Lenten Devotional, Week 5

Called – To Imitate God
Ephesians 5
Lent, Week 5

Read Ephesians, Chapter Five plus the first nine verses of Chapter Six.

Let me share with you a children’s sermon given by one of my associate pastors.

As the children came forward and sat in a semi-circle around his feet, the pastor took out a tube of toothpaste. He took the cap off and began to squeeze toothpaste onto a toothbrush. The bristles soon were covered with paste, but he didn’t stop. He continued to squeeze even when the brush was filled… he squeezed even when it fell off the brush and onto the paper he’d placed beneath the brush… he squeezed until there was a pile of toothpaste in his hands.

Finally, he said “Oops! There’s too much here,” and asked the children to help him put it back into the tube. Of course there were cries, “We can’t get it back in!" and "That won’t work!" There were a few helpful suggestions as to how to make it happen … but they all knew (as did the congregation who was listening intently) that it would never happen.

His concluding words were something like these:

“You know hurtful words are like toothpaste. Once they’ve been said, they can’t be unsaid, and the damage is done. So think carefully about every word you say. Make sure your words and actions are what God would want you to say and do.”

I know it was just a simple children’s sermon, but obviously, its message was one I have remembered now for over twenty years.

His message is not unlike that of this fifth chapter of Ephesians.
“Be careful how you live … ”

The first part of this chapter is filled with admonitions against fornication, impurity, greed, vulgar talk, deceit, disobedience, etc. It’s quite a sobering list, and one we could probably add to with just a little more thought. It is a list of the actions that bring darkness to the world – not the light of Christ.

I like the words used by Eugene Peterson in The Message. Listen to his version of verses 4 – 5.

“Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, Christians have better uses for language than that. Don’t talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn’t fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect. … Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it.”

It sounds simple, doesn’t it? But we all know how difficult it truly is.

• Nothing travels faster than a juicy bit of gossip.
• In our society wanting what everyone else has – or better - has become an art form.
• Sex sells – everything from cars to clothes to soda.
• Vulgar language has become almost so common that we barely take note of it anymore.

But, as the writer of Ephesians reminds us, these actions do not imitate God. They do not build up the Body of Christ. They are not "pleasing to the Lord."

And they do not bring the light of Christ into the world.

The last section of this chapter (5:21 – 6:9) deals with relationships – between husbands and wives, between children and parents, between masters and servants. We may be tempted to think this portion outdated and irrelevant. However, I believe the central message of these verses can be summed up in verse 21:

“Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

Or as we read in The Message:
“Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another.”

If we believe all are chosen by God;
If we believe all are loved by God;
If we believe all have gifts worthy of building up the Body of Christ;
Then, all are to be treated with reverence and respect.

At the close of a worship service Brad and I attended, we were instructed to turn to someone we did not know and say the following: “Let the Christ in me greet the Christ in you.”

I like that.

Lent is a time when we are called to look within our hearts and souls and see how we are truly living. And if we are honest with ourselves, we may need to make a course correction in our lives, attitudes and actions.

Are we imitating the love of God? Are we living as children of the light?

“Be careful then how you live …”

A wise admonition. A Lenten challenge.

Questions to ponder:
1. Think of the word “care-ful.” Instead of it being a warning, how can we use that word in a positive way as we think about how we are to live? What would it mean for us to positively “live full of care, or caring?”

2. Paul lists things that are not pleasing to God – why does God care about those ways of living that we sometimes take on? How “careful” is God with us?

3. Think of someone that you may not have been “reverent” to in the past few days. How could you mend that relationship, and how differently would you need to act in order to show that “reverence?”