Transcript
It’s Time to Begin Our Service
I am so glad to have you here with us. I send my love and greetings to everyone listening all around the world, especially our many friends at Faith Assembly who listen in regularly. I appreciate all the different ones who reached out over the past week. God bless each one of you. It’s always good to hear from you, and we are keeping you in our prayers.
I spoke this past week with some of the saints in the United Kingdom, up in Canada, here in the United States, and different ones from Africa and Europe. I am so thankful that so many are doing well and that we are seeing God continue to move and bless the work so many are doing.
If this is your first time joining us and you wonder who we are and what we are up to, my name is Charles Paisley. I am, and most of our listeners here are, formerly members of the cult following of William Branham known as The Message. The Message is a global doomsday cult with millions of members. It started here in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and spread all over the world. I am formerly the associate pastor of the second oldest Message church in the world, right here in the Jeffersonville area. This is a little mission we operate to offer encouragement to those leaving the Message and to take a look at the plain reading of Scripture as we seek to wash out of our minds what, for most of us, has been a lifetime of indoctrination.
I am thankful we have a few minutes to look into the Scripture together.
Today we are in Ephesians chapter 5, and the title of our lesson is “Walk in Love.” I have used that as the title for the last five lessons because everything Paul has been sharing with us through this section can be filed under that heading. Today, I will be looking at just the first two verses of chapter 5, which is where our title comes from. I invite you to open your Bibles and follow along with me as I read. I will actually start reading at the end of chapter 4, and verse 32. Paul writes:
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Let us pray.
Lord God, thank you for our Savior, Jesus Christ, who through His sacrifice saved us all. It is by Your mercy and grace that we even have the privilege today to look into these things and to know the things of God. Help us, we pray, to comprehend the things we read. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Introduction
As we pick up our study today in the book of Ephesians, let me start by giving a brief reminder of where we are overall within this book. Back at the start of chapter 4, the apostle Paul started speaking about Christian conduct. Paul is referring to the Christian lifestyle and Christian conduct as the way we walk—the way we carry ourselves, the way we proceed down the road of life. That is a good analogy to use. Life is a journey, and we are traveling to a destination as we live from day to day. How we walk down the road of life is important. The way we conduct ourselves and behave along the way is very important. God is concerned with our conduct because, as Paul has already pointed out, there is a right way to walk and a wrong way to walk.
Since chapter 4 began, Paul has been letting us know that the example we should look to for the right way to walk and conduct ourselves is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the example we should follow, and we see Paul pointing that out again today in these verses we have just read. In verse 32, Paul told us to look at God in Christ as our example. In verse 1 of chapter 5, he has told us to be imitators of God. Then in verse 2, Paul points to Christ as the example yet again.
Back in chapter 4, Paul gave about a dozen different points about what Christian behavior and conduct look like. As we went through, I pointed out how all of it is the fruit of the Spirit. We saw love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, meekness, and so forth. Paul gave us some specific examples of what the fruit of the Spirit looks like in action, and that has truly been Paul’s emphasis in all of this. We see him bringing that point home as he starts chapter 5.
He opens this chapter saying, “Walk in Love, as Christ walked in love.” He is very clearly letting us see that all of this Christian lifestyle is based, rooted, and grounded in the love of God in our hearts.
The Foundation of Christian Lifestyle
It is so important to recognize that love is the foundation of the Christian lifestyle. The command to love each other, as Christ loved us, is the base upon which all the guidelines of Christian conduct and lifestyle are based.
If we went to Romans chapter 10, for example, Paul there paints a very clear picture of how this works. Paul said that every single command or rule we observe as Christians flows from that one single great commandment: to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
At the very start of chapter 4, Paul calls the Ephesians to walk worthy of their calling. Here at the start of chapter 5, he sums it all up and lets us know that walking in love is what he is after. Walking in love is walking worthy of our calling. Let me repeat that: walking in love is walking worthy of our calling. It’s impossible to take a plain reading of these verses and come away with a different idea.
The Christian lifestyle, Christian behavior, and Christian conduct revolve around love. The first verse of chapter 4 and the first two verses of chapter 5 are like bookends on what Paul has been saying. It started with love, and it ends with love.
That is what Paul has been conveying to his readers through the fourth chapter. In chapter 4, we could say Paul’s chief aim was giving instruction on how to have a peaceful Christian community. He gave practical guidance for how to achieve that—by being peaceful, not holding grudges, being forgiving and patient, and not taking advantage of those around us. In terms of doctrine, by recognizing that the first generation of preachers gave a perfect and complete explanation of everything the church needs for the work of the ministry, there is no need to fuss and feud and debate about things that are not clearly written in Scripture. If it was important, that first generation of preachers would have made it clear. If it’s not clear, then it doesn’t need to be clear. We don’t need to bother with fussing, debating, and dividing over things that the Bible does not make clear.
