REVIEW
 
A few weeks ago, we began a new series of teaching which I’m entitling “Imitators of Love.” And the reason I’ve entitled it this is because God Himself is said to be the epitome of love. Therefore, when we have verses like Ephesians 5:1 that instruct us to imitate God as dear children, then we are essentially imitating love because the One we are imitating is love.
 
But what we are doing here is not just learning about what we are to be imitating but we are seeing how what the Lord teaches us about how we are to treat one another shows us who our God is. In other words, we are learning from the loving things He instructs us to do towards our neighbor how He does these things Himself towards each of us.
 
So essentially, we are continuing our most recent study of God’s love for us in a different way: We are studying verses that teach us how to walk in love in order to learn more about how our God walks in love towards us. Yes, our Heavenly Father commands us to treat our brothers and sisters a certain way because He wants us to act like Him! He wants us to forgive, to do good, and to have compassion on our fellow man because this is how God treats us. So, in essence, you could say that everything God instructs or commands us to do in His Word can be summarized in one statement— Be like Me.  
 
So we’ve looked at our golden text of Ephesians 5:1-2 and learned some very powerful truths:
 
I made the point that I see this verse as the bullseye of everything that we aim to be as Christians. Why is this? It’s because being imitators of God would encompass everything else we could ever aspire to be in Him. Yes, if we were imitating God, then we would love perfectly. We would bless abundantly. We would do good to all, and our mercy would endure forever. The list could go on and on. So just mimicking the nature of our Heavenly Father would encompass all of the weightier matters of the law and fulfill its righteous requirement in our lives. Amen?   
 
We learned that this word “imitators” can make us think of someone who “mimics, copies, or follows after” someone else. In fact, in the original King James version, this word is used seven times and is always translated as “follower(s).” The apostle Paul liked to use this word in encouraging his churches to “follow” his example and “imitate” him.
 
Here are a few other translations of Ephesians 5:1 that bring out some of these other ways of describing “imitators”:

1. The Amplified Bible says, “Therefore become imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father];”
2. The JB Phillips New Testament says, “As children copy their fathers you, as God’s children, are to copy him.”
3. The Message Bible says, “Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents.”
4. The Contemporary English Version says, “Do as God does. After all, you are his dear children.”

 
We focused on the last part of Ephesians 5:1, “as dear children.” The imagery that he is giving us is of a child imitating his or her dad, but we highlighted that Paul said it was His “dear” children that did this. This word describes children who are “beloved”—which I believe to describe how a child who does imitate his or her parents is “dear” to the parents. Not that the parent loves the child any more because of their actions, but it describes how the parent holds “dear” the child that imitates them.  
 
You see, regarding this, all of us parents out there can see how this would be true, right? There are not too many things that can bless a parent more than when their child attempts to mimic them. At a young age, our kids might repeat what we say. Many times, they will want to do what we do vocationally when they grow up. They simply just get interested in what we are interested in because of their love and admiration for us. Then when they grow up, what a joy it is to any parent when their child follows in their footsteps by maybe choosing the school that their parents went to or following the same career path that they did.
 
Now, of course, this is not always the path that our children are to take, but when it comes to our Heavenly Father, following exactly in His footsteps is always the right thing to do. My point is that it pleases any parent to either see their young child doing their best to be like their daddy or seeing their grown-up children making the mature decision to be about their father’s business.
 
And we looked at how Jesus, the original “dear child” of God, was certainly all about His Father’s business in that He went about doing good and reflecting our Heavenly Father in both word & deed.
 
So as we learned in John 1:18 that even though God cannot be seen, His only begotten Son came to declare Him. This means that not only did Jesus declare Him in word, but He also declared Him in action. In other words, Jesus’ life reveals the true nature of the Father. Therefore, Jesus would be the best example we have for imitating God. So if we are told to imitate God as His dear children, then that means you and I need to emulate what we saw Jesus doing, right? In other words, we need to follow and practice the things we believe Jesus would do. This is how we imitate our Heavenly Father, right—by following His only begotten Son?
 
So I guess if you are one of those who believes God is putting sickness on people to teach them something, is causing tragedies in our lives to draw us closer to Him, or is taking people to heaven as He wills because He needs them there more than we need them here, then I guess you better get busy … I guess you need to start imitating Him by helping spread sickness to those around you, to cause grief and create tragedies in the lives of those who love you, and even (God forbid) start killing people and stealing things from them.
 
Of course, we know it’s foolish to even consider that, but it does prove a good point – that if we are supposed to be imitating God, then the things we know that are evil, wicked, and unloving things to do to others couldn’t be what our loving Heavenly Father could be doing to us. In other words, it’s safe to assume that God is practicing the very things He tells us to practice with one another or the things that are just common knowledge of how we should treat one another, right?  
 
Which leads me to the point I believe the Holy Spirit wants to make next – how the things Paul tells us in the verses just before Ephesians 5:1-2 teach us about how our Heavenly Father does things …
 
So I gave you a little homework a couple of weeks ago – and that was to determine why the apostle Paul said in Ephesians 5:1, “Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children.” In other words, I asked you to take a look at the end of chapter 4 and see why Paul might have said “Therefore” when talking about us imitating Him.
 
