The Secret to Imitating Christ (Ephesians 5:1)

What does Paul really mean when he commands believers to be “imitators of God” in Ephesians 5:1? Is Christian living about striving harder to act like Jesus—or something far deeper?

In this Christ-centered teaching, Nathan explains why imitating Christ is impossible apart from Christ Himself and why true imitation must flow from divine impartation, not human effort. This message unpacks the gospel logic behind Ephesians 5:1, exposing the difference between external behavior modification and genuine spiritual transformation, and offers three essential reminders for anyone who desires to live an authentic Christian life shaped by the indwelling life of Jesus Christ.

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Key Passage: Ephesians 5:1

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children …
– Ephesians 4:1–3

Therefore …

• Ephesians 5:1 – Therefore …

Put Off / Put On – The Clothing of the Kingdom

• Ephesians 4:22–24– to lay aside [put off], in reference to your former conduct, the old man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
  • put off sin and the culture of the world’s kingdom and put on Christ (the clothing of the Kingdom)

Be Imitators

• Ephesians 5:1 – Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children …
  • Be (ginomai): to become, take a place, be produced, to enter or assume a certain state or condition … a cultivation and progression of the attribute … to come into being (like a child being born)
    • Command (imperative) – we must become this!
    • Middle or Passive
    • We are to BE imitators – not “DO imitation”
  • Imitators: forger, imitator; a person who copies the words and behavior of another
    • where we get the English word “mimic” from
    • It’s like the little girl who imitates her mom by dressing up, putting on her makeup, and having a tea party (it’s an imitation)

The Greek Orator

• Idea was that great communication was “caught not taught”
• Need a picture of what it looks like so I know how to do it 
• “Imitation was a main part in the training of an orator. The teachers of rhetoric declared that the learning of oratory depended on three things—theory, imitation and practice. The main part of their training was the study and the imitation of the masters who had gone before. It is as if Paul said: “If you were to train to be an orator, you would be told to imitate those who are experts in making speeches. Since you are training in life, you must imitate the Lord of all good life.” ⁽¹⁾
• Michael Allen – In earlier centuries, imitation shaped the way in which Christians imagined their apprenticeship and discipleship along the way of the carpenter. The idiom seemed to arise most commonly when calling Christ’s members to the more painful parts of His way—namely, taking up the cross and following Him, enduring mistreatment for His name’s sake, bearing the griefs of others, and so forth.” ⁽²⁾

The Old Testament Trial

• The OT was a proving ground that I cannot imitate God
• Jewish kids at age 5 would begin memorizing Leviticus because it was to reveal what holiness looks like – yet they could never live out the Law – it only shows us our need for something outside of us
• Galatians 3:24 – Therefore the Law has become our tutor [schoolmaster/guide] unto Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.

Imitate in the New Testament 

• Peter Thomas O’Brien – … [besides Ephesians 5:1] there is no other explicit reference in either Old or New Testament to imitating God, although the notion of following the Lord wholeheartedly turns up in the Old Testament (e.g., Num. 14:24; 32:11, 12; Josh. 14:8, 9, 14; 1 Sam. 12:14), and the exhortation to be holy because the Lord is holy appears regularly in the Holiness Code (cf. Lev. 19:2). ⁽³⁾
• Leviticus 19:2– You shall be holy, for I, Yahweh your God, am holy.
• Matthew 5:48 – Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
• Luke 6:36– Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
• The word “mimic/imitate” shows up 10x in NT
  • 1 Corinthians 4:16 – Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.
  • 1 Corinthians 11:1– Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.
  • Ephesians 5:1– Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children …
  • 1 Thessalonians 1:6 – You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit …
  • 1 Thessalonians 2:14– For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also suffered the same things at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews …
  • 2 Thessalonians 3:7 – For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we did not act in an unruly manner among you …
  • 2 Thessalonians 3:9– … not because we do not have the authority, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would imitate us.
  • Hebrews 6:12– …so that you may not become dull, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
  • Hebrews 13:7 – Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.
  • 3 John 11– Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.
  • The emphasis on each of these is Jesus
• How do we imitate something impossible?

