Paul does not begin chapter five with a threat. He begins with a therefore. Forgiveness was just mentioned. Mercy was just explained. God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven you. Therefore, Paul says, it only makes sense to imitate Him.

Ephesians 5:1

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.

Children imitate what they love.

A little boy watches his father’s walk, and before long he is trying to step the same way. A little girl hears her mother’s tone, and suddenly she is speaking with the same rhythm.

Paul is not calling us to cold religion. He is calling us to family resemblance.

If you have been forgiven, if you have been adopted, if you have been brought near, then walk like your Father. It is not pressure. It is identity.

You do not follow God to become His child.

You follow Him because you already are.

Ephesians 5:2

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

Love in Scripture is not sentiment. It is sacrifice.

Paul reaches back to the offerings of Leviticus. When the sacrifice was placed upon the altar, the smoke would rise, and it was described as a sweet aroma to the Lord.

Why sweet?

Because it represented surrender.

When Christ gave Himself, it was not merely pain that ascended. It was obedience. It was submission. It was love without reservation.

And when you choose to surrender your rights… when you forgive instead of retaliate… when you absorb the cost instead of demanding repayment… that surrender rises upward.

He smells it.

Imagine walking into a home where bread is baking. Before you see it, you smell it. The fragrance fills the space. In the same way, a life laid down in love fills heaven with a scent that pleases the Father.

Love is costly.

But it smells like Christ.

Ephesians 5:3

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints.

Paul shifts from fragrance to corruption.

The world reduces sexual sin to biology. Two bodies. A moment. A feeling.

Scripture says something far deeper is happening.

Proverbs tells us that the one who commits adultery destroys his own soul. Not merely his reputation. Not merely his body.

His soul.

Sex was designed as covenant glue. It binds lives. When that bond is formed and torn, formed and torn, formed and torn again, something inside begins to thin out.

Layer by layer.

It is like taking tape and pressing it repeatedly onto different surfaces. With each pull, it loses adhesion. Eventually, it will not hold at all.

That is the tragedy.

The danger is not primarily disease. Not primarily scandal. Not primarily consequences.

It is erosion of the inner man.

Paul does not say manage it carefully.

He says do not let it even be named among you.

Why?

Because you are saints.

You are set apart. You are forgiven. You are fragrant. You belong to Another.

A forgiven life should carry the scent of love, not the stench of corruption.

So imitate your Father.

Walk in love.

Guard your soul.

And let your life rise like a pleasing aroma before Him.