We specifically looked at verses 41-42 first where we saw how Paul taught us about “putting on” Christ’s clothing of being kind and forgiving one another while first “putting off” the behaviors of the old man. We even went over to Colossians chapter 3 and looked at some verses where Paul went into a lot more detail about this same thing.
 
Then with it being Father’s Day the following Sunday, we went back to verse 25 and looked at some of the things Paul said that show us what a good, good Heavenly Father we have. In other words, we are going to look at today how we can follow in our Father’s footsteps and do things like He does.
 
LOVE CANNOT LIE
 
He begins by telling us in verse 25 to put away lying and to speak truth with our neighbor.
 
Don’t you think it’s interesting that the apostle Paul had to tell the Ephesian church, which was probably one of the greatest churches in history, to quit lying. The reason this is so astounding is because we tend to over-glamorize the early church and assume that they were super spiritual. And while they certainly walked in greater power than the church does today, the truth is, these believers struggled with the same carnal things that you and I do. Yes, they struggled with lying, anger, stealing, hurtful words, and bitterness like we all do in the church today (vs.25-31).
 
But why do you reckon telling the truth and not lying is so important to the Lord? Why do you suppose it was important enough for the Holy Spirit to inspire Paul to write this? You got it – It’s because He does not (more accurately, He cannot) lie! It is just not part of His nature and is a complete violation to the truth that He is!
 
Here are three verses that establish the truth of God’s inability to lie:
 
Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
 
Titus 1:2 says, “in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,”
 
And finally, Hebrews 6:18, “that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.”
 
In fact, we are told earlier in Ephesians chapter 4 to speak the truth in love (verse 15), signifying that speaking the truth is one of the things that love does. Now you can speak the truth and not do it in love, but you cannot walk in love and not speak the truth. Let me explain…
 
There are a lot of people (even Christians) who are proficient in speaking the truth. Yes, they will tell people the way it is and not balk at being brutally honest with people. The problem, however, is that not everyone who does this does it “in love.” In other words, they like to “call it like they see it” but they are generally not too concerned about the other person’s feelings. And sure, sometimes the other person’s feelings might be hurt when we tell them the truth, but my point is that we genuinely do care about the other person, so we are at least conscious of their feelings and wouldn’t treat them the way we wouldn’t want to be treated.   
 
Aren’t you thankful that God does not tell you everything He sees wrong with you? No, even though He is certainly aware with ALL your flaws and mistakes, He doesn’t go around telling you or others even a small fraction of them. Why? Because He is love, and while He is certainly the truth as well, He only tells people the truth when its best for them—not because He’s irritated by something they are doing or for some other selfish reason.
 
But on the same token, if we truly love someone, we will tell them the truth they need to hear in the moment because it will help them. No, there will not be this – “Oh, I don’t want to offend them” – because love is not as concerned about their response towards what we are telling them as it is about genuinely trying to help the person and doing what’s best for them.
 
But the bottom line is that if you lie, you are not walking in love towards the one you are lying to, because the majority of the time someone lies, they are thinking only of covering up something and protecting themselves. That’s not love, is it?
 
So know this- this is a BIG reason that God cannot lie. It’s because He is love! He is faithful to what He has said. So if the Lord makes you a promise, He will surely bring it to pass because He loves you that much!
 
LOVE HAS ANGER
 
Then in verses 26&27, we are told how love also knows how to channel its anger: Paul said in these verses – “ ‘Be angry, and do not sin’: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.”
 
Now there has been a lot of misunderstanding about what Paul was saying in these verses because many have interpreted these verses incorrectly. I always heard people say regarding verse 26, “When you get angry, make sure you don’t sin by going to bed angry. Make sure you make it right before you go to sleep.” And while that is an okay standard to live by, I don’t think God wants us to harbor ill-will towards our neighbor for any portion of the day!
 
No, this verse is saying something totally different. It is actually commanding us “be angry” but “do not sin” –meaning, God wants us to be angry at something but just not let it turn into sin. This verse is actually telling us to not let the sun go down on that wrath - meaning, don’t let that wrath go to sleep.   
 
So a good question then is – Aren’t things like anger and wrath wrong? No, they are only wrong when aimed at the wrong thing!
 
You see, anger becomes sin only when it is aimed at God or other people. Anger is only appropriate when aimed at Satan and sin. In fact, we are told in this verse to be angry and to allow ourselves to stay infuriated against the devil. That is why he says at the beginning of verse 27 – “nor give place to the devil.” In other words, keep your anger, wrath and hostility against the devil awake and don’t give him any place! Amen! 
 
The word “sin” in its simplest sense means “to miss the mark.” So, Paul was essentially saying, “Be angry, but don’t miss the mark with that anger.” In other words, aim your anger at its proper target – not at people or God, but rather at sin and all its effects. By understanding this we are enabled to love our enemies that are in the natural realm and channel our anger towards our real enemies that are in the spiritual realm. However, if we do not understand this, then the devil will have us constantly channeling our anger in the wrong direction, and in so doing, we will be “giving him place” in our lives.
 
So when someone does something that angers us, we have to see the root cause of that hurtful action which is the devil. We must understand that flesh and blood is not who we are wrestling against but that it is the devil who is behind the scenes inspiring the offense. Then we can truly be angry and sin not. We sin when we focus our anger on our brothers and sisters – allowing ourselves to become bitter, resentful, offended, and unforgiving towards them. However, it is okay to be angry when that anger is channeled towards the devil.
 
