few years ago Taylor Swift gave the commencement address to the New York University class of ’22. Listen to what she said:
How do I give advice to this many people about their life choices? I won’t. Scary news is: You’re on your own now. Cool news is: You’re on your own now. I leave you with this: We are led by our gut instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears, our scars and our dreams.
I don’t quote this to bash Taylor Swift. But rather to underline that it is just common belief that in order to determine who I am, I must look inwardly. I am on my own. And then the best thing I can do is to give unfiltered expression to my feelings and desires. I decide who I am. I just need to live my own truth.
I would sum up what the culture teaches us like this:
I am the authority. (no one can tell me what to do)
I am the source of truth for my life. (truth is what you make it. You decide what is right or wrong. You decide what morality is)
I am the receiver of love. (Not giver. I only give love to those who love me by accepting and approving my personal truth.)
To determine who I am, I need to know myself and then give expression to what I find.
Can you begin to see the gaping holes in this way of living? To be sure there is truth sprinkled in. There are things we can affirm. For example, we want to encourage young people to choose their own career and not force them to do something they don’t want to do. Or, when a young preacher is just starting to learn how to preach he will be told, “be yourself.” “Don’t try to be…”
See, I think it is safe to say that we want to be true to who we are. We want to freely express who we are. No one wants to be stifled. No one wants to be held back or feel like they have to be someone they are not.
But here’s the question, who determines who I am? Where do I look to find out who I am?
Is our modern culture right, I just need to look inside of myself, find my own truth, freely express my desires, find my own way? Or is there another way, a better way?
Let’s turn our attention the Ephesians 5:1-2 and see what the truth of God’s word might have to share with us.
Truth of the word
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Be imitators of God. Paul actually commands the Ephesians to be imitators of God. How does that strike you? Perhaps you have conflicting emotions in you as you hear those words. Be imitators of God. Amen! That’s great. We are wowed by it. Which quickly turns into: “I can do to this,” “I got this.” Or maybe you are overcome by the sheer magnitude of imitating God. How on earth do you do that? It’s impossible. I can’t. What do we do with this command?
This is the only place in the Bible where you will find this command. It is a tall order. Imitate God. Do what God does. What you see him doing, you do. (You might have an idea of what that looks like as you think of Christians who have lived an exemplary life.) If we want to know what it means in practical terms, we can look at the context for clues. This command to be imitators of God comes at the end of Paul telling the Ephesians in chapter 4 what it means to put on the new self. For the Christian there is a transformation that takes place. We put off our old self and we put on the new self. In fact, when Paul says be imitators of God, this little word “be” carries the idea “to experience a change in nature” (BDAG).
Paul walks through a very practical description of what that looks like,
25Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
And then, in a way to sum all this up, Paul says, Therefore be imitators of God.
There you go. What does being an imitator of God look like? Well, it looks like being tenderhearted, forgiving, not letting corrupting talk come out of our mouths, and so on. We might say that this is just good moral living; Christian values. What is striking is that all these things that he lists are rooted in God. They are not just good morals to have. They are not simply values snatched out of thin air. They are not based on what I feel is right. They are anchored in the living God. They come from him. He has determined that these things, this way of living is good and acceptable. If your morals are not anchored to him, you will just float around being blown to wherever the shifting winds of popular opinion leads you.
You know what this means, right? If God is the foundation of all morality, if he establishes truth, then he is the ultimate authority. Authority. That word will make us bristle. No one tells me what to think! But in order to imitate God, we bow our knee to his authority. He sets the agenda that we follow. He determines what is right and wrong.
If you want to know what true kindness is, you have to look to God. If you want to know what true forgiveness looks like you have to look to God. Without God you have no basis for morality. You have no basis for saying what is right and wrong. (Atheists for years have recognized this. Many have said that morality has to be borrowed from Christianity. Richard Dawkins has even recently said that he is a cultural Christian.)
God is the authority. But this concept of authority is not one of a cold distant ruler looking over your shoulder watching your every move. Making sure you are following the rules. The acceptance of God’s authority happens in a context of a relationship. It is a good relationship that you want to be a part of.
