Verses 1, 2. “Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice unto God for a sweet smelling savor.”
In the closing verse of chapter 4, we saw how God would lead us to act toward each other, as He had done to us in forgiving love, – kind and compassionate toward offenders. We can read the last sentence, “Even as God in Christ hath forgiven you.”
It turns our thoughts to how much it cost the Father to give up His Son to death, – for nothing less would atone for sins; and how much it cost our blessed Saviour to bear that judgment that we deserved, and now, in a minor way (for Christ is alone in the work of atonement), we can be for others an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. We are to be thus imitators of God, as dear children, walking in love.
How short we come in this. If we get our eye off Christ, we are sure to be overcome of evil, instead of overcoming evil with good (Rom. 12:2121Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21)).
Still we must not get discouraged by past failures, but seeking grace to set the flesh aside, pursue our heavenly way, seeking to walk in the love we see in our blessed Lord and Head. When our souls are consciously in His company, how easy it is to look over what seems to the flesh to be hard knocks or affronts, and answer in love and forgiving grace, which adds to the saint the godly character of these verses.
Verses 3-4, teach us to avoid letting our minds dwell on evil and its doings. If we have to do with these, there must be self-judgment at the same time as we judge it in others (Num. 19:2121And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, that he that sprinkleth the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he that toucheth the water of separation shall be unclean until even. (Numbers 19:21)). Then not only filthiness, but also foolish talking and jesting, are not convenient, and grieve the Holy Spirit, so it is added, “but rather giving of thanks.” With this we are reminded of the character and doom of all who are unsaved.
Verses 5-6. Those mentioned here have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. “Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.” How fearful the doom of unrepentant sinners. God has made a clear line of demarcation between us and them.
Verses 7-8. “Be not ye therefore partakers with them.” They are darkness, and we were that at one time.
“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.”
The believer is a child of light. He has had to do with God about his sins; his whole life has been laid bare before Him, and like the woman in John 4, he can say to others about the Lord Jesus,
“Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”
And now we walk in the light! this is our place now, and we are to take care to walk as children of light, that is, walking before God from day to day; keeping short accounts, letting nothing rest on our consciences unconfessed, thus maintaining a good conscience from day to day.
Verse 9. “(For the fruit of the Spirit [light is the word here] is in all goodness and righteousness and truth)”. These are what suits those who walk with God.
Verses 10-12. “Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.” This is the great thing in our walk, and then he adds, “and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” We cannot always reprove them openly, but we can keep aloof, and not allow ourselves to enjoy the filthy conversation of the wicked, and in thus preserving our souls, show our distaste for these things. “For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.”
Verse 13. “But all things that are reproved (having their true character exposed) are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.” Our blessed Lord in John 3:19, 2019And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. (John 3:19‑20) said, “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil, for every one that doeth evil hateth the light, lest his deeds should be reproved” (exposed in their true character).
Verses 14-17. “Wherefore He saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from (among) the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (or, shine upon thee). This verse calls on the believer to awake. He has gone to sleep in worldliness; he is not dead, but being asleep, he does not profit by the light. And the call of the Lord here is that He might Himself be the light to fill their soul, and reveal to them the full knowledge of that which is well-pleasing to God – that which He loves to see in His children. See therefore that “ye be not unwise,” walking carefully, and not as foolish ones, but laying hold of every good opportunity to use it for the Lord; this is what “redeeming the time” means.
“Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”
Verses 18-21. “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” Wine here takes in all that includes exhilaration or worldly excitement. Believers were to be filled with the Spirit. He dwells in each believer. He is the seal (chap. 4:30). To be filled with the Spirit, is that He should take possession of our affections, our thoughts, our understanding. He will engage our hearts with Christ, and we shall be speaking to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord, and sustained by His grace, our hearts will render thanks to our God and Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, gladly submitting ourselves to each other in the fear of God.
Verses 22-24. This heavenly character of consistent Christian life is to be carried out in earthly relationships, and these relationships instituted by God at the beginning, we find for us also a picture of our heavenly relationships. So here we find in the wife’s submission to her husband, it is to be done as unto the Lord. “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the assembly. He is the Saviour (preserver) of the body. Therefore as the assembly is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.” This place of submission of the wife, helps to the unfolding of the love of Christ as the Nourisher and Preserver; as Head over all things to her.
Verses 25-30. The husband’s love to his wife is to have the character of Christ’s love to His assembly; he can never reach the measure of Christ’s love.
We find His precious love told out here in three steps in its work; what it has done in the past; what it is doing now, and what it will yet accomplish in result. He gave Himself for the assembly; He now sanctifies and cleanses it. He will present it to Himself all glorious. It is all Himself; He loved, He gave Himself in the joy of possessing the bride which the Father gave Him before the world was, and for her very existence He had to go into the deep sleep of death on the cross (Gen. 2:2121And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; (Genesis 2:21)), “for except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone” (John 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24)), and now, in the same love, He is sanctifying and cleansing her by the washing of water by the Word.
There is no failure in this work of love, all must be, will be, completed according to His power in glory, and the Holy Spirit is here gathering up, and leading home to the Lamb of God His Bride. He must and will supply every grace needed for her welfare along the home journey.
His love is a deep fountain of inexhaustible rich blessing that not only meets our need as sinners, but will accomplish what He has in view, making us suited to be His companions in glory, and so we ought to take all His dealings with us now, as all working out our web of life with a view to our place with Him on high. So His Word is ministered to our souls, His love chastens us, and proves us that the trying of our faith, more precious to Him than the gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto His praise and honor and glory in the future day. All goes on with the blessed end in view that He will present it to Himself a glorious assembly.
God presented Adam’s bride to Adam. Christ presents His bride to Himself. She has been the longed-for object of His love down through the ages, and then the moment will be reached when He will present it to Himself a glorious assembly without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
“So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself, for no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ the assembly, for we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones,” and we are one Spirit with the Lord.
Verse 31. The mystery that we are one with Christ is here illustrated in the indissolubility of the marriage tie.
Verses 32, 33. We are united to Him in bonds that never can be severed, though our unfaithfulness now may bring a cloud over our minds regarding it. And so the husband is exhorted to love his wife even as himself – as Christ loves the assembly; and the wife is to see that she reverences her husband, as the assembly should be subject to Christ.