So what does this have to do with the Lord? How is this imitating Him? Well, He certainly knows who the real enemy is, and His anger is aimed at him. Therefore, His anger and wrath are towards the sin and not towards the sinner. And why does He hate sin and the kingdom of darkness so much? It is because He loves us so much, and sin and Satan are seeking to steal, kill, and destroy us. Therefore, He does not let the sun go down on His wrath against all ungodliness. Why? It is because He loves the sinner and hates the sin, all because the sin hurts the ones His love is poured out on, namely you and me. 
 
Even in the Old Testament, the Lord was expressing His nature of love towards the children of Israel …
 
You see, this is one of the reasons that the Lord gave them the Law. We know from Paul’s epistle to the Romans that one of the main purposes of the Law was to reveal sin and cause His people to cry out for a Savior. But another reason that the Lord gave them commandments was for the same reason any good and loving parent gives their kids commandments. Why? It is because they love them, and they know the effects of those actions on their children! For instance, they tell them to look both ways before they cross the street because they are ultimately protecting them. Therefore, love will make every attempt to eradicate the sin from the object of its love before the sin yields death in them.
 
But my point is that love is not just passive and all-embracing. It does not just overlook the thing that is killing the one it loves. Love will seek to expose and remove that thing that is working death in the object of its love.
 
Friends, we have embraced what we call a “seeker-sensitive” type of love that is absolutely ungodly. When we ignore the absolutes and sweep the truth under the table all because we don’t want to offend, we are no longer walking in the pure love of God. But it is much better to speak the truth in love with the risk of offending than to ignore the darkness and watch the person continue to not walk in all of their God-given potential or even experience death in an area of their life.
 
But again, my entire motivation for speaking truth is because of my love for the people I’m sharing it with. Love always has to be the reason I am speaking truth—not my own personal agenda or my frustration.
 
LOVE DOES NOT STEAL; LOVE GIVES
 
Then in verse 28, we see yet another reflection of God in the form of a commandment towards us: Paul said, “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.” Actually, there are two aspects of God’s loving nature contained in this verse.
 
Number one, God tells us not to steal: And why does He command us not to steal? It is because He does not steal! But why do so many in the church today attribute the characteristics of a thief to their God? For example, the majority of the church today blames God for taking their health to teach them something, stripping them of their finances to humble them, or “taking” their loved one because He needed another angel in heaven. Is this really true?
 
I know that our Heavenly Father is the giver of every good and perfect gift. Therefore, all of the blessings we possess are gifts from Him. But to say that God is giving us a blessing and then turning around and taking it from us would be like me giving you $100, you putting it in your wallet, and then when I see your wallet laying around, I take it back without your permission. That would be “unrighteous”, right?
 
So why has the church accused God of doing things like that? And if this were correct, like I said earlier, it wouldn’t be wrong for me to do this to you because, after all, I’m just copying what God does like I’m told to do, right?
 
Of course, it’s foolish to think God would want us to imitate someone who steals from others. Likewise, it’s foolish to think that God Himself is doing the same. No, the reason we should be able to clearly see why the Lord is against stealing is because the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy and He is ultimately against us imitating the devil. Amen!
 
So how do we imitate God and not the devil? The answer is by doing what the second half of this verse says – being a giver! That is who God is! So if we want to imitate God, we need to learn to be givers! This is revealed in John 10:10 when after Jesus described the thief, He then described God’s nature by saying He had come to give life and life more abundantly.
 
Then Paul tells us in this verse what the whole purpose of the jobs that we have to earn money is – It is that we may have something to give to him who has need! Wow! That means that our whole attitude for working should be so that we can have enough to bless others with. And why? It is because this is who our loving Father is! God is a giver and that is what He lives to do!
 
My dad did this for his family when I was young: He worked a side job as a referee in high school basketball simply to earn money so that he could buy Christmas gifts for me, my sister, and my mom. How many of you know, that’s something God would do (and has done)?   
 
You see, selfishness only works for itself so that it can gather more into its own barns; love works because it wants to have more to give! Therefore, God wants us to “live to give” like He focuses on supplying all of our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus! Thanks be to God!
 
 
PART 4 – THE WORD OF LOVE & THE SPIRIT OF LOVE
 
 
THE WORD OF LOVE
 
Then in verse 29, Paul instructs us in how to use our words by focusing on how they are affecting those who hear them: He says, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” Essentially in this verse, Paul is saying that our words are not meant to tear down, but for building up. They are meant to impart grace to the hearers, not condemnation.
 
You know, the Bible has a lot to say about the power of our words. In fact, not only did the apostle Paul talk about our words in his epistles, the Lord Jesus said a lot about our words as well in the Gospels. But do you know what Book of the Bible has the most to say about our words? The Book of Wisdom, Proverbs, does. So this teaches me that a wise man chooses his words carefully, knowing that there is life & death in the power of the tongue. Seems like that should be in the Bible somehow. But wait! It is!
 
Proverbs 18:20-21 says, “A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; From the produce of his lips he shall be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
 
First of all, notice that Proverbs 18:21 specifically says that those who love it will eat its fruit. Love what? Well, this could refer to the power that is in the tongue or the life that our tongue has the power to produce. Either way, embracing this truth that our words are powerful is an important part of seeing the fruit of it.  But the truth is, our tongues hold more power than most realize – the power to produce both death and life. No, not just life and not just death; our tongues hold the power to accomplish both!
 