Chapter 4, with those two bookends about walking worthy and walking in love, focuses on walking in love with the objective of having a peaceful Christian community.
Transition to Chapter 5
As we come to chapter 5, Paul is still speaking about behavior, conduct, and Christian living. We are still in that section of his epistle, but his theme changes. After we move beyond this bookend here in verses 1 and 2, the rest of chapter 5 is going to be about sexual relations and marital relations.
We will start to look at that in our next lesson, but I point that out now because I want you to notice that Paul is making a transition here in these two opening verses. He is both closing out what he was talking about in chapter 4 and at the same time setting up what he is going to speak about next.
We can tell very clearly that Paul is still considering chapter 4 when he writes these verses because chapter 5 begins with the word “therefore.” “Therefore” lets us know Paul is making his final summary point, wrapping up his last theme. It lets us know that everything Paul has shared about Christian conduct in chapter 4 arises from his desire to see the Ephesians walk in love.
The Importance of Love
I want to take just a minute to make sure you see just how important this love is. It’s not some minor thing Paul says in passing. This love is central to the whole thing. Let’s jump back to chapter 3. I want to remind you of the prayer Paul prayed just before he began this section about Christian conduct.
In verse 14 of chapter 3, Paul wrote:
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
You notice in this prayer that before Paul begins speaking about Christian conduct, he says that love is the foundation. Love is the foundation we have to anchor all this to. He prays the Ephesians be rooted and grounded in this love. If love is not the foundation beneath the Ephesians, they are not going to be able to understand what Paul is talking about. It takes this love to see the depth, breadth, height, and depth of all this. This love surpasses all knowledge, meaning it is greater than knowledge. It’s head and shoulders above knowledge. This love, if you want to say there is a higher level, is the higher level. People who have and know this love Paul is speaking about have something that surpasses knowledge. Being filled with this love is the key to being filled with the fullness of God.
So make sure you catch how Paul is framing this here at the end of chapter 3. You can go back to the lesson where we covered this in more detail if you want to be reminded. Just notice how important the love of God is here, how foundational it is.
Now jump ahead to chapter 4. I want to point out a couple more things there. Paul opens chapter 4 by saying:
4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.
So as he opens this fourth chapter, Paul is clearly communicating that walking worthy of our calling is based on this same love.
If we jump down to verse 15, we will see something a bit more. Paul writes there:
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Here, we see that Paul is reiterating what he said in his prayer at the end of chapter 3. It takes this love to reach the fullness. Being full of love is itself a key part of that fullness. This love is what it takes to actually live out the lifestyle Paul is writing about.
As we arrive here at chapter 5, when Paul tells us to walk in love, this is not some little thing to skip over as though it is minor and trivial. This love is the critical essential and most important point Paul is trying to convey as he speaks about Christian conduct.
5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Love is the critical essential and most important point Paul is trying to convey as he speaks about Christian conduct. It is impossible to read through these chapters and not come away with that understanding.
Love, Not Externalism
As I say that, I want to make another point. How many times in our lives have we heard preachers come to these exact same scriptures, especially that verse about walking worthy of our calling? They will use that verse: “walk worthy of your calling.” And they will use that to launch into all kinds of things.
They will say, “You must walk worthy of your calling, therefore:
- Your hair should be this length.
- Your skirt should be that length.
- You should dress this way or that way.
- You should comb your hair this way.
- You shouldn’t shop at Target.
- You can’t have a beard.
- You shouldn’t go on vacation here or there.
- You shouldn’t read fiction books.
- You shouldn’t watch Cinderella.
- You shouldn’t play Pokemon.”
And a big, long list of things that you should not do because if you do any of those things, you are not walking worthy of your calling.
As we take a step back and consider all that, let me ask you this question: Is any of that sort of stuff actually here in these verses? Can we even get to those conclusions from what Paul has written here? Is there even a path from here to there, using what Paul has written in this book of Ephesians? Can we put any of that in the framework of this love Paul is talking about?
What does love have to do with beards? What does love have to do with shopping at Target? What does love have to do with watching Cinderella? The truth is, it has nothing to do with it. Nothing at all. And they don’t even pretend it does. They don’t even try to connect any of those dots when they use this section of scripture to jump off into all those things they tell you that you cannot do.
Those preachers are just teaching externalism and legalism. Their basis for telling you all those things you cannot do actually has absolutely nothing to do with love. Absolutely nothing to do with what Paul is writing about here. They have made a jump in logic, a jump in reasoning, and they have gone beyond the plain reading of this book of Ephesians. Through their own flawed human reasoning, they have decided that walking worthy of your calling includes their big list of rules.
