Imitating God
IMITATING GOD
EPHESIANS 4:30–5:2
Our actions don’t just affect other people, but they can “grieve the Holy Spirit.” Paul raises the bar: we are to be imitators of God himself!
Throughout this letter Paul has stressed the person and work of the Holy Spirit (see 1:13f.; 2:18; 3:5,16; 4:3). He now cautions his readers not to “grieve” the Holy Spirit of God (4:30). The background to his plea is provided by Isaiah 63:7-10, which recalls Israel’s failure to appreciate the intimate way in which God had identified himself with them. They “rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit,” and God became their enemy. Paul warns that his readers could repeat Israel’s experience if they refuse the leading of the Spirit, specifically the concern of the Spirit to achieve unity within the church (4:3). The verses both before and after 4:30 focus on sins of speech, which express attitudes that set people against one another. Expressions of “bitterness,” which Aristotle defined as a resentful spirit that refuses reconciliation, grieve the Spirit of God.
What is required of those who have experienced God’s kindness (2:7) is a demonstration of qualities that owe their existence to the Spirit (Galatians 5:22f.). Harshness and an unwillingness to forgive an individual who has offended you are inconsistent with the experience of forgiveness by God (see 1:7). As children of God who have experienced adoption into God’s family (1:6), we Christians are to take our example from him. Because God was kind (2:7), we must be kind; because God was tenderhearted (2:4), we must be as well (4:32). The bold command to imitate God (5:1) occurs only here in the whole New Testament. A Christian is most like the Father when he translates God’s love into practical action. The kind of love for which Paul pleads finds its supreme expression in the cross of Christ (5:2).