But notice how this verse doesn’t say “life and death are in the power of the tongue”; it says “death and life …” And I believe the reason for this is because one must first realize what to stop saying with their mouths before they start learning what to say.
 
Notice in Ephesians 4:28, Paul did the same thing— He started by saying to not let any corrupt communication come out of our mouths before he focused on the good things our tongue is meant to accomplish.
 
Now “corrupt communication” describes words that can spoil or even kill. And, church, we need to know that words do indeed have that power … This corrupting & destructive nature of the tongue is mentioned all throughout Proverbs. Many do not understand this; they do not see how words can do so much damage. We say things like, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That is so untrue, church! The truth is - words can hurt! Yes, they can even kill!
 
Proverbs 12:18 says, There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword… In other places, words are described as arrows, snake bites, fire (see Psalm 57:4, 64:3, 120:2-4, 140:3; Proverbs 16:27, 25:18, 26:21 & James 3:2-12). So yes, words can be used as weapons to demolish, destroy, condemn, and even kill.
 
But as Proverbs 12:18 & Proverbs 4:28 go on to say, words are not just instruments of death, they are also instruments of life. Therefore, we need to see how our words can be constructive; not just destructive.
 
I had the Lord correct me one time on this because when I first got the revelation of the power of our words, I only gravitated to the negative. It set in me a holy fear of not saying anything that I did not want to see in my life. I would avoid saying anything about how I felt in my body, what I was experiencing negatively in my life, etc. I knew that I did not want to say what I didn’t want to see. And while there is certainly truth to this, there was something I had not put into practice yet.
 
You see, although I knew that there was death in the power of the tongue, I had not put as much importance on the fact that there is also life in the power of the tongue. Therefore, I needed to adopt the principle of calling things that be not as though they were instead of just not calling things that be as though they were not. Both are truths that we need to learn, church – because, again, words can be both extremely destructive and extremely constructive.
 
Notice what the 2nd half of this Proverb says, “… but the tongue of the wise promotes health.” So, just as our words can be weapons and be used to hurt people and things, our words can also be agents of healing and health! (I wonder then what God’s Words will promote in those who have ears to hear them) Amen! So as the apostle Paul said, our words are supposed to do good, to bring necessary edification, and to impart grace to the hearers.
 
Likewise, Proverbs talks about the destructive tendency of our words, it also has a lot to say about the life that’s in our tongue as well:
 
Proverbs 10:11 says that “the mouth of the righteous is a well of life …” Most other translations describe the mouth of the righteous as a “fountain of life.” In other words, it is the source of life. You see, a fountain or well was their source of water in that day. Therefore, our mouths are where we need to look to when we are feeling dry, thirsty, and not experiencing the life of God. Our own mouths can change the narrative and give a life-giving drink of water to both those we might be encouraging and our own selves that might need encouraging.  
 
Proverbs 15:4 says, “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life …” So, a wholesome (or, healthy) tongue is a tree of life. What does this mean? Well, the tree of life did what? It gave eternal, everlasting life! So, how does one become satisfied with long life (see Psalm 91:16)? It is through a whole and healthy tongue!
 
Proverbs 15:23 says, A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season, how good it is! Did you know that how we decide to answer things with our mouth can determine whether we walk in joy or not? For example, if a “barren fig tree” is in our path and we answer it with the right words, it can greatly determine us experiencing the fruit of joy. Regarding others, we need to be declarers of the “good report”- not running to bring bad news to others. I get joy when people call me with good news. 
 
Proverbs 16:24 says, Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones. In other words, pleasant, beautiful, gracious and kind words have a similar effect on us as good honey does: they positively affect us both emotionally and physically. Be an agent of words that both add to others and to you!
 
Finally, I want to draw our attention back to the last half of Proverbs 18:21, which says, “and those who love it shall eat the fruit of it.”
 
What fruit do you want in your life? What do you desire to partake of? Well, according to Proverbs 18:21, we see that we will eat the fruit of the words that we speak. “Eating our words” is a much truer statement than we realized, huh? 
 
Well, we have three verses in Proverbs that speak along these same lines. Let’s look at one of them that is coincidently located one verse before Proverbs 18:21. Quickly, the other two say:

• Proverbs 12:14 - A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth, and the recompense of a man’s hands will be rendered to him.
• Proverbs 13:2 - A man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth, but the soul of the unfaithful feeds on violence.

 
Finally, notice again that Proverbs 18:20 says, A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; From the produce of his lips he shall be filled.
 
So, these are three witnesses that establish us in the importance of only speaking of the fruit we desire to partake of.
 
So now you know where I am going with this, right? If our words hold such power, what do you suppose God’s Word is capable of!?! It absolutely has the power to produce life and health! This is why Proverbs 4:22 teaches us how His Words are “life to those who find them and health to all their flesh.”
 
And Ephesians 4:29 teaches us exactly what else His Words have the power to do--
 
They are certainly not capable of “corruption” because Paul told us not to let any corrupt communication proceed from our mouth. This means that nothing God says to us will ever yield corruption or death; rather they “preserve.” The Book of Proverbs even talks about how His wise words will “preserve” us. In other words, God’s Words always produce life and lead to our fruit being fresh and flourishing.
 
