“Be Imitators of God”: Why Manifestation, Not Mimicry, Best Fits Ephesians 5:1–2
Bearing the Father’s likeness.
An assessment integrating grammar, context, and Pauline theology
Thesis
Ephesians 5:1–2 (“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love…”) is often read as a summons to copy divine behavior. Read closely, however, the text grounds the imperative in prior redemptive realities and a Spirit-charged ontology: believers are already God’s children, already re-created in God’s likeness, and already indwelt by the Spirit. On that basis, “imitation” functions as manifestation—the expression of divine life through yielded humanity—rather than independent mimicry. This essay defends that reading by tracking the command through (1) grammar and immediate context, (2) the broader literary architecture of Ephesians, (3) coherence with Pauline theology, and (4) caveats that keep the interpretation honest and pastorally careful. Throughout, we’ll use the heuristic Result → Means → Mechanism.
1) Grammar and Immediate Context: What the Words Actually Say
1.1 The hinge: οὖν (“therefore”) and the flow from 4:25–32
The clause γίνεσθε οὖν μιμηταὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ (“Therefore become/keep on becoming imitators of God,” Eph 5:1) opens with οὖν (“therefore”), explicitly tethering 5:1–2 to 4:25–32 and, more broadly, to 4:17–24. Paul has just commanded a pattern of “putting off” and “putting on” grounded in new creation language:
4:22–24: put off the old man … be renewed … put on the new man created (κτισθέντα) according to God (κατὰ Θεόν) in true righteousness and holiness.
The imperative in 5:1 is thus not a free-floating moral demand; it is the ethical outflow of the ontological change advertised in 4:24. The grammar itself points backward: since God has done this re-creative work, therefore live in line with it.
1.2 The subject-positioning: γίνεσθε (“become / keep becoming”)
Paul does not use a bare “be” verb but γίνεσθε, often carrying a processive or teleological sense (“become,” “keep becoming”). The nuance is not “pretend to be like God,” but “live into what you have been made.” The imperative presumes an already-established identity (4:24) that now unfolds ethically.
1.3 The predicate: μιμηταί (“imitators”) in filial frame
“Imitators” (μιμηταί) can denote mimicry, but lexical and contextual cues push us toward filial resemblance rather than theatrical reproduction. Paul immediately qualifies the command with ὡς τέκνα ἀγαπητά—“as beloved children.” The ὡς marks manner/identity: imitate God as the children who already belong to Him in love. Children resemble their father not by external performance but by shared life and proximal communion. In other words, the grammar itself codes imitation as familial manifestation.
1.4 The content of imitation: περιπατεῖτε ἐν ἀγάπῃ (“walk in love”)
Verse 2 defines the shape of imitation: “walk in love,” and specifies the pattern and source—“just as Christ loved us and gave Himself (παρέδωκεν ἑαυτόν) for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma (προσφορὰν καὶ θυσίαν τῷ Θεῷ εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας).” The ethic is cruciform, not generic: love is Christ’s self-giving reproduced in His people. That is not attainable by mere role-playing; it presumes participation in Christ’s life.
Immediate-context synthesis (Result → Means → Mechanism):
Result: “Imitators of God … walk in love” (5:1–2).
Means: “as beloved children” (5:1) who have been newly created (4:24).
Mechanism: the Christic pattern (“as Christ loved us and gave Himself”) enacted in believers by the Spirit (see 4:30; 5:18).
2) Broader Literary Context: Ephesians’ Indicative → Imperative Architecture
2.1 The epistle’s two halves
Ephesians exhibits Paul’s hallmark structure: chapters 1–3 saturate the reader with indicatives of divine action—election, redemption, sealing, resurrection-with-Christ, incorporation into one new humanity; chapters 4–6 issue imperatives that flow from those realities. The “therefore” in 5:1 stands squarely on that architecture: behavior is derivative of being-in-Christ.
2.2 Union with Christ as the epistle’s bloodstream
“In Christ / in Him / with Christ” is pervasive in Ephesians (1:3–14; 2:4–7; 2:13; 3:6–12). Believers share Christ’s story—His death, resurrection, and exaltation (2:5–6). The church is His body (1:22–23; 4:12–16). In that framework, imitation is not ladder-climbing but body-life: the Head animates the members. Ethical transformation flows from incorporation, not from autonomous exertion.
2.3 Spirit-filling as operationalization
Ephesians 5:18 (“be filled with the Spirit”) functions as a local engine of the ethical section (5:18–6:9). The outworkings—psalms, thanksgiving, mutual submission—are Spirit-effects. Read together with 5:1–2, the call to “walk in love” presupposes Spirit-enabled expression rather than mere moral resolve.
Literary-context synthesis (Result → Means → Mechanism):
Result: a recognizable likeness to God in the community’s walk.
Means: union with Christ (chs. 1–3) and identity as beloved children (5:1).
