Reading: “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” —Ephesians 5:1–2

When Paul tells the Ephesian Christians to “follow” God he does not mean to “come after” as Christ asked the disciples. This word means “imitate.” As chapters five and six of Ephesians deal particularly with relationships—i.e., husband, wife, father, mother, child, employee, and employer—Paul is telling us to imitate Christ in all these relationships. The question we must ask ourselves is: whom are we imitating? From whom do we adopt our pattern of life? The Christian looks to the triune God: to the Father (vs. 1), to His Son (vs. 2), and to the Holy Spirit (vs. 9). The holy trinity is our pattern for holiness, not the unholy trinity of “the world, the flesh and the devil.”

Rev. Paul Thompson (N. Ireland)