They arrive at those big, long lists of rules, most of which you cannot actually find in the Bible, by ignoring what Paul is actually talking about here in these verses.
Somehow, for all the sermons they have preached about walking worthy, you will almost never hear them actually talk about love. They will make sure they cover externalism. They will make sure they cover legalism. They will get all those good Pharisee points in there. But they will absolutely miss the actual main point which Paul is driving at here.
Walking worthy is chiefly about something in the hearts, souls, and minds of men and women. And that something is love. When the focus comes away from that love and instead goes into externalism and legalism, they are actually a million miles away from what Paul is even talking about.
It is really quite startling just how far off the mark they are. If you take the time to think about what this section of scripture actually says, the next time you listen to them preach a sermon on walking worthy, you will be surprised to discover just how badly they are abusing the Bible. Because make no mistake, a preacher who takes these verses on walking worthy and preaches a long sermon on legalism and externalism without making love the central point is abusing the Bible. And they are abusing you in the process with the garbage coming out of their mouth.
Of course, the New Testament writers do give us guidelines about how to dress and present ourselves in a physical appearance. They do, but not here, not in this passage of scripture. To use this passage of scripture for that purpose is an abuse of the Bible.
There is a modest, humble, and respectful way to dress and present ourselves. But unless we are presenting ourselves modestly and humbly because there’s a genuine desire in our heart to do it, it is irrelevant. If our motive is not love and the attributes of love, then you have missed the point, and you are not actually doing what God wants or what Paul is speaking about.
If you’re doing it just because someone yelled and screamed at you and pressured you to do it, that is not actually what Paul is after. If you think you can achieve what Paul is after by those sorts of tactics, you’re a fool. What Paul is after, what Jesus Christ is after, can only be produced through love. It can’t be produced through fear and pressure and yelling and screaming and compelling people.
That is, truthfully, how wicked and fake preachers like Kevin Crase do it. They are not producing Christians. They are leading people to live a life where love is at the root. What wicked false preachers like Kevin Crase are doing is the exact opposite of that.
Genuine Christians dress modestly, humbly, and respectfully because we have the fruit of the Spirit in us. That leads us to look in the mirror and make an honest attempt to do our best. That is not something you can yell and scream and beat into people.
You can yell and scream and scare and threaten people, and they will comply. They will do what you want, but not because of the love of God in their heart. If the way you dress and present yourself is not rooted in the love of God in your heart, then it’s pointless.
If you are presenting yourself modestly, respectfully, and humbly because of fear of retribution rather than love of God, you might look the part, but you have actually missed the whole point. You probably don’t even know the difference because wicked false preachers like Kevin Crase have never told you the difference. The reason wicked false preachers like Kevin Crase don’t know the difference is because they are forcing on you what others forced on them. They are not living it because it’s from love in their heart. They are living it because it was compelled on them. Because that is how they got to where they are, they think that is the way to go, and so they are compelling it on you.
The sad thing is, when they leave out the gospel message, what they are really doing is damning you just like they are already damned. Because the whole time, they are preventing you from seeing the Savior, and they are preventing you from seeing the love of God. Instead of teaching you to be a Christian, they are teaching you to be a Pharisee.
I only mention all this because somehow the preachers in the places we come from tend to use these verses to preach about legalism and externalism. These verses of scripture about walking worthy, nine times out of ten, are about some rule the preacher wants you to follow. But that rule is not actually written here at all. The preachers take this verse about walking worthy and use it as a blank slate to fill in whatever they want, whether it’s in the Bible or not. When you actually compare it to what Paul is saying, you can’t even line up with his framework at all.
I just want you to notice, there is really nothing here about a dress code. There is nothing here about a hundred other rules I heard made up by fake preachers like Kevin Crase or Donnie Reagan or the apostle Roscoe, or a hundred others like them.
The only thing men like that are doing is abusing the scripture. Paul’s theme is walking in love, and his instructions are flowing from the Lord’s commandment to love each other as Christ has loved us.
What this is ultimately about is what is in our hearts. That is what Jesus himself taught. It’s the inside, it’s the heart, which Jesus is after. First, cleanse the inside. Because it’s not the things on the outside that defile a man, it’s those things which come from the heart—that is what defiles a man, said Jesus. Cleansing the outside does nothing to take care of the things which actually defile men and women.
If we can get our hearts full of the love of God, then everything else that is necessary will follow. But the emphasis has to stay on the heart. We see that plain and clear in Paul’s epistles, just like we are reading here. Paul says, “walk in love,” and he builds everything he says around walking in love.