Mechanism: the Spirit’s fullness (5:18) animating Christ’s self-giving love (5:2) in the body.
3) Pauline Coherence: How Paul Talks About “Imitation” Elsewhere
3.1 Imitation as participation in a shared pattern
Paul frequently uses imitation language, but notice its relational and participatory frame:
1 Cor 11:1: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” The chain assumes derivation from Christ, not free-standing human modeling.
Phil 3:17; 4:9: imitation concerns embodied patterns “learned and received,” not theatrical copying.
1 Thess 1:6; 2:14: the churches “became imitators” insofar as the word and the Spirit produced endurance and holiness.
3.2 Grace-empowered ethics, not ladder ethics
Paul grounds ethics in grace and Spirit:
Eph 2:8–10: salvation by grace → we are His workmanship, created for good works God prepared.
Rom 8:3–4: what the law could not do, God did; the Spirit fulfills the righteous requirement in us.
Gal 2:20: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
This is the grammar of manifestation. Commands assume a new ontology and divine agency in the believer.
3.3 Historical-theological witnesses (brief)
Chrysostom (Hom. on Ephesians): stresses forgiveness and love “as God in Christ,” anchoring imitation in soteriology.
Augustine: locates the capacity to love in caritas Dei diffusa—the love of God poured out by the Spirit (Rom 5:5).
The trajectory: imitation is the fruit of participation, not the prerequisite to it.
Pauline-coherence synthesis (Result → Means → Mechanism):
Result: outward resemblance to Christ (imitation language).
Means: union with Christ and new creation.
Mechanism: Spirit-agency producing Christ’s love within the people of God.
4) Caveats and Hermeneutical Limits: Keeping the Reading Honest
4.1 Volition is real: περιπατεῖτε is an imperative
“Walk” (περιπατεῖτε) is an active, ongoing imperative. Any participatory reading that evaporates human responsiveness is imbalanced. Paul’s ethics demand deliberate alignment—what older writers called holy consent. The believer is not passive; the believer is responsive.
4.2 Avoid collapsing exemplar and participation
Some will read Eph 5:2 chiefly as exemplarist: Christ’s love is the pattern to copy. That has textual warrant (“just as Christ loved us”). Our case is not that exemplarism is absent, but that exemplarism is insufficient without participation. The same Paul who holds up Christ’s example also insists that “God works in you both to will and to work” (Phil 2:13) and that “the life of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor 4:11). Healthy exegesis keeps both: Christ for us and Christ in us.
4.3 Guard against importing alien mysticisms
A participation-heavy reading can drift into speculation if detached from the textual anchors of Ephesians: election in Christ (1:3–6), redemption by Christ (1:7), sealing by the Spirit (1:13), incorporation into the body (1:22–23; 2:15–16), and Spirit-filling (5:18). Keep the lines tight: Trinitarian economy → ecclesial embodiment → ethical outflow.
5) Putting It Together: A Structured Exegetical Model
Result — What appears outwardly?
“Be imitators of God … walk in love” (5:1–2): observable conformity to God’s character, concretely expressed as cruciform love.
Means — On what basis?
“As beloved children” (5:1), because believers are newly created “according to God” (4:24) and incorporated in Christ (1–3).
Mechanism — How does it actually operate?
“As Christ loved us and gave Himself up” (5:2), now expressed in the body through the Spirit’s fullness(5:18) and agency (cf. 4:30; Phil 2:13; Rom 5:5; 2 Cor 4:11).
In short: Imitation = manifestation of Christ’s life by the Spirit, through responsive obedience, in a people already made new.
6) Exegetical and Pastoral Payoffs
Protects the gospel from moralism. Ethics arise from grace and union, not ladder-climbing (Eph 2:8–10).
Honors real obedience. The call to “walk” preserves volition without reverting to self-powered achievement.
Centers the church’s corporate witness. The “walk in love” of 5:2 unfolds in communal relations (5:18–6:9).
Preaches Christ whole. Christ is both pattern and power; both example and indwelling life.
Conclusion
The grammar (“therefore,” “as beloved children,” “walk”), the immediate and broader context (4:24; 5:18; the whole indicative→imperative architecture), and Pauline theology together commend a reading of Ephesians 5:1–2 in which imitation is manifestation. The command does not call the church to stage a performance of divinity. It summons the saints—already re-created, already adopted, already indwelt—to express the life of the Triune God in cruciform love. That is hermeneutically sound, theologically integrated, and pastorally life-giving.
Select Texts for Further Study (anchor passages)
Eph 4:20–24; 4:30; 5:1–2; 5:18
Eph 1:3–14; 2:4–10
Rom 8:3–4; 12:1–2
Gal 2:20; 5:25
2 Cor 4:7–12
1 Cor 11:1; Phil 2:12–13; Phil 3:17; 4:9