Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Ephesians 5

The apostle carries these injunctions over from the previous chapter and closes this section on Christian behavior patterns at v.2. “Be” (“become”) confirms the close relation between this verse and the last where the same expression has been employed. Here it introduces a staggering conception: Paul invites his readers to imitate God! What follows elucidates his meaning. A child will show himself to be a true child by wanting to grow up like his father. In the same way, God’s precious children will be eager to copy him, as he enables them. This was the teaching of Jesus himself.

God is love , and the life that is like the life of God will be a life of love. Love is the essential of the Christian character. Paul has repeatedly emphasized love in this letter (1:4, 15; 2:4; 3:17–19; 4:2, 15–16). The model of love is Christ himself. Because he laid down his life for us, we are to love others to the point of sacrifice (cf. Jn 13:14; 15:12–13).

Paul borrows two technical terms in Jewish sacrificial vocabulary without differentiation. “Offering” (GK 4714) is the word used in the LXX for the “grain offering” (GK 4966). On the cross, Christ presented himself to God as an offering; Paul adds that it was “fragrant”—a phrase that occurs in a sacrificial context over forty times in the Pentateuch. This metaphor suggests that our Lord’s self-sacrifice was pleasing to his Father and was thus accepted as a means of reconciliation. “Sacrifice” (GK 2602) indicates that the victim was slain; Paul has spoken of Christ’s death on the cross (2:16) and his sacrificial shedding of blood (1:7; 2:13). Because it is identified with Christ in his death, the Christian’s life will likewise prove an acceptable sacrifice to God.

The apostle begins by speaking about the effect of light in a life of purity. He resumes the prohibitive character of 4:26–31, taking it further by declaring that such aberrations should not only be avoided but not so much as mentioned (v.12), since they are altogether unsuitable for those who belong to the consecrated community of God.

“Sexual immorality” (GK 4518) was tolerated in the permissive pagan society of Paul’s day (Romans 1:24–32). “Impurity” (GK 174) has already been mentioned in 4:19 as a characteristic of secularized existence, along with “greed” (GK 4432). In Col 3:5 this word is conceived of as idolatry (cf. v.5), because it makes a god of what it seeks to possess.

Paul has already warned against “unwholesome talk” (4:29) because of the harm it does to those who are compelled to hear it. Now he attacks it from another angle, because it is unseemly for Christians and usurps the place of praise. “Obscenity” is broadly equivalent to “filthy language” (Colossians 3:8); “foolish talk” is stupid chatter or silly twaddle. Along with “coarse joking,” these things must be repudiated. Instead, the Christian’s mouth should be continually filled with thanks to God (2:7; 5:18; Colossians 2:7; Colossians 3:15).

The apostle warns his readers about the serious consequences of immorality. They must surely be aware that there is no room in the kingdom of God for those who blatantly continue in sensual sin. The three categories of v.3 are singled out again, with the rider that the greedy make an idol of their possessions. No such person has any place reserved in the eschatological kingdom. The “inheritance” (GK 3100) is a present title to a future position (1:14, 18); it cannot be acquired by the disobedient (v.6). In Col 1:13 Paul refers to “the kingdom of the Son” whom the Father loves (cf. Ephesians 1:6). But since it is God who “placed all things under his feet” (1:22), the kingdom is his as well as Christ’s.