Copycats
Read This Week: Ephesians 5
Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth). – Ephesians 5:1-2, 8-9 NIV
If someone is dressing, acting, or talking like another person, they are referred to as a “copycat.” A copycat is a person that imitates, mimics, or follows the same things as someone else. And depending on what is being copied, this behavior can either be a good thing or a bad thing.
In Ephesians 5, Paul writes that our lives are to mimic that of Jesus’ life. That we should follow God’s example of love and integrity in our behavior, relationships, dealings with others, and our marriages. Some translations of verse 1 say that followers of Christ should be imitators of God. We are to be His copycats.
This passage of Scripture makes it clear that if we are children of God, then we should imitate our Father. Our identity sets the tone for our responsibility. People who are made in the image of God and restored to relationship with Him through Christ, are to be the living expressions of who he is. Our lives and their movements should reflect the attributes of Christ and be a visible template of his nature.
God is love; therefore we are to be loving people. When Paul asks us to walk in love, he’s not talking about something completely foreign to the Christian life. In our new identity, we are to express ourselves in love. Practically speaking, when we love others in the right way, we imitate God who is the author of love and who initiated that love for us.
God is forgiveness; therefore we are to be forgiving people. God forgave and made peace with sinners as an example of what our lives should emulate. When we forgive each other, we reflect God who forgave us in Christ Jesus. When we have grace for one another, it expresses the undeserved favor of God that was realized in Jesus’ death and resurrection.
God is light; therefore we should live in the light and have nothing to do with the dark nature of sin. God is set apart and His followers are called to be the same as we live in the world. A Christian should not participate in the things of darkness as Paul specifically lays out in verses 3-7. He says that our identity as God’s holy people compels us into the light to reveal His goodness, character, and conduct.
Verse 15 says, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise.” God is wisdom; therefore we should make wise decisions as we seek to do the Lord’s will. When we exercise wisdom in our lives with forethought and good intention, it often leads to the right choices. These right choices then put God’s prudence and understanding on full display in a world of self-gratification and hedonism.
It has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and that copying someone is a great way to compliment them. But for the follower of God, imitation is the highest form of obedience. Doing as Christ did is the best way to honor the Lord with our lives and bless other people. Copycats of Jesus are what we should strive to be.
I really got a lot out of Ephesians 5 verse 3. When we are saved, we are born again, but it doesn’t give us a license to sin. We have a new nature in Him. We no longer live, but He lives in us. The old nature of sin is buried with the lust of the flesh.
What that means to me is that Christians have a new nature in Christ. We no longer have the desire in our heart to sin. We must walk in newness of life. All the sins above are part of the old nature that was buried and is gone.
I am so thankful that our old nature is buried with Christ and raised to a new life with HIm through the resurrection, Jeri. It is an encouraging and empowering promise to know that in Christ we are no longer under the obligation to sin and do what our old nature desires. I have the power to do what is right and as you said, “walk in the newness of life.” We don’t have to sin. We can do what God desires through his grace by faith.
Your comment reminded me of Romans 6:11-14 where it says, “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under the law, but under grace.”
Ephesians 5:8 For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of Light [lead the lives of those native-born to the Light].
9 For the fruit (the effect, the product) of the Light or [c]the Spirit [consists] in every form of kindly goodness, uprightness of heart, and trueness of life.
10 And try to learn [in your experience] what is pleasing to the Lord [let your lives be constant proofs of what is most acceptable to Him].
what I heard God saying to us “When your filling your self with Me and My Love, there is no room for anything else.
My Light is in you, as you fill yourself with My will and My wisdom, My ways My Light will be shinning through you. As you desire to spend time with US, desire Me and to be like Me and Jesus more and more, you will want to please US and not the worlds ways and your old nature. Don’t let the world ways deceive you because it never brings fulfillment,
learning to live like US, and walking in the Light will bring contentment, peace, My fruit, so continue to learn to be like Jesus He is your best example. ”
What that means to Me is everyday is a new day more opportunities to try to be like Jesus, to copy and to learn to be just Like our Heavenly Father God. I want to be just like Him and to follow the King, my brother Jesus He is our best example of Love.
In every scene I desire to live in His LIGHT, and to keep learning to walk with God and to follow Jesus.
I want to keep learning everyday how to be pleasing to the Lord.
I love you Father God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
We have such an awesome example in Christ, a good, good Father and the Holy Spirit to empower us to make the most out of life. It’s so wonderful to be loved, trained and helped by God. These are more of the benefits of being a child of God.
Thank you, God, for who you are and being all that I need. God is saying to me and you: “I have made a way where there was no way for you to succeed in life and for us to be together forever.”
