Ephesians 5:1-10 New Living Translation
Living in the Light
5 Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. 2 Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us[a] and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
3 Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. 4 Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. 5 You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.
6 Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. 7 Don’t participate in the things these people do. 8 For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! 9 For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.
10 Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.
Word of God for the Children of God
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Apostle Paul calls his fellow Christians to imitate God in order to live up to the reputation of God’s family.
He challenges believers to “walk in the way of love,” as Christ did.
This is about loving the way Jesus loved.
And Jesus always acted in line with the Father’s will.
The love of Jesus embraced outcasts, pardoned sinners, healed the hopeless, challenged the complacent, and willingly sacrificed everything so we sinners could be reconciled with God.
Sacrificial love is our most visible and defining family trait.
The only reason we are in the family of God in the first place is because of God’s extravagant love.
As Paul calls us to imitate God’s love, he reminds us that we are all ultimately defined by it—we are “dearly loved children.”
Our own love emerges from the depths of that eternal love.
Our love is an overflow of the love God has personally shown to each of us.
Love is the DNA test that determines paternity with our Father God (1 John 4:7-8). God loves you because you are his child, and you are his child because he loves you. Children of God are caught up into the infinite circle of God’s love.
We are most like our Father, most godly, when we allow that love to flow from us into the lives of others.
Colossians 1:10-12 The Message
9-12 Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.
Christians are to manifest the light of what glorifies the Lord.
Christians must constantly test the standards for pleasing the Lord.
The Christians is to ascertain by testing what pleases the Lord.
We need to know what and how scripture applies to the Christian walk.
The supreme end of the believer’s life is to glorify God.
The ultimate standard for testing what pleases the Lord, or what is His will, is the Word of God.
2 Corinthians 5:9-10 The Message
9-10 But neither exile nor homecoming is the main thing. Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, that’s what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions. Sooner or later we’ll all have to face God, regardless of our conditions. We will appear before Christ and take what’s coming to us as a result of our actions, either good or bad.
How do we prove what is pleasing to the Lord?
God is pleased when we put the entirety of our trust in Him and walk by faith.
He is pleased when we believe His Word, preach His Truth and His promises, live out our days acknowledging He is present with us and He is Lord over all.
However …. to avoid some of the debates
Intriguing Things that Make God Angry …..
This week I came across an intriguing phrase about Jesus in Mark 3:5: “He looked around at them with anger.”
This wasn’t the scene where Jesus throws over tables in the temple.
It was in the midst of a conversation about healing.
It got me wondering what other surprising references to God’s anger I might find in the Bible.
- Pride and thinking oneself is better than another person (Isaiah 13:11-13)
- Injustice – God tells the prophet, Amos (5:21-24), that God hates worship and worship services when God’s people don’t also act outside of worship with justice and righteousness.
- Stubbornness about religious rules. The Mark 3:5 verse I mentioned at the beginning says that Jesus got angry with Pharisees – religious leaders – when they would not even engage in a conversation about whether it was right to heal someone (legal good work) on a Sabbath day (when the law said to do no work).
- Complaining about misfortune that comes when following God (Numbers 11:1). This reminded me of Jesus telling his followers to expect (Matthew 5:11) and even seek (Luke 9:23) misfortune as part of following him.
- Failing to trust God. In Numbers 32:11-13, God expresses anger that the people “have not unreservedly followed me.”
Jesus taught that he and the Father (God) are one (John 10:30).
Jesus then summarized what pleases the Lord this way:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39)
So, there you have it.
Love God above all else, and love your neighbor as yourself.
But what if you don’t feel like loving God or others?
Worse, what if you don’t feel lovable? How do we please the Lord, then?
Fortunately for us, the kind of love Jesus looks for is not a feeling.
Don’t get me wrong!
It can be a feeling, but it doesn’t have to be.
Having a bad day?
Feeling down?
Do you feel sorry for yourself today because of _____ (fill in the blank)?
God understands.
He made our emotions.
He doesn’t want us to feel bad, but he understands if we do.
After all, we live in a corrupted world.
Worse, we live in corrupted bodies (See Genesis 2-3).
Anytime we take our eyes off Jesus, we see only our hurts, wants and needs.
In Jesus, we see solutions.
Without him, we see emptiness and frustration.
John 13:34-35 Amplified Bible
34 I am giving you a new commandment, that you [a]love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too are to love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.”
What pleases the Lord?
Trusting him with His Truth, acknowledging our wants and needs pleases him.
Trusting him to take care of us.
Trusting him to decide what is important.
We are not the superheroes we aspire to be.
We are human, often with “feet of clay.”
Jesus is the superhero.
He is the one who stood up to the bullies, who called their bluff, and who let them try to call him.
Only Jesus wasn’t bluffing.
He died. Yes, that is true.
They killed him for standing up to them.
They killed him for being honest about who he is.
They killed him because he threatened the darkness they used to cover what they were really like.
Yes, Jesus died on a cross, crucified and humiliated.
And he was buried. And then … he rose from the dead.
What pleases the Lord?
Acts 4:8-12 New American Standard Bible
8 Then Peter, [a]filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “[b]Rulers and elders of the people, 9 if we are [c]on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to [d] how this man has been made well, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that [e]by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—[f]by [g]this name this man stands here before you in good health. 11 [h]He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved.”
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 