Like a holy terror on a rampage, or …

Sometimes parents wonder who the stranger is terrorizing their home. And when that “wild child” behavior strays into public, you might hear them say, “I didn’t teach you to act like that!”

Or did you?

A lot of the behavior we see from children is a parroting of what they see their parents do. But not always. We all were created with a free will, and each of us are quite capable of exercising it routinely!

Even as adopted children of God.

How often does God look at us and think, “I didn’t teach you to act that way …”? It’s a statement fairly close to what Paul writes to the Ephesians. First, Paul describes the wayward behavior in question in Ephesians 4:17-19:

“With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.”

Then comes the line that sounds like a parent speaking to a child, “But that isn’t what you learned about Christ” (Ephesians 4:20).

Closed minds, hard hearts, no sense of shame, desiring lustful pleasure, practicing impure behavior … you didn’t learn these things from Jesus! This isn’t what we’ve seen from our heavenly Father! Our “spiritual Parent” taught us to behave better than this, is the gist of Paul’s statement. Paul helps us understand that because God is our Father, and we have the example of Christ, here is what is expected of those who are His children:

“Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy,” Ephesians 4:21-24.

For the rest of the chapter (verses 25-32), Paul gets more specific, as if to leave no question about the kind of behavioral change he’s talking about. And then he caps off his exhortation by summing up what he’s urging us to do:

“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children,” Ephesians 5:1.

Paul says simply, if you’re God’s child you should act like it by imitating Him!

Whose child would people think you are?

Scotty