I was recently outed the other Sunday morning by my good friend Josh for being a half-decent mimic. My small group didn’t know this, and so the following Wednesday evening was spent with me batting away requests to imitate people! I have always been someone who loves to do impressions. When I was young, my parents (amazingly) would let me record the voicemail message for our home phone. I would prep and plan them. It would take me weeks! I even did personalised messages for family members and friends, imitating them, and so they would sometimes call the house specifically when they knew we were out just to hear “their” message. 

Not all of us will be skilled impersonators like Robin Williams, but to some degree we are all mimics. As children, we copy our parents and older siblings as we learn how to behave in the world. Linguists tell us that when humans engage in a conversation with someone they either have deep connection to or want to express friendliness to, they will go through a process of convergence, which basically means they subconsciously adjust their language to mimic the other person. And of course, all of us draw on the example of others that we love and respect to inform the decisions we make, because we want some aspect of our life to be like theirs. And here is where Paul opens chapter 5 of Ephesians – we are God’s children, born to imitate him and be as he is in the earth. It’s part of our identity.

So here are a few thoughts from the rest of chapter 5 that will help us imitate Jesus.

Imitation Requires Intimacy

If you want to be like someone, you need to be near enough to them, not just to see what they do but why they do what they do. This intimacy is made possible through the salvation work of Jesus, which Paul tells us earlier in Ephesians was a work of God’s grace and not our own effort; it is a gift not a reward, so no one can boast (2:8-9). Every other worldview will tell you what you have to achieve to reach their version of perfection. But the God of the Bible tells you what you will receive the moment you put your trust in the Lord Jesus – you become a child of God, holy and pleasing to him, designed and capable to imitate Jesus. Once again in our journey through Ephesians, we are reminded that the Christian identity is one of grace and not graft. 

Intimacy Still Requires Effort

We also have to realise that intimacy with God, though made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus, still requires effort on our part – relationships are never just a one-way street. The apostle James writes, “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8). There is a level of intimacy with God that we can only enjoy if we initiate it. And that might require leaving some other things behind. Paul makes a list of behaviours and attitudes that we are not to engage in: sexual immorality, impurity, greed, obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes. These are not simply “bad things”, but they are in direct contradiction to God’s nature of love and holiness, and therefore our nature as God’s sons. So, it may be that in order to draw near to God, we have to repent of some things that displease him. Only we can initiate that because repentance is an act of a free will. And as sons of God, why would we not want to leave behind our old ways for the sake of intimacy with the one who loved us enough to die in our place? In the same way that our language converges and mimics those that we have deep connection with, as we draw near to our heavenly Father, His promise is that He will draw near to us too.

Imitation Requires Intent Listening

As I said above, I would take weeks to plan the voicemail messages for the family phone. I would listen over and over to the person I was trying to mimic until I finally felt I could do it. In this chapter, Paul tells us to “carefully determine what pleases the Lord” (5:10), that we should live wisely (5:15), not thoughtlessly but understanding what God wants us to do (5:17). The Christian life is not something to be rushed. In a world of next-day delivery, instant streaming, and non-stop media, our culture is not used to waiting; rushing is our factory setting. But if we are to imitate our Heavenly Father, then it’s going to take intent listening to carefully determine what pleases him, asking for his wisdom in our lives, and giving thought to his will. Of course, the primary way we do this is through prayer – “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven” (Matt 6:10). So take your time with the Lord. He’s in no rush with you, so don’t be in a rush with Him.

Staying Filled

Finally, we might say that this is all made possible by indwelling. God is not the beardy man in the sky demanding that we be like him but offering no help. Instead, God is our “very present help” (Psalm 46:1) and has come to dwell with every individual believer. Here in Ephesians chapter 5, Paul says how essential it is to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit (5:18). He gives us 4 very simple ways by which we can do this: singing to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, making music in your heart, giving God thanks in everything, and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Roger Aubrey has written a fantastic blog series on the Holy Spirit and how these practices help us stay filled with the Holy Spirit. All I will say here is that the best use of our time on this earth is to remain under the the leadership of the Holy Spirit, for He is the creator of the universe and He has come to live His life through you and transform you to become like Christ. You are not a DIY project – don’t try live the Christian life by doing it yourself. Instead, let us make staying filled with the Spirit a priority, so that we might continue to develop intimacy with the Lord, listen intently in order to understand His will, and imitate Him, changing to look a little more like Him every day.