Smelly Sacrifice

Do you smell it? Fall is in the air. We are now in October. The temperatures are starting to cool down. The leaves are beginning to change colors. Football season is already halfway over. Hunting seasons are starting across the country. Don’t you love this time of year? Smells like pumpkin pie, decaying leaves, concession stand food, and campfires can all be inhaled during this time of year. Throughout this series, we have discussed multiple verses from the New Testament that discuss different smells. This lesson will be our last smell in this series, and what a smell it is. 

Ephesians 5:1–2 (NASB95)

1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

As he begins this section of Ephesians, Paul gives two very big commands. These commands will be our focus throughout the rest of this article. 

BIG command #1 - “BE IMITATORS” - This command summarizes what Paul said at the end of chapter 4. Previously, in the last eight verses of chapter 4, Paul gave numerous commands for these Christians to do. Paul is using these verbs to help encourage these Christians on what they should and should not be doing since they have put on their new self (4:24). After those commands, he wraps it all up with this command to be imitators of God (5:1). Wow that sounds like a BIG command to accomplish. Paul does help us understand how to achieve this command by giving an adverbial clause that says, “as beloved children.” We can accomplish the task of imitating God if we humble ourselves as His beloved children. That statement also helps lead us to the following command. 

BIG command #2 - “WALK IN LOVE” - Paul clarifies this command by stating we should walk in love “just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us” (5:2). The love we are to walk in is the same love that drove Jesus to die on the cross for the world—notice also that this love produced a pleasing aroma to God. Stop and think about that for a second. A loving sacrifice produces a pleasing aroma to God. 

In Romans 12:1, Paul encourages the church to offer themselves as a living sacrifice to God. Later, in the context of Romans, he tells them that to fulfill the law, they need to love. Our living sacrifice should involve loving our neighbor. I want to encourage you to love like Jesus. The result will be a pleasing aroma to God! Let’s all be smelly. 

— Matt Jones, Preaching Minister