If you are a Christian, you have been told to "follow Jesus." But we don't often get it defined for us very well. I am not in a boat and Jesus is not literally on the seashore calling me to him. How do I get started following Jesus? In the King James Version, Ephesians 5 starts, "Be ye therefore followers of God..." Most other translations say, "Be imitators of God..." Paul uses this phrase to sum up the previous section (Ephesians 4:25-32) and to set the basis for the next section (Ephesians 5:2-6:9).
Jesus did not come just to redeem individuals but a whole new "people," a new community, a new society that reflects God's character and glory. So to follow Jesus is to imitate God within this new society, the church, in the way that we treat one another, on our love, in the way we form community, and in our relationships. All of this starts with decisions of the will, and Paul goes through several practical choices we should make, one by one, to imitate God, trade in our old selves for the new, and be redeemed together into a new society where we can live as God created us to live.
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