| Geneva Study Bible Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; People's New Testament 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. Wesley's Notes 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! Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary CHAPTER 5 Eph 5:1-33. Exhortations to Love: And against Carnal Lusts and Communications. Circumspection in Walk: Redeeming the Time: Being Filled with the Spirit: Singing to the Lord with Thankfulness: The Wife's Duty to the Husband Rests on that of the Church to Christ. 1. therefore-seeing that "God in Christ forgave you" (Eph 4:32). followers-Greek, "imitators" of God, in respect to "love" (Eph 5:2): God's essential character (1Jo 4:16). as dear children-Greek, "as children beloved"; to which Eph 5:2 refers, "As Christ also loved us" (1Jo 4:19). "We are sons of men, when we do ill; sons of God, when we do well" [Augustine, on Psalm 52]; (compare Mt 5:44, 45, 48). Sonship infers an absolute necessity of imitation, it being vain to assume the title of son without any similitude of the Father [Pearson]. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 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. | 
