Ephesians 5:1

Ephesians 5:1-14. The subject pursued: Christ's Sacrifice the supreme example of self-sacrifice: Purity: Reproof of darkness by light

1. therefore The argument passes unbroken from the previous words.

followers Lit. "imitators." The A. V. consistently uses "follow," "follower," to render the original verb and noun; 1Co 4:16; 1 Corinthians 11:1; 1Th 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:14; 2Th 3:7; 2 Thessalonians 3:9; Hebrews 6:12; Hebrews 13:7; 1 Peter 3:13; 3 John 1:11. For the thought here cp. Matthew 5:45; Matthew 5:48; Luke 6:36; 1 Peter 1:15-16; 1 Peter 2:21; 1 Peter 3:13. (In this last passage the true reading gives probably "emulators," not "imitators"; but this obviously is the same thought intensified in expression.) The "Imitation of God" is the true sequel and index of Peace with God and Life in God. It is, from another aspect, the Manifestation of God in His people.

of God Who, in that supreme instance, set the example of forgiveness.

dear children Better, beloved children. As children (see Matthew 5:45; 1 Peter 1:17, where read, "If ye invoke Him as Father, &c.") they were to shew the family likeness. And as children who had become such by a sacred act of pardoning love, they were to shew it above all things in self-forgetting kindness. Cp. on the whole subject 1 John; esp. Ephesians 3:10. The word rendered "children" is the word specially appropriate to ideas not of adoption but of birth.