Be imitators of God, as beloved children. You are accepted. You have an identity that is rooted in being a child of God. There is intimacy. It is a special relationship. You are prized and valued. The imitating that Paul is calling us to flows from this relationship. Or to put it another way, being an imitator of God is an invitation to know him. As we know him more and more, he works these things into our lives. If we leave chapter four as a mere list of things we need to do in order to imitate God, we will fail. But when we put them in the context of a loving relationship where we know that God has our best in mind and he is working his character in us, we find that imitating God flows out of who we are. Think about how children imitate their parents without even having to be taught. (Italian hand gestures)
Now, this doesn’t take anything away from the Christian’s need for obedience to God’s word. It is right for us to read the list in chapter 4 and say, we need to do those things. But we do so from a position of an accepted child, a beloved child of God. That’s good news!
Now in verse 2, Paul further expands on what it means to be an imitator of God. He says, walk in love. We need to live our life in love. Love should permeate everything about us. (the person obsessed with a sports team)
Walking in love sounds great, doesn’t? Who would object to walking in love? Everyone agrees there needs to be more love in the world. The problem comes when we start talking about what that love looks like. Paul says the kind of love we need to have is the same kind of love Christ has for us. Our love should resemble Christ’s love. Our love flows from the love of Christ.
What does that love look like? He gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. His love is self-sacrificial. He willingly chose to give up his life, for us. He offered himself as an offering that was pleasing and acceptable to God. He died for us. That is the ultimate demonstration of love.
Is that the way you love? Does your love look like that?
This kind of love is not self-serving. This kind of love is not self-protecting. This kind of love is not demanding of others. This kind of love does not put me in the center of the universe. It’s not selfish. If we are honest, we recognize that it is way too easy to be more about self-protecting than self-giving.
And of course, what Paul is describing here is none other than the gospel. The specific self-sacrificial love that Jesus demonstrated for us is him dying on the cross to pay the penalty of our sin and cover our shame. This act of love is life changing. What Jesus has done for us allows us to become beloved children of God. What he has done for us makes imitating God possible. And he does it freely. The only thing we do is believe in him.
Believing in Jesus makes imitating God possible. Believing in him gives true meaning to our lives as we find our identity in him and live according to the way he has made us. In him, we find what it means to be unique. Believing in Jesus frees us from the tyranny of living according to the ever-changing demands that culture places on us. That’s freedom. That’s hope, true hope.
Affirming and challenging
Where does this leave us? We started off looking at the current state of our culture that seeks to place all authority on the person. Live my own truth.
I am the authority.
I am the source of truth for my life.
I am the receiver of love.
To determine who I am, I need to look inwardly to myself and then express what I find.
Again, we do want to affirm the beauty of the desire to be authentic. To not pretend to be someone you are not.
But if the compass you are using to find your identity is to simply be true to who you are, your authentic self, you will travel and travel and never go anywhere. True North will continue to change direction. There will be no certainty. You will never feel anchored, or like you have a solid foundation.
But we see a different and better way in Ephesians 5:1-2
God is the authority.
God is the source of truth for all of life.
God is a giver of love.
To determine who I am, I need to imitate God as I seek to know him and live as his beloved child.
Living this way is how we can truly express the God-given uniqueness with which he created us. It gives us the true freedom our hearts long for because we live our lives the way they have been designed to be lived.
Looking inwardly to ourselves to find meaning leads to a fragile life. We will never get what we are looking for.
However, looking outwardly to God, we see the sturdiness of his truth. We find who we are as beloved children.
Let me leave you with a few diagnostic questions.
Who is the authority of your life? Who are you imitating? Better yet, who would those around you say you are imitating? How would they describe God based on watching your life? If it is not God, then who is it? How is that working out? Are you finding stability in your life? Are finding true freedom? Are you finding true hope?
How do you love others? Do you only love others who agree with you? Could your love be described as self-giving or self-promoting?
Are you living your life from your position as a beloved child of God (gospel of grace)? Or is that something you trying to work your way towards (good works)?
Who are you? Who does God say that you are?