5:1 Duties Which Become the Children of God
SUMMARY OF EPHESIANS 5:
Walking in Love. Flee All Impurity. Let Speech Be Pure. Covetousness a Species of Idolatry. No Fellowship with the Wicked in Their Deeds. Enjoyment to Be Sought in the Spirit Rather Than in Wine. The Mutual Duties of Wives and Husbands. The Mystery of the Marriage Union and of Christ with the Church.
Be ye therefore. Therefore refers to God's kindness, spoken of in Eph 4:32.
Followers of God. Literally, imitators, forgiving one another as God... hath forgiven you (Eph 4:32).
As dear children. As beloved children seek to do like their father.
5:1 Be ye therefore followers - Imitators. Of God - In forgiving and loving. O how much more honourable and more happy, to be an imitator of God, than of Homer, Virgil, or Alexander the Great!
5:1,2 Because God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you, therefore be ye followers of God, imitators of God. Resemble him especially in his love and pardoning goodness, as becomes those beloved by their heavenly Father. In Christ's sacrifice his love triumphs, and we are to consider it fully.