• Imitate God … IMPOSSIBLE!

• What are we going to imitate in our own strength?

• Omnipresence Omnipotence Omniscience 

• Holiness … God has perfect holiness 

• Joy … endless joy

• Love … limitless, unreserved love with no partiality

• Not WWJD!

• We can’t!

• Ian Thomas – You can’t, but God never said you could. He will, and God always said He would.

• Oswald Chambers– The secret to imitation is impartation.

• This is Paul’s entire message of Ephesians: IN CHRIST

How did Paul imitate Christ?

• Galatians 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

• Galatians 5:25 – If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk in step with the Spirit.

• Philippians 1:20–21 – …according to my earnest expectation and hope … Christ will even now, as always, be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

• Romans 8:13 – … for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the practices of the body, you will live.

• Colossians 1:27–29 – … Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose I also labor, striving according to His working, which He works in me in power.

Imitation through Impartation

• A.B. Simpson – God is now aiming to reproduce in us the pattern which has already appeared in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Christian life is not an imitation of Christ, but a direct new creation in Christ, and the union with Christ is so complete that He imparts His own nature to us and lives His own life in us and then it is not an imitation, but simply the outgrowth of the nature implanted within. We live Christ-like because we have the Christ-life. ⁽⁴⁾ // A. B. Simpson, Days of Heaven upon Earth: A Year Book of Scripture Texts and Living Truths (New York: Christian Alliance Pub. Co., 1897), 241.

• 1 John 4:9 – By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

• Romans 11:36 – For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

I need an outside source bringing it about   An infusion of His nature – Love (1 John 4) Jesus lived as a man to show how a man filled with God is suppose to live

3 Quick Ideas

1. I can’t, He can

• The Christian life is utterly impossible

• Ian Thomas – The Christian life can be explained only in terms of Jesus Christ, and if your life as a Christian can still be explained in terms of you – your personality, your willpower, your gift, your talent, your money, your courage, your scholarship, your dedication, your sacrifice, or your anything – than although you may have the Christian life, you are not yet living it!

• Ian Thomas– You can’t, but God never said you could. He will, and God always said He would.

2. Forgery or Factual?

• Bowl of fruit (plastic) verses that which has life

• Fruit of the Spirit   

• Wearing a mask or have substance? 

• Going through the motions, saying the right stuff but dead inside?

• MacArthur – When Alexander the Great discovered a coward in his army who also was named Alexander, he told the soldier, “Renounce your cowardice or renounce your name.” Those who carry God’s name are to be imitator’s of His character. By His grace it is possible to reflect Him even in our present limitations. ⁽⁵⁾ // John F. MacArthur Jr., Ephesians, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 194.

3. Imitate me?

• If I am full of Jesus and He is reproducing His life in me – can I declare with Paul: imitate me as I imitate Christ?

• The people of Paul’s day had not seen what Christianity looks like lived out prior to Paul living and preaching in the city … they heard and saw the Gospel for the first time. As such, in a world that hasn’t seen what God truly looks like … my “imitation” is a declaration of God to my world (image bearers)

• If someone copied all my words, thoughts, actions – would I call them a Christian?

• Would I want someone to copy 

• What I watch on TV 

• Music playlists 

• What I do when no one is watching

• Do I constantly proclaim the Gospel in my life?

FOOTNOTES

(1) William Barclay, The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians, The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 185.
(2) Michael Allen, Ephesians, ed. R. R. Reno, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2020), 113.
(3) Peter Thomas O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999), 353.

Photo Credit: Lydia Bennett

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In Our Next Study Together …

I invite you to join me on this journey from the book of Ephesians to discover God’s eternal purpose, His plan for your life, and learn how to practically live out an abundant and fruitful Christian life. 

• The focus of our next study: Ephesians 5:2
  • We are going to dive into the concept of Jesus giving us the gift of grace and what purpose His grace serves in our lives.
  • I encourage you to read through Ephesians a couple of times this week and focus specifically on Ephesians 5.