Ephesians 5:1-7
Walk in Love
The Book of Ephesians is easily
divided into Two Parts. Chapters 1-3 are
doctrinal. Chapters 4,5,& 6, are practical.
A)
Chapters 1,2, and 3,
tell us where we sit. 4,5,and 6 tells us how to walk.
B)
But notice, the sitting comes before
the walking. Response to how we
have been Blessed – Who we are in Christ
1)
We walk because of the calling that God has placed upon our
lives. How we have been blessed
C) If you
reverse the order, which is what religion does, you walk in order to sit, then all that you have is legalism,
rules & regulations
1) it just won’t work.
D) You end
up trying to earn God’s blessings or to earn
God’s favor, which leaves you destined for burn out/ Frustration / Condemnation
1) But
when you realize that You already have God’s favor because of who you are in
Jesus – Motivation for Walking / living / worship / serving
We are currently in the middle
of that Section – Paul is talking about The
walk of the believer ( 4:1 ) Worthy
walk ( 4:17) Diff. from worlds
A) (5:8) Walk in the light / ( 5: 15) Walk in wisdom /
B) But here in the 1st part of Ch. 5 Paul’s exhortation to us is to
WALK IN LOVE !!! Read v.1-7
C) Now these 1st seven verses of this Ch. can be
outlined in this way
1) V.1 The Plea / V.1,2 The pattern / V. 3,4 Perversion
V. 5-7 The punishment! Focus tonight
1st The Plea / BE IMITATORS OF GOD AS BELOVED CHILDREN.AND WALK IN LOVE
!!!!!
If you want to know the heart
and soul of the Christian life it is right here, our lives SHOULD IMITATE THE
God that we serve : Especially in Love
A) Jesus said by this men will know
that you are my Disciples –Not Bible
Knowledge / Worship / Programs / No – Love for each other !
B) The word that Paul uses here “imitate” in the NKJV is translated
in the as MIMIC { And I like Mimic better then imitate,
Because an imitation can be a phony, But a mimic strives to be an
exact copy
C) Now there are those in the
entertainment business who make their money
mimicking the famous people of our
day.
1) The convincing they are, the more money they are going to make.
D) So they will spend hours of studying some one looking for little things that
they do – hrs watching tape / listen voice mannerisms
See you can’t really mimic someone that you don’t intimately know!
A) You can’t pattern your life after
someone that who is not consistently in
front of you.
B) The reason why Paul uses the phrase as dear Children – is two fold
1) On the one side it is a MOTIVATION
– Walk in love – because I love Him and want to do what He wants –
C) Also it is the By product of a good close
relationship : Kids want to imitate or mimic their parents { Dad shaving
}
1) Sometimes it is embarrassing -
You jerk - ……….
D) To mimic God, you have to know God, to
pattern your life after Jesus , His
example needs to be constantly before you.
1) Happens as you dig into the word !!!! – Study Christ response –
Devotions – where read ? - Mark ……………………
E) Lord help me to be that way to those people in my life { Tracing your life
Over His
Next lets consider the Pattern of that Love v.2 as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an
offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
A) The Pattern of love that we are to walk in is the Love of Christ –
Love that is marked by the fact that He gave himself for us
B) That love we are to mimic is a love that is willing to Sacrifice for
the well being of others – Sacrifice so that others can be blessed / built up /SERVICE
1) Unconditional – Not Performance based
– loved us even though sinners / Forgiving
love / Patient love / PERFECT LOVE
C) The greatest and most comprehensive description of the Love of
Christ is found in 1 Cor 13:4-8
4 Love suffers long and
is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;5
does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no
evil;6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;7 bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.8 Love never
fails.
D) Now right away - we think – I
can’t do that / I can’t love in that way
1) Right you can’t – But that is another reason why I believe Paul says
as dear Children – See Children Know where to go with their needs
D) Hallelujah night – in 5 minute – Dad
…money / Amy …. / Amanda / Then Denise / Strangers
Our father has a supply of love
to give us as we come to Him as dear Children expressing our need: Rom 5:5 “The love of God has been poured out upon us
– by the Holy Spirit who was given to us”
A) Young Children often learn to draw by tracing . The more carefully
he traces the truer his picture is to the original
B) Our pattern for Christian LOVE is Christ Himself / He is the
one in whom every believer is to trace his life!
1) Our goal is to allow God's
spirit to pattern us after His Son!
The Pattern of our love will stem from how much we know we
have been Loved – How much we have been forgiven
A) Jesus was eating in the home of
a Pharisee / woman came in / who was a
prostitute
1) Anointed Jesus feet w/ her tears & w/ perfume./ Hair
" If truly a prophet he know what type of woman this was
!
B) Jesus story Moneylender two men
2 depths / one 500denari
other 50 / he graciously
forgave both ! Which love more?
1) One forgiven the most Right - her sins which are many have
been
forgiven for she loved much .
2) but he who has been forgiven of little loves little!
C) Simon had no sense of the enormity of his own sin &
therefore
sensed no need of
forgiveness .
1) Result : He was unforgiving of others!
D) Our ability to walk in love
& therefore forgive depends on our sense of
how much God Has forgiven
us!
Paul said here that the example of Christ’s love was like a
sweet smelling aroma to God!
A.) A living testimony of Worship to the Lord / Our lives / that Sweet
Fragrance – { Paul 2 Cor 5 Fragrance of Christ ……
B) Basketball - close encounter sport - "get in guys shirt" -
stay close. Gene Hackman "Flavor gum chewing"
1) Bad B.O. - hard to guard - hard to get close to! Poor sinuses
C) A Christian /a fellowship that doesn't love
is like a person with bad B.O. - just don't want to be around them! Stink!
