Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Ephesians 5:2

"and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell." — Ephesians 5:2 (ASV)

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.