Imitators of God
Now let’s turn our attention to examine these scriptures a bit more closely. Verse 5 says:
5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
This first verse is pretty straightforward. Be imitators of God. Look to God as our example and follow His example. In the context of the broader passage, we realize Paul is more specifically saying we should love like God loves. We should imitate the love we see flowing from God. God here is the example and the pattern for perfect love.
It’s fine to look at people and let people be our examples. But at the end of the day, we must bring this whole thing back and realize it’s not the preacher we’re trying to be like. It’s not grandma or grandpa we are trying to be like. It’s not some hero or mentor in this life we are trying to be like. The one we need to look to as our role model and example, the one who defines the kind of character we should be seeking, the most important one to look to, is God.
Imitate Him.
Notice it says “as beloved children.” So Paul has told us who to imitate, but now he tells us the manner in which we should do it: like dear children.
That sets up the example of a child who wants to grow up and be like their dad. A child who puts on dad’s work hat and says, “I want to be like dad.” He sees his dad doing things, and he wants to be right there doing it too. That’s the model Paul is setting for us here. Paul is putting us into the role of children, children who are not all the way grown up. We’ve still got some shortcomings, we’ve still got a way to grow. We have not yet attained full mastery. There are still things we need to learn. Dad has a real hammer, but we just have a plastic hammer. Dad has a real hard hat, and we have a little plastic one. You and I, we are still growing into what we will be. We will not be fully grown, in that way, until we enter into glory. All the days of our life, on this side, we will still be as children seeking to be like our heavenly Father.
We are looking up to our heavenly Father, and we are trying our best to be like Him. We are saying to ourselves, “One day I’m going to grow up like Him. One day I’m going to walk in love, just like my heavenly Father does.”
That’s the example that Paul gives us here, and that is the way in which we should seek to love one another, in the same way that God loves us. We should realize that we are still amateurs in this life. We have not grown up fully yet. That too is contained within what Paul is saying there in verse 1. We are all children who are still learning to love like our heavenly Father, and so it shall be until we are with Christ in glory.
5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
When you think of the command that Jesus Christ gave his disciples, He said, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you.” That is exactly what Paul was saying here in verse 2. Paul is telling us to love like Jesus loved. Paul is telling us to obey the new commandment Jesus gave the church.
The attribute of Christ’s love that Paul chooses to point out here is that Christ’s love is sacrificial. Christ’s love is the kind of love where He lays down His life for someone else. This comes back to that very theme of respecting one another. There are many ways in which a person can lay their life down. Some people do pay the ultimate price; they do shed their blood to help, protect, and save others. We see that with soldiers, policemen, firemen, and figures like that. But there are many other ways in which we can lay our life down as an act of love for others. That’s what we’re doing when we serve our neighbors. It’s what we’re doing when we respect others enough to behave in a way that doesn’t offend them. If you know something is going to offend another person and you lay it down for their sake, that’s part of laying your life down out of love. The love of Christ is sacrificial. Sometimes we have to sacrifice things that belong to us or are part of us, or are our rights. Sometimes we have to sacrifice those things for the good of others. When we do that, we are walking in love. We are actually achieving the very thing Paul is talking about here. It’s that sort of love which will build up the body of Christ. It’s that sort of love that allows us to attain the fullness. It’s that sort of love that allows us to comprehend what this thing is all about.
As I bring this lesson to a close, I hope today that you’re able to see that Paul’s main thrust here is living a life where love defines our character. When we do that, we are walking worthy of our calling. That simple concept was never shared with us anytime ever by the preachers in the message. It’s important for us, on this side of things, to realize just how important love is. There are people who tell you Israel and Jerusalem is the centerpiece, but that’s not true. Jesus Christ is the centerpiece. Jesus Christ’s chief aim and chief command was that we should love each other like He loved us.
That truly is the centerpiece of the Christian life. We have been saved by Christ so we can love like Christ. Those two things are the central message of the Bible.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe on Him might have eternal life.
He saved us because He loved us, and what He wants is our love in return.
These are the elements that should define us as Christians. These are the elements that lay at the foundation of the true Christian belief system.
I hope you gain a new appreciation for preachers who preach about love. I hope you realize that the fake preachers who criticize those of us who do preach about love are men who have missed the point. They are lacking what Paul prayed for the Ephesians to have. They do not have the love necessary to comprehend these things. For all their doings, they will never attain the fullness because they have neglected the very things which the Bible tells us we need to attain the fullness.
But as for you and I, I thank God He has opened our eyes.
Let me close in prayer.
Prayer
Lord God, thank you for the Bible. Thank you for the apostle Paul. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who teaches us. Help us all to walk in love. Help us to comprehend this love. Cause this love to grow within us. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.