“Following Christ: God Wants You” Eph 5: 1-2

The letter to the Ephesians was written to a group of believers in Ephesus for a variety of reasons, but one of the main reasons was to un-teach some of the harmful and incorrect things that they had been hearing about the faith. Remember that often these faith communities were new - having a leader like Paul live amongst them for a few months to a few years, teaching them about Christ before moving on to the next place to set up new communities of believers.

But often these new believers would be subjected to people claiming to be prophets who would come in and sound just enough like the apostles to earn people’s trust before trying to teach them things that were contrary to what they had originally been taught, leading to confusion and misbelief. 

One of the main teachings folks in Ephesus were struggling with was called gnosticism. Gnosticism started out by sounding like the Torah - sounding like Jewish teachings that were picked up by the Christian faith. But a few things were distinct among the different types of gnostics - first, some believed that there was a knowledge that could be achieved that brought you closer to the divine. In fact, for some, salvation came in knowing not believing. Other gnostics believed that you could do whatever you wanted in this life, because our earthly bodies don’t matter.

I was listening to a podcast recently that made the point that we can see why believers could get confused by gnosticism, because we can get tricked into some of these beliefs today. When we say that its about knowing about Christ, more than believing in Christ. Or that we can do whatever we want as long as we have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, because its our souls that matter. You hear the tinge of Christian teaching - sound just Christian enough to confuse us.

Enter the letter to the Ephesians and our scripture from it today, that tells us that faith matters. That how we live our lives as we follow Christ matters. And if we don’t know how to act as believers then we need to look back to Christ, modeling our behavior in the love that God showed to us in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. 

Back in the 1990s there was a saying that would often accompany fabric bracelets that some folks wore asking “W.W.J.D.?” - What would Jesus do? When placed in a situation where you were unsure of what to do or what decision to make you were to ask yourself, What Would Jesus do? 

Ephesians 5: 1-2 was the original W.W.J.D - telling us to be imitators of God. Why? Because we are made in the divine image. Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created humankind[a] in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Sometimes the idea that we are made in the divine image can make us uncomfortable, mostly because of ways this teaching too has been bent outside of what it originally meant. Genesis is telling us that we are made in the image of God - that we have the ability to believe in God because of that image. Yet, somehow it got miscommunicated and misunderstood over the years to mean that we are gods - little g - in charge of our little corners of the world and not accountable to the One and Holy God, which we know isn’t true. When scripture gets twisted around, it becomes dangerous, brothers and sisters. 

God doesn’t just want our knowledge brothers and sisters, God wants all of us believe and follow after the Holy One. I once heard this compared to those of you who are married. Sometimes we want our spouses to help do things, like the dishes. But we don’t just want them to help us out because we asked them to, doing it resentfully. No we want them to want to help. 

God doesn’t just want us to believe and follow after Christ because we feel that we have. Being full of resentment. No God wants us to want to follow Christ with all we have and with all we are. God wants us to want to share such love with others. 1 Peter 2:21 tell us that Christ chose to suffer for us, out of deep love for us, and that is the example that we, too, as believers are called to follow. We have an example of someone who wanted to want to love us in Jesus Christ, and as followers we are to share that love with others. 

But what does that actually look like? What does it actually meant that God wants us to want to follow Christ? What does it look like to want to love others in the name of God as a fragrant offering? 

Scripture is actually pretty clear about how we are to act. We are to love God with all we have and all we are and love our neighbor as ourselves. We are to give food to those who are hungry, water to those who are thirsty, clothing to the naked. We are to visit those who are sick and in prison. We are to share the good news in word and deed. 

While I don’t think its a mystery how we are supposed to act as a reflection of the love of Christ, that does not mean that it is always easy. Often we can find ourselves asking questions like if people actually deserve our help or wondering if what we do is really sharing the good news. We want immediate results for our efforts - sharing a sandwich and then people come to know Jesus, but that isn’t how it works. And why do we think that it would be? Especially when we look at the example of Jesus?

God expressed love for us through Christ giving himself on the cross, so that we could be freed from our sins. Yet, Christ was rejected. And even as his disciples shared the good news, many believed, but many still turned away. 

Love isn’t always easy, brothers and sisters, and maybe thats why we needed those 1990s W.W.J.D. bracelets. Because it takes reminders and practices to choose to love like Christ loved. To choose to be imitators of Christ. To choose to share the good news. 

Yet, we are given opportunities every single day to make that choice. Sometimes, we choose correctly. Other times, like the Ephesians, we may let false beliefs set in that distract us from truly following Christ. Other times, we just may choose wrong. But the choice still exists. The invitation still exists. For that is what the cross of Christ is, is it not? An invitation to accept the greatest gift ever offered, but also an invitation to be sent out, as followers, in Christ name so that others may come to know the saving love of Jesus. Let us go and follow Christ, imitating him so that the message of his kingdom is shared with those we meet. Amen.