The Meaning of Following God (1)

As mentioned some time back, Ephesians chapters 4-6 reveal seven ways in which we are to walk, each of which in-turn is based on related doctrine in chapters 1-3. The first reality of our Christian walk is to walk in unity (4:1-16), and the second is to walk in purity (4:17-32). We now see the third: Walk in Love in 5:1-7. This passage goes on to demonstrate that there are two realities about walking in love: true love (5:1-2) and counterfeit love (5:3-7). To examine true love we must look at two principles: the meaning and the means of following God.

Ephesians 5:1 declares: Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children. What does that mean? The Greek word behind followers is mimetes, from which we get our English word “mimic” and which is the most literal translation and the most vivid picture. This word goes as far back as the 6^th Century B.C. in secular Greek. According to Aristotle, at the beginning of civilization man learned skills by mimicking animals. For example, weaving and spinning were learned from spiders, and house building was learned from birds. Plays, paintings, sculptures, and poetry were merely “imitations of reality.” Even an actor was called a mimos (a “mimer”). Commentator William Barclay also observes that “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.”

But the Apostle Paul brought this word to the New Testament and gave it deeper meaning. Think about it a moment in light of our world today. In our society people mimic athletes, entertainers, world leaders, military figures, and the like. But the Christian is to mimic God. We are, therefore, to mimic God, copy His character, attitudes, and actions. As the old adage goes, “Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.” I have always been amazed by impressionists who can mimic famous people so perfectly, such as actors Jimmie Stewart and John Wayne. But far greater is the Christian who mimics God. While the first certainly takes great talent, the latter takes a miracle. It is not talent that enables us to mimic God, rather the miracle of the Holy Spirit as He produces “the fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22-23).

As that great London preacher Charles Spurgeon declared 100 years ago: “While it thus humbles us, this precept ennobles us; for what a grand thing it is to be imitators of God! . . . Time has been when men gloried in studying Homer, and their lives were trained to heroism by his martial verse. Alexander carried the Iliad about with him in a casket studded with jewels, and his military life greatly sprung out of his imitation of the warriors of Greece and Troy. Ours is a nobler ambition by far than that which delights in battles; we desire to imitate the God of peace, whose name is love.”

It’s amazing how many times in Scripture we read that we are to mimic God. In Matthew 5:48, for example, Jesus commanded that we are to be “perfect [teleios, “a complete mature adult”] even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Did you get it? We are to mimic God’s maturity! Jesus also declared, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you” (Jn. 15:12). Paul declared to the Philippians, we are to have the mind of Christ, which is humility (Phil. 2:3-8). Peter likewise admonished that we are to “follow [Christ’s] steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (I Pet. 2:21-22). To mimic God is, as Martyn Lloyd Jones put it, “Paul’s supreme argument . . . the highest level of all in doctrine and in practice . . . the ultimate ideal . . . the highest statement of Christian doctrine that one can conceive or even imagine.” We’ll continue these thought next time.