Likewise, all of His words are good and are for necessary edification. This means all that He says is good, beneficial, and edifying. The word “edification” literally means to build up. Therefore, His words will always build us up and not tear us down.
 
And finally, His words always impart grace to the hearers: Didn’t Paul say over in Colossians 4:6 that our words should always be with grace. This is how God talks. Do you want to know what language God speaks in? It is grace! Grace is the language of love. So if God told us that our speech is always to be with grace, then how can we believe that His Words are not going to always be “laced with grace”? Yes, if the Lord told us to always let our speech be with grace and seasoned with salt, then you can rest assured that this is the way He is always going to communicate with you. In other words, His Words will always be in the specific flavor that you prefer them to be in.
 
Again, is this not what God’s Word does for us? It builds us up, it edifies us, it feeds our spirits, and it imparts grace to us, for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. In this verse, God is saying that He wants our words to have the same effect on others as His Word does on us.
 
You see, there are different ways in which we can hear God’s Word. Some only hear it through the filter of condemnation, but this is not how God spoke it. His Word was intended to minister to us the same way as Paul said here our words are to minister to others – and that way is the way of love. This is why you could call the Word of God, the Word of Love.
 
THE SPIRIT OF LOVE
 
Then in verse 30, we have another eye-opening truth: Paul says in it that we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit.
 
Now this idea of grieving the Holy Spirit must be understood by the context. You see, I’ve heard a lot of squirrely ideas of what “grieves” the Holy Spirit, but this verse is sandwiched between the words of our mouth (vs. 29) and the taking off & putting on of certain behaviors. So the fact is, the Holy Spirit can be grieved when you or I choose to conduct ourselves in a certain way.
 
But again, will God give us a standard that He is not already living by? Nope! So this should tell us that He tells us not to grieve the Holy Spirit because He does not and will not grieve us! Wow! What a powerful truth!
 
Now it’s important to understand what this word “grieve” means: It comes from the Greek word lupeo which means to make sorrowful, to sadden, or to cause pain, injury, or distress.
 
Have you ever done something wrong and just felt an overwhelming state of sorrow? And no, I am not referring to a normal kind of feeling bad about what you did, but an oppressive kind of guilt that zapped you of your joy and left you with a dark cloud over your head.
 
You see, as the apostle Paul taught us, there is certainly a godly kind of sorrow that leads us to repentance, but there is also a worldly sorrow that yields death (Second Corinthians 7:8-11). So we need to be able to distinguish when the grief that we are experiencing is the godly kind versus the worldly kind.  
 
Now a great example of this worldly kind of sorrow is Judas: We all know that he made some very bad decisions and the very worst of mistakes, and we see how he was even very remorseful for betraying the Lord like he did. But His sorrow was certainly not the godly kind because there was no repentance. In fact, we see how he took his own life as a result—bringing to pass in the most literal sense what the apostle Paul taught us - that worldly sorrow yields death.
 
So, there is obviously a kind of grief that can come from making mistakes and stumbling in our Christian walk, but does that mean that it’s the Holy Spirit who is “grieving” us? Not necessarily! It might just be that our own heart is condemning us because of some value system that is set in it, or it could be the devil is heaping condemnation on us.
 
But what we do know is that the Lord will not grieve us anymore than He wants us to grieve His Spirit. In fact, we can see where Jesus taught us how the Holy Spirit’s own ministry is to not do this. The Lord Jesus showed us that the Holy Spirit is commissioned to “convict” (See John 16:8-11).
 
Now let me begin by dispelling a couple of popular belief systems that people have of these verses and about the workings of the Holy Spirit in general:
 
Notice, first of all, that Jesus said, “And when He has come (And He most certainly has come!), He will convict the world…” Convict who? “The world.” So, who is it that the Holy Spirit will convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment? The world! And we know that when Jesus refers to the world here, He is certainly including unbelievers because, in verse 9, when He goes on to explain why He will convict the world of these three things, He says, “of sin, because they do not believe in Me.” Therefore, this is certainly talking about those of the world who have not yet believed on Jesus. However, I also see it as including those who are in the world but not of the world as well (i.e., believers) because in verse 10 He says, “of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you see Me no more.”
 
So, this particular commission of the Holy Spirit in John 16:8-11 is what He is assigned to do for everyone living in the world, and not necessarily just for God’s children. This is important to understand, particularly as it pertains to the sin portion, because how many of us have heard how the Holy Spirit “convicted” one of our brothers & sisters in Christ of their sin—taking them to the woodshed and making them feel horrible for what they did wrong—and they used these very verses to substantiate it?
 
Well, I’m here to tell you that what a lot of Christians say is the Holy Spirit is not the Holy Spirit—which leads me to point number two: Part of the reason people misunderstand the workings of the Holy Spirit is because of this word we see in the King James version— “convict.”
 
You see, in our modern-day terminology, the word “convict” has more of a negative tone to it. To us, the word “convict” paints the picture of a courtroom and carries the idea of some judge who is looking down on the guilty and condemning them for their wrongdoing. And religion certainly has not helped this perception of conviction either: It has painted the picture that God is looking down on us with a lightning bolt in His hand ready to strike us down at any moment for our sinful ways. So, therefore, a good portion of the Church teaches that the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to constantly hound us—condemning us for all our various faults and shortcomings. Saints, this is not what the Holy Spirit is commissioned to do!
 