1.) Hard to get close to - fragrance isn't sweet!
"Now note that Whatever God establishes, Satan will
seek to counterfeit! And that is exactly what Paul describes in these next V's
A.) The perversion of love! v.3-4
In the1970s popular song World used to sing "What the world needs now is love sweet love,
it's the only thing that there is just too little of
A) The song expressed the heart of people world wide who were longing for
love / and realized it was lacking!!!
B) But then came another song that
depicted the Problem – with man’s quest at finding love – that Song? "looking for
love in all the wrong places!"
C) World is desperately looking
for true love. But Satan has duped the world into seeking after a counterfeit
love that really is lust!
D)
God's love is unconditional, unselfish, forgiving - self sacrificing
1)The world's description of love is lustful, self indulgent and self seeking!
It loves because the object
is attractive, enjoyable, pleasant
The world loves for what it can get. Not give! The world's
view of love is what will this do to satisfy me; my needs!
A) . In the context that Paul has laid out here, the
opposite of Love is not
hate, it’s lust.
B) Let me define some of
these terms for you, fornication is any sex out side of marriage – Includes Oral – Kids
today{ Immorality - Arousal
1) the Greek word here is Porneia from which we get our word pornography
C) Huge problem today: The revenues for the Internet porn industry are in the
billions every year
1) According to a recent Study MSNBC – 25 million Americans visit cyber
sex sites between 1 and 10 hrs a week { sex is #1 topic searched on internet
60 % of all website visits are
sexual in nature { Filter
Uncleanness a more
general word then Proneia and
would cover all
kinds of sexual
perversity.
A)In our world today, the sky is the limit on this one, there is no end to the sexual
perversion that is available in our world today
B) Never before has the sexual perversion
of the age been so accessible to the average person- lewdness = w/out reservation Harvard
– Skin Mag
C) Now What is really interesting in Paul links these two things with
covetousness - why?
1) Covetousness is self centered greed and I think that you can get
the connection here.
1) Sexual perversion
begins with covetousness which is the desire to satisfy your lusts at any cost.
D) Covetousness is that which says - I want - a guy might say to a girl,
I want to make love to you
- not married
1.) Really saying - I covet you! I want to make lust
with you.
D.) When any person says I want
to make love to you what they are really
doing is coveting: it is taking from someone else
1.) It is destroying the
person you are "making love to"
In the book of Proverbs - it says that He who commits
sexual sin is unwise - He destroys his own soul. Prv 6:32
A.) Now within the confines of marriage SEX is a wonderful thing because your soul is merging with your spouses soul and
the two become one.
B)
In marriage Sex
becomes a wonderful oneness builder !!
1)
But When you do it out side of the bonds of marriage you are
allowing part of your soul to be ripped off.
C)
You are allowing a part of your
soul your inner person to be destroyed.
1)
You are opening up the very
essence of who you are and your letting someone tear a chunk of that right off.
The world doesn't understand
that, the world thinks that it is only two bodies coming together enjoy moment
passion
A) The Bible says it's two souls
joined as one. Outside of marriage you
are ripping that person off permanently - you are
taking a part of their soul
B) Look at Brittney of
Christina - do you look at her and
think there's a substantial person
wow !- what a rich deep substantial person!
1) Or do
you look at her and say what a tragedy - nothing there!
What happened?
C) They have exploited themselves so much sexually –
nothing left
1) Folks that's what we need to
tell our kids- The Issue isn't Just
AIDS; V.D. - unwanted pregnancy - it's losing a part of your soul
D) The essential essence of your person is being stripped away each time you fornicate
1)Like the layers of an onion being peeled away so that there is
nothing left
E) God is not prejudiced folks - He
made sex! Designed sex to be an expression of love - in marriage
1.) Two become one soul! He looked at the two and said they are Adam!
One flesh - one soul
F) Person who commits sexual
impure acts - loses his soul - (not salvation) but giving away a part you will never get
back
1.) God can forgive and He will - true repentance - means change
Paul links it with coveting - ripping off getting a piece
you are demanding your way at their expense!
A.) Paul says don't let it be
named once among you!- Not fitting for
saints
B) Not how close can I get – How pure can I be !!!!!
Paul goes from speaking of the perversion
of the body and mind to what comes out of our mouths - v.4
A.) Filthiness - language that
is obscene, degrading, disgraceful
B.) foolish talking - comes from grk word in which we get our English
word "moron"
1)
That which is stupid
(talk shows) Moronic
Prov 15:2 - "The
tongue of the wise commends knowledge - but the mouth of the fool gushes
folly"
C) Empty, wasteful idiotic talk is not fitting
saints!
Paul also mention course jesting - refers to the speech that
quickly turns that which is said into which is obscene or suggestive.
A.) It is the filthy talk of a
person who uses every circumstance to display
his immoral wit { Always sexual in nature{ Sexual innuendo {
B) Again Paul says – Not fitting for the
Saints – Not named among us
We shouldn’t
even talk about them or read about them or refer to them.
C) Paul says that none of
this is fitting for the Saints, the people of God.
1) Romans 1 taking pleasure in those who do it !!!! MOVIES
D) Standards we are setting: TV Guardian Screen it.com
E) Yes Satan has done his best to Pervert God’s Picture of Love !!!!
Lastly - the punishment! v.5-7