Ken, I love the word “benefit” that you used when it comes to being a child of God. It is the perfect description of what it means to follow and know Him. We are beneficiaries of his grace, mercy, love, and kindness but as if that wasn’t enough, we get to benefit from his blessings and promise. As you said, He has certainly made a way for us! He’s a good Father indeed.
What God said to me through this chapter is this: you are to make me your example and model. My behavior towards you should become your measure for your behavior towards one another. As you imitate me, you become a representative of mine, especially for non-believers.
Your main understanding of My will comes from a good knowledge of my word. The filling of the Holy Spirit is not a one-time event. It is a constant filling, asking to be filled, and receiving the filling by faith. Being impaired in any way by drink is a sin. My Holy Spirit is a stimulant. Make the most of every opportunity for My Son, Jesus Christ. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you will have a desire to worship Me and to encourage others in their worship of Me. I delight in creative, spontaneous worship.
The most important place for you to have a melody unto Me is in your heart. You will also be filled with thanksgiving. Submission will be done in the fear of Me rather than the fear of men. Do not be self-seeking. Have a team attitude because you are on My team. Submit to me and to others. Your motive for submission is respect for Jesus Christ. When you submit to Me, you are recognizing My authority and will act accordingly.
What this said to me was God and Jesus Christ should be what stimulates me always and not things of the world. I have to draw near to Them in order to stay filled up by the Holy Spirit. I must submit to God.
Thank you for this comment, Kathy. There is so much good truth in that post. I agree wholeheartedly with what you said about the filling of the Holy Spirit being all the stimulant and inspiration we need to worship God with our lives and in spontaneous moments.
After reading all you said about the benefits of God and what we have in the Holy Spirit, it seems utterly ridiculous and nonsensical to seek out anything else to stimulate, motivate or give us the passion to worship God. Nothing on this earth compares to the rush of knowing the Creator and being able to have a personal relationship with Him every day.
Thank you for these important reminders!
This week, I was blessed to get a song through Pastor Ken and Ephesians 5 called “Being Gods Children”
Once we were in darkness
Then we became God’s light
Glowing bright, glowing bright, so bright
We are learning to be kind, understanding with Christ
Showing others God’s hope, faith, and love
We are God’s children
God’s children trying to be perfected
Perfected like Jesus
Having his Spirit in our hearts, having his Spirit in our hearts
His Spirit in our hearts
Thank you for sharing this week, Alma. It is such an amazing blessing to be God’s child and to have the privilege to imitate Him with the Holy Spirit’s help. The beautiful words of your song reminded me of these lyrics from a song called “Into Marvelous Light”:
Your love it beckons deeply,
a call to come and die.
By grace now I will come
And take this life, take Your life.
Sin has lost it’s power,
death has lost it’s sting.
From the grave You’ve risen
Victoriously!
Into marvelous light I’m running,
Out of darkness, out of shame.
By the cross you are the truth,
You are the life, you are the way
Ephesians Chapter 5 verse 8 says, “For once you were in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of Light [live the lives of those native-born to the Light].”
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the Life” and God says to us to imitate Him. Follow me, my child. I am your Father. Love me, your church and each other [Christians] as I love you. I have a chosen path for you. Your walk with me has nothing to do with way of the carnal world and flesh. Your special, predetermined path is one of peace, love, joy, salvation, and light. Walk in my light and lead the life only those born into the light lead and exhibit behavior that is pleasing to Me [Us]. A light from God The Father, through Jesus and by The Holy Spirit that shines of iridescent illumination, not of darkness.
A poem written in 1916 by Robert Frost, mentions “two yellow roads, diverged in the woods and I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference.” God has given us a yellow road. He says to you and me, “my children walk the chosen road, the pathway to purity, holiness, refined and polished by Me and in Me.
Just like in life, God says to choose His yellow road that has not been traveled. He made it just for us, his children. His road leads to eternal, everlasting life filled with His truths and promises as well as a life of perfected, eternal glory. Yes, my child, Jesus Christ will make all the difference forevermore.
I appreciate this comment so much, Trina. I love how you incorporated the Frost quote into the idea of following and imitating Christ. He was always one of my favorites and I think that is a perfect illustration for the choices we have in life to follow Christ or go our own way.
There is no doubt that a life of following Jesus, being obedient to His word and worshipping Him in a consistent way is “the road less traveled by.” But knowing what He has for us on that road and at the end of that road, it is so much better to take the right path, even if it is hard, with Him than to travel the popular path without Him. It is worth it to follow Jesus.