So, what does the word “convict” actually mean? The Greek word translated as “convict” carries more of the idea to “convince or to prove” than it does to “condemn.” In fact, the Greek word that the apostle John used here literally means “to bring something to light, and thus to expose it.” So, don’t get stuck on the word “convict” and let that word paint a negative picture of the Holy Spirit’s dealings with the world.
 
But the fact is (as we’ve made the point of already), Jesus specifically said that the Holy Spirit’s assignment to “convict” of sin is aimed at the world, and not at the church. In other words, the Holy Spirit’s job of convicting, convincing, and simply bringing to light one’s sinful condition is specifically targeting unbelievers.
 
Now does this mean that the Holy Spirit is not dealing with us—God’s children—as well? Since Jesus said here that the Holy Spirit is doing this commission of convicting & convincing to the world, does that mean that He does not show us things as well? I do not believe so.
 
No, just because Jesus only addressed “the world” as being subject to the Holy Spirit’s conviction here, does not mean that He does not fulfill this in a certain measure to the Church. We are in the world as well, just not of the world. I for one am thankful for all of the times that the Holy Spirit has shown me when I am missing it and what I ought to be doing.
 
I have seen many in the Church today reject even the notion of God correcting us or pointing out our mistakes because they see it as a negative thing. But the truth is, we all do stupid things, and we all need correction from time to time. So, who better to provide us with all of the instruction, correction, and direction that we so desperately need than the Holy Spirit?
 
Again, people take correction as such a negative thing. But this particular part of the Holy Spirit’s ministry is not a negative ministry; it is a positive ministry! He is an exhorter and an encourager, not a “beat ‘em down in the dumps” condemner (see Romans 8:1&34)! While He certainly does “convict” us when we do something wrong in the sense that He simply brings it to our attention, He does it in order to teach and train us to become more like Jesus in our attitudes and conduct, and not to make us feel bad. Church, He is a convicter, and not a condemner!
 
The question that begs to be answered then is: What is the difference between conviction and condemnation? Understanding the difference between these two is vital to being able to discern the difference between what comes from God, Satan, and even us.
 
Earlier in my walk with the Lord, He taught me how to tell the difference between these two: He said, “Conviction brings a state of hope; Condemnation brings a state of hopelessness.” What this means is that when you just feel bad over what you did and are basically void of any hope of ever getting back on track—then rest assured, what you are experiencing is condemnation and not conviction.
 
You see, condemnation only yields death. It does nothing but beat you over the head for the mess you are in and does nothing to help you out. It will lay on you such a heavy burden, but not help you lift it even in the least. Condemnation will even try and ultimately cause you to despair of life in general. In other words, it will not stop with making you feel hopeless with your individual mistake. It will end up trying to make you feel hopeless about your Christian walk altogether. Condemnation is a quitter! So, if you are ever being tempted to entertain the thoughts of quitting, know that condemnation is in there somewhere.
 
On the other hand, when you are receiving the conviction of the Holy Spirit, you might feel remorse, but it won’t be the kind of hopeless, guilt-infested sorrow that the world brings. You will sense hope to overcome, hope for change, and hope for forgiveness!
 
The way I personally can discern the conviction of the Holy Spirit is that I always end up feeling better after I receive it. During those times (which are more than I would like), I feel like I can genuinely say to the Holy Spirit, “Thank you sir! May I have another!?!” His loving and gracious rebukes do not make me feel like a failure. Instead, they infuse me with a hope for repentance and also provide the way of escape at the same time (i.e., the “how to” in regard to repentance).
 
But my point is that the Holy Spirit’s commission to convict is a positive, life-giving commission and not something that we should dread. His is a commission of conviction, not condemnation! Yes, church, we must know that the Holy Spirit never, ever condemns us! So, if we ever feel even a hint of condemnation over something that we did, then we should eliminate the Holy Spirit from being a possible suspect, which would leave Satan or ourselves as the only two possible suspects.
 
Have you ever known someone who just had a tendency to injure you with their words? They would say something that just plain hurt you, leaving you saying, “Ouch!” They had a sharp tongue and when they made remarks or statements, they were rather pointed and injurious. For instance, maybe you made a comment like- “Oh, I didn’t realize that” and then they would say something like- “Well, you should have!” That is just condemning! I mean, why would we reinforce to someone the mistake they made when they are already aware of it? How does that profit them if they already realize what they have done?
 
This is not how God wants our speech to be. And why? It is because His Words are not like this towards us! He does not talk to us like many believe that He does. There are many believers who think that God will remind us of our mistakes and shortcomings after we already realize them. This is not God! How many times do we hear of Christians who say, “Man, the Holy Spirit just condemned the mess out me today! He let me know how wrong what I did was and sent me to the woodshed. He told me, ‘I ought to be ashamed of myself and that I should feel bad about what I did.”
 
Now again, I certainly believe that part of the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to let us know when we are missing the mark, but what I totally disagree with is how many believe He does this. He does not grieve us anymore than He wants us to grieve Him. He is not going to send us into distress nor is He going to attempt to cause injury to our soul.
 
Friends, love does not condemn! Love always seeks to speak words of life that build up and don’t tear down! And this is exactly how God’s Word and God’s Spirit seek to communicate to you!
 
