SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/18/2019
10:00 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to Ephesians Five
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians 5
Message of the
verses: In his commentary on the
book of Ephesians Dr. Warren Wiersbe entitles the tenth chapter “Imitating Our
Father” and this covers Ephesians 5:1-17 and I would like to begin this SD by
quoting what he has to say in his introductory comments on these verses and
then we will look at the very short paragraph that John MacArthur has to say in
his commentary.
“The
word ‘followers’ in Ephesians 5:1 is the word mimics, so that the verse can be translated: ‘Be ye imitators of God as beloved children.’ This sets the theme for the section. Paul is simply arguing that children are to
like their parents, a fact that can be both encouraging and embarrassing to
those of us who have children. Have you ever seen a child sitting in the front
seat of an automobile, trying to drive like his father! Or walking behind him, pretending to mow the
lawn? Or, sad to say, imitating Dad
smoking a cigarette or taking a drink of alcohol? Children probably learn more by watching and
imitation than any other way.
I we
are the children of God, then we ought to imitate our Father. This is the basis for the three admonitions
in this section. God is love (1 John
4:8); therefore, ‘walk in love’ (Eph. 5:1-2).
God is light (1 John 1:5); therefore, walk as children of light (Eph.
1:3-14). God is truth (1 John 5:6);
therefore, walk in wisdom (Eph. 5:15-17).
Of course, each of these ‘walks’ is a part of Paul’s exhortation to walk
in purity.’”
Now as mentioned many times we will be following the
outline that John MacArthur has written in his commentary as we study the book
of Ephesians, but from time to time I will put some things in these SD’s that
come from the pen of Warren Wiersbe who as you know went to be with the Lord
earlier this month, and I for one will miss Dr. Wiersbe and look forward to
seeing him when the Lord takes me to heaven.
John MacArthur entitles his 15th chapter of
his commentary on the book of Ephesians “Walking in Love” as he only covers the
first seven verses of chapter five which we will now look at and then quote his
very short introduction to these verses:
“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. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure
person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom
of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of
these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
John MacArthur writes “In this passage
Paul first presents the positive truths about true godly love and then the
negative truths about Satan’s counterfeit love and its consequences.”
It
is my desire to begin to look at the first section entitled “The Plea” from
Ephesians 5:1-2a in our next SD, something that will probably take a few days
to talk about.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Thinking about God’s love is something that
from time to time seem to forget or perhaps not understand the great love that
He has for me even though I know for certain that God does love me very much as
evidenced by the fact of Him sending His Son to pay for my sins and then giving
me an effectual call to salvation a little over 45 years ago. I suppose that the times when I have some
trouble understanding God’s love is when I sin and then perhaps want to bring
God down to the level of a human being and then think about if I did something
wrong that I would have to be punished for it.
As I go through this section perhaps the Lord will use it to help me
better understand more about His great love He has for me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I have been thinking about humility a lot
this year as has been mentioned many times and one of the things that I am
learning is that humility has to do with a lot of things that I have been
studying in this book of Ephesians, and I suppose that humility and love, the
love that God has for me will help me to grow more in humility.
The verse that goes along with yesterday’s
quotation is from 2 Chronicles 32:7a-8b:
“Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid nor dismayed…But with us is
the Lord our God, to Help us and to fight our battles.”
5/18/2019 10:55 AM
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