Who Are You Imitating? Ephesians 5 and Examining Who Really Influences Us [Podcast Transcript]

Title: Who Are You Imitating? Ephesians 5 and Examining Who Really Influences Us

Podcast Date: November 15, 2024

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Description

Ready for a quick, 7 Minutes of Scripture episode? Today, host Heather Creekmore delves into Ephesians 5  She begins by reading Ephesians 5:1-8 from the English Standard Version and focuses on the theme of imitation and influence. Heather emphasizes the idea from scripture that we are called to be imitators of God as beloved children and walking in love, as Christ did. She challenges listeners to reflect on whether they aspire to imitate Jesus or if they're more influenced by cultural figures or influencers, especially in the realm of body image. Heather encourages listeners to walk in love, focusing less on self-love and more on loving God and others, advocating for what Tim Keller calls "the freedom of self forgetfulness."

Are you ready to transform your body image? Join the 40-day Journey here: https://www.improvebodyimage.com/40-day-challenge

Learn more about Heather's latest book release on comparison here: https://amzn.to/3Uucwd4 (Amazon affiliate link)

Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.

[00:00:02]:

Life audio. Hey there, friend. Heather Creekmore here. Glad you're listening to the Compare to News Show today. Today, we're doing a 7 minutes of scripture episode on Ephesians 5. If you've been around the show for a while, you know 7 minutes of scripture is something I used to do regularly. It's never exactly 7 minutes, so I like to say about 7 minutes of scripture. But today, we're digging into Ephesians 5, and I'm asking you the question, who are you imitating? Friends? Oh, there may be a little conviction involved in today's reading, but, oh, so much encouragement and hope if we can look at this passage rightly and just ask God to show us what he has for us.

[00:00:50]:

And that's where we're going today. I'm glad you're here. Let's get into it. Welcome to Compare To Who, the podcast to help you make peace with your body so you can savor God's rest and feel his love. If you're tired of fighting body image the world's way, Compare To Who is the show for you. You've likely heard lots of talk about loving your body, but my goal is different. Striving to fall in love with stretch marks and cellulite is a little silly to me. Instead, I want to encourage you and remind you with the truth of scripture that you are seen, you are known, and you are loved no matter what your size or shape.

[00:01:25]:

Here, the pressure is off. If you're looking for real talk, biblical encouragement, and regular reminders that God loves you and you're not alone, you've come to the right place. I hope you enjoy today's show, and, hey, tell a friend about it. So I'm gonna start us out today just by reading Ephesians 5. I'm gonna read verses 1 through 8 out of the English Standard Version. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead, let there be thanksgiving.

[00:02:17]:

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not become partners with them. For at one time you were in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Oh, friends. There's so much here.

[00:02:54]:

In fact, I think we'll do a second part on this where we'll talk more about, oh, I don't know, that idolatry part. And it's a little rough to think that someone who is covetous or an idolater has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Yikes. Oh, goodness. Comparison issues and covetousness, body image issues and covetousness, or idolatry. Wow. There's a lot there. But that's not where I wanna go today.

[00:03:24]:

Today, I wanna just kinda linger around that first verse. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. Now, we talked a few weeks ago about how loved we are and how I do think that a lot of us who struggle with body image and comparison issues struggle to believe that we are fully loved by God. And so I think once we understand how loved we are to whatever degree our human brains can understand it. Right? Because we are limited in our capacity. We could never understand fully how much god loves us. But, you know, somewhere else in Ephesians, it talks about understanding, like, the breadth and the height and the depth of god's love. Right? There there is a capacity we have to just understand the greatness of god's love.

[00:04:22]:

But as we understand how loved we are in him, what are we supposed to do? We're supposed to imitate him. Imitate. What a word. Right? To imitate is to want to be like someone, to try to be like someone. Oh, friend, We live in a culture that gives us a lot to imitate. I can scroll Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and I can learn how to dress like her or do my makeup like her or lose weight like her or work out like her. Right? There's so many different, I'm gonna say voices calling out to us saying, imitate me, be like me. You want to be like me.

[00:05:27]:

And who are we supposed to imitate? We're supposed to imitate Jesus. Now I wanna ask you a hard question. When you wake up in the morning, do you ask yourself, how can I be like Jesus today? Or do you get dressed and look in the mirror and think, I wish I was more like that person I saw on Instagram? Do you go to the gym and think, I wish I was more like that woman on the treadmill? Do you go to a women's meeting or mops group or bible study and think, I wish I was more like that woman on stage. Friends, it's clear from scripture who we're supposed to imitate. Now, Paul talks about and he actually invites people to imitate him, and that's kind of the model of discipleship. Right? You see someone who is growing in Christ, and you ask them to disciple you, or they ask you if they you they can disciple you. Right? But you have someone in your life who is maybe that person that's a little bit ahead of you on their sanctification journey or their spiritual maturity journey, and they are striving to act like to mimic, to imitate Jesus. And so you can kind of follow that train.

[00:06:57]:

Right? Like, I wanna be like you because I see you wanting to be like Jesus. But, friend, again, let me just like, let's just get honest. Is that our goal? Is that what we really want? You know, there are probably people around you who are, I hope, who are striving to be more like Jesus, who are trying to grow and patience and love and peace. But are they the ones you want to look like? Or are you still kind of caught up in culture's trap? Like, yeah. Yeah. That's nice. But what I really want is to look more like my favorite influencer. In fact, let me put it a different way.

[00:07:46]:

Is Jesus your favorite influencer? Is he? Is he the one you really wanna be like? When you read God's word, are you like, oh, I wanna be more like this. I want more of this. Show me how to do this. I mean, do you read the word with the same intensity you watch a makeup tutorial? Like, how do you blend all those colors to make it? Woah. Show me how to do that slower. Can you teach tell me more about that? Like, let's dig more in-depth. What tools do I need to do that? How can I like, I know personally, I've paid a whole lot more attention in my life to the details of how do I, like, lose weight in that way? How do I exercise in that way? You know, how do I get my clothes to fit like that? Then I have trying to imitate Jesus. Who are you imitating today? Who do you wanna imitate? And let me just close with this in our 7 minutes here.

[00:08:43]:

It's just to walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. We imitate God. We imitate Christ when we walk in love. Are you walking in love today? Is your primary purpose today to love God and to love others well? Or are you still kind of caught up in, I don't know if I love myself and maybe the garbage of culture that tells you have to love yourself before you can love other people, which is ridiculous. I don't I just I don't know if I have enough self love to do that, and you're worried about self love and loving your body and loving your thighs and loving your stomach, and and that consumes you all day long. You're thinking about how can I love my body more? Friend, you're missing it. You're missing it. And I say that with so much love.

[00:09:40]:

Because to walk in love is really what Tim Keller calls the freedom of self forgetfulness, where you're not obsessed with yourself. You're not thinking about yourself all the time because you were thinking about how you love God and how to pour that love of God out onto other people, how to love them well. What is the kindest, most loving thing towards those people around you, those people that God has placed in your life? And that's how