CONCLUSION
 
You see, church, the Spirit of God and the Word of God always agree! And what they specifically agree on is to communicate things to us that preserve us, that build us & edify us, and to add to us! This is always what God’s written Word and His Holy Spirit will communicate to us.
 
In fact, if you study what prophecy is meant to do, you can see clearly what both God’s Word—which is called the more sure word of prophecy—and God’s Spirit—which is the One who gives this gift in the first place—intend to do as they speak to us.
 
First Corinthians 14:3 says that he who prophesies speaks edification, exhortation, and comfort to men. Well, if that is what this gift of the Spirit accomplishes, then you can be pretty sure that this is how God will speak to us all the time. Yes, everything He shares with us through His Word and His Spirit will edify, exhort, and bring comfort to us. Amen.

INTRODUCTION
 
As most of you know, we have been looking at God’s love for us over the past few months—attempting to deepen our understanding & revelation of His love for each one of us. Well, today, I want us to move into something similar, yet a little different.
 
Yes, I want us to continue learning about God’s amazing love for us, but we are going to take a different approach than most do. What we are going to do is we are going to look at some verses that instruct us how to love each other, and by this, learn how God loves us in the same way.
 
Someone might ask, “How is studying verses that teach us how to love other people going to teach us about God’s love for us?” The answer is simple, but let me answer that question by asking you one: Would God give us a standard for loving others that He Himself is not already walking in? In other words, would God tell us to do something that He is not already doing? The obvious answer to those two questions is – Of course, He wouldn’t! Our Heavenly Father commands us to treat our brothers and sisters a certain way because He wants us to act like Him! He wants us to forgive, to do good, and to have compassion on our fellow man because this is how God treats us. So, in essence, you could say that everything God instructs or commands us to do in His Word can be summarized in one statement— Be like Me.  
 
So, what I am entitling this new series is – “Imitators of Love” – because we know God is love, right? So, if we are imitating God, then we are imitating love.
 
MIMICKING THE FATHER
 
I get this title from a verse of the Bible which I believe to be the most concise statement of truth concerning our role and responsibility on the earth. Yes, church, if there was one verse that I believe puts everything that we are called to do for the Lord in a nutshell, it would be Ephesians 5:1, which says, “Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children.”
 
You see, I see this verse as the bullseye of everything that we aim to be as Christians. Why is this? It’s because being imitators of God would encompass everything else we could ever aspire to be in Him. Yes, if we were imitating God, then we would love perfectly. We would bless abundantly. We would do good to all, and our mercy would endure forever. The list could go on and on. So just mimicking the nature of our Heavenly Father would encompass all of the weightier matters of the law and fulfill its righteous requirement. Amen?   
 
Now when we see this word “imitators” we think of someone who “mimics, copies, or follows after” someone else. In fact, in the original King James version, this word is used seven times and is always translated as “follower(s).” The apostle Paul liked to use this word in encouraging his churches to “follow” his example and to “imitate” him.
 
Wasn’t Jesus also known for calling His disciples with two words— “Follow me.” Well, what they heard (and probably most of us too) when Jesus invited them to do this was to lay down whatever they were doing and physically follow Him. But I believe Jesus was also saying the same thing that we read here—to follow His example and imitate Him.
 
Let me give you a few other translations of this verse that bring out some of these other ways of describing “imitators”:

1. The Amplified Bible says, “Therefore become imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father];”
2. The JB Phillips New Testament says, “As children copy their fathers you, as God’s children, are to copy him.”
3. The Message Bible says, “Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents.”
4. The Contemporary English Version says, “Do as God does. After all, you are his dear children.”

 
So let’s talk a little today about Paul telling us that we need to be imitators of God “as dear children.” The imagery that he is giving us is of a child imitating his or her dad. But notice that Paul says to do it as “dear” children. This word describes children who are “beloved”—which could mean one of two things:

1. It could describe how a father has already loved this child and how this child then imitates his or her father because they have been loved so well.
2. It could also describe how a child who does imitate his or her parents is so loved by the parents. Not that the parent loves the child any more because of their actions, but how the parent holds “dear” the child that imitates them.   

 
So if the apostle Paul intended my first point – to describe how a child who is dearly loved will tend towards mimicking their parents – then this shows the importance of us receiving what we have been learning over the past few months because the fact that we “be-loved” by God, being His “dear children”, should inspire us to be more like God. Yes, the more we receive God’s love and see how good He is, the more it should inspire us to be more like Him. It will create more of an admiration of Him, and the result will be us striving to replicate our Heavenly Father’s goodness. 
 
But if Paul intended to describe how much a parent loves it when their child mimics them, then we can see how this is a way that we can bless the Lord even more. 
 
You know, regarding this latter point, all of us parents out there can see how this would be true, right? There are not too many things that can bless a parent more than when their child attempts to mimic them. At a young age, our kids might repeat what we say. Many times, they will want to do what we do vocationally when they grow up. They simply just get interested in what we are interested in because of their love and admiration for us. Then when they grow up, what a joy it is to any parent when their child follows in their footsteps by maybe choosing the school that their parents went to or following the same career path that they did.
 
Now, of course, this is not always the path that our children are to take, but when it comes to our Heavenly Father, following exactly in His footsteps is always the right thing to do. My point is that it pleases any parent to either see their young child doing their best to be like their daddy or seeing their grown-up children making the mature decision to be about their father’s business.
 
So how about the Lord? Do you reckon Father God is pleased when His children begin to imitate Him? I guarantee you that this ministers to His heart as it does to any of us who are parents here. 
 
But, you see, the reason why this statement is what I believe to be all of the commandments rolled up into one is because ultimately everything God has told us do in the Word of God is a reflection of what He is already doing. In other words, in all of His commandments and instructions, He is saying, “Sons and daughters, just be like Me.”
 
WALKING AFTER LOVE
 
And if we are going to just be like Him, what will be doing? Well, the apostle Paul goes on to tell us in the following verse when he says, “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” (Ephesians 5:2)
 
So if we are imitating our Father God, then we are imitating love, right? Yes, us walking in love is us imitating God who is love. So based on what we’ve learned about imitating someone, us walking in love would be us “walking after Love”—that is, us following after Love Himself.
 
But not only are we imitating our Heavenly Father when we walk in love, but Paul goes on to describe that we are also imitating His Son, Jesus Christ, who “has loved us and given Himself for us …” And I believe the idea here is that since we have Jesus’ example here on the earth, we can simply look to His example and “copy that.”
 
You see, understanding one simple truth is key to understanding the nature of God—and that truth is that one Jesus gave us in John chapter 14 …
 
In John 14:7-9, Jesus had a conversation with His disciple, Philip, that holds a tremendous truth: Jesus started off by saying, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
 
So Jesus shows us that if we have seen Him, we will have seen the Father. This truth is echoed in other New Testament verses as well …
 
Jesus was said by the apostle Paul to be “the image of the invisible God” in Colossians 1:15. Let’s look at this phrase in more detail …
 
Notice, first of all, that God is called “invisible” here. Jesus revealed to us that God is a spirit (See John 4:24). Therefore, being spiritual Himself, He would be invisible to the physical eye. However, Paul calls Jesus here “the image of the invisible God.” The Greek word for “image” is eikon and describes an exact stamp, representation, or manifestation of something or someone. This Greek word is actually where we get our word “icon” from, which is defined similarly.
 
Interestingly enough, this same word for “image” was used over in Romans 1:23, albeit in a negative sense when he said that pagans “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man …” But in Jesus’ case, the image and glory of the invisible God was perfectly displayed in the life of a Man who is now incorruptible Himself! Glory! Therefore, just as the first Adam was created in the image and likeness of God (See Genesis 1:26), the Last Adam—Jesus Christ—is the perfect image and likeness of His Father.
 
Let me give you a couple of good examples of this word “image”: Sometimes stamps carry an image of a famous person. Likewise, Jesus is the exact “stamp” of the image of God Himself. Again, this is why Jesus said that if you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father (See John 14:9). Another example is of a coin. Just as coins generally bear the image of the head of a sovereign, likewise Jesus bore the image of the Sovereign God. All of this to say that Jesus was, is, and evermore shall be the exact image and representation of the invisible God—the express image of His person (See Hebrews 1:3).
 
Yes, even though God is invisible, and no one can see Him, His only begotten Son came to declare Him … John 1:18 says that no one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared Him. You see, you cannot truly see God’s nature by how He operated in the Old Testament—particularly under the law. That’s right— You do not see God in Moses because heck, not even he saw God’s face & fullness, just a part of Him. Now we see God the Father in God the Son. He (Jesus) has declared Him fully. Amen.
 
So, what does it mean that Jesus “declared Him (God)”? It means that He not only declared Him in Word, but He also declared Him in action. In other words, Jesus’ life—both words and deeds—reveals the true nature of the Father. Therefore, if you have seen Jesus, then you have seen God.
 
Yes, church, Jesus came to the earth to reveal the very nature and characteristics of God to us. Yes, He was God manifest in the flesh (First Timothy 3:16). The lesson then is this: whatever you see Jesus doing or hear Jesus saying in the Gospels is the perfect revelation of the will of God yesterday, today, and forevermore (Hebrews 13:8)!
 
Therefore, Jesus would be the best example we have for imitating God, amen? Absolutely! As Jesus said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father”, we might say, “If you have imitated Jesus, you have imitated God.”
 
Now this whole idea Paul presents here of “as Christ also has loved us” is certainly reminiscent of what Jesus taught us in John 13:34 when He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
 
What Jesus was giving His disciples here was not a new idea; love was also taught under the Old Covenant as their greatest commandment contained loving God and loving their neighbor. The difference here was that while the law taught loving our neighbor “as we do ourselves”, the New Testament teaches us to love one another “as He has loved us.” Therefore, it’s not a new commandment in that love is a new concept; it’s just a new standard of love where we are loving with His love and not our own.
 
And this example Paul gave of how He has loved us is culminated in how He gave Himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. So the example of love that we are to be walking in can be boiled down to the laying down of our lives for others. But here’s the deal— the Lord did this first! It began with God so loving the world that He gave His only begotten Son (See John 3:16), and then His only begotten Son gave Himself after He got here. Amen!
 
And church, that is exactly the kind of love that we are called to imitate—loving the world enough to give them our very best and loving one another enough to give our very lives for them. This is the example we are to follow, mimic, copy, and imitate as His “dear children.”