Living a Fragrant Life

This early morning I am reflecting on some verses from Paul's letter to the Ephesians 5:1-4 NASB:

[1] "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; [2] and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. 

[3] But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; [4] and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks."

My first thoughts in reading these verses this morning is that they seem polar opposites, and I think that one of the points Paul is developing here.  As I look at the relative importance of the two sets of verses, I believe our focus should be on the first two verses rather than the second two verses.  So often though, it seems we hear much more about the second set of verses, and the following few verses that I have not included here.  

My thinking is that if we are imitating Christ Jesus, and representing the Father, as His sons and daughters, and walking in love, then much of what we are warned against in verses three and four should be minimal issues.   However, a bit later on, Paul ascribes the actions in verses three and four as idolatry, and I think He is dead right.  We don't like to think of ourselves as idol worshippers, but I am guessing that anyone from this ancient time, if viewing our lives, would see idolatry alive and well in our culture.  We have phones on us, staring at them constantly, we have games we play, movies and TV shows we "must" watch, we live our lives connected to social media, and all these seem to be taking the place of God and His Word in our lives.  We chase after money, luxuries, and want what we want, often not thinking about the lowly or needy, or how we could sever the Lord with our finances. We have become so busy chasing busyness and things, that we no longer have time or attention for God.  Its hard to imitate someone we don't hang out with regularly.

Again, going back to verses one and two, we are encouraged to walk in love, a love that is representative of the way Jesus loved us.  He was constantly interacting with people, calling them to their greater purpose, inviting them to follow Him. Sure, His invitation often included a command to walk away from sin, but it was always in reference to gaining something far greater!  We have been invited into the very family of God, as His beloved children.  He has demonstrated His love for us, and continues to pour forth that love upon us daily.  If we could live rooted and grounded in that love, and walk throughout our days, actively loving those around us, I daresay we wouldn't have much time to worship our busyness, social media, and material idols. 

Paul is essentially espousing a replacement of one type of life-style with a different one.  He is encouraging the Ephesians to recognize which character traits and behaviors belong to which focus, either imitating God, or embracing the world. The greater the contrast between them the easier it is to see where we are aligned, and which ones we are pursuing ourselves.  As in all life-style changes, often the battle is won in the moment by moment decisions and thoughts throughout the day.  If we can begin our day spending time with the Lord, looking for ways we can imitate Him, and walking in love, we can at least start this day heading in His direction.  If we can then bring an awareness of Him and trying to imitate Him into our day, consciously choosing to turn towards Him again and again, we will find our lives becoming fragrant to Him.  

I am encouraged this morning to look closely at my life and my actions throughout the day, to see which direction I am tending towards.  I want make sure that if I find myself, throughout the day, turning away from focusing on the Lord, that I stop and turn back towards Him!. I want to choose to walk in love, to work at imitating my Lord in thought and in deed. I want my life to have a sweet aroma to my Lord!  I want my life to draw others towards Him, that they would see the effects of living in a relationship of love with Him, and desire that for themselves.  I want the Lord to be more important than anything else in this life, the only one I worship.

Amen and Amen!