EPHESIANS 5 - BE LIKE GOD

Paul admonishes us to imitate (follow, follow example, copy) God.  GOD!

A picture of that annoying childhood game when one person does everything another does - The Copy Game - comes to mind.  In my experience the game was mostly played to annoy and often ended with someone getting hurt.

But Paul tells us to imitate as a beloved child would imitate. A loved child would imitate their parents.  When a child is loved there are fond memories and experiences that are cherished.  It is natural for a person growing up with love to want to imitate it.

This is not necessarily so with a child who is unloved.  That child would not want to imitate what he received, and would likely be unable to imitate the love he never received.  Who wants to imitate an unloving parent.

However, God has loved us and continues to love us.  We are beloved children of our Heavenly Father and we can imitate the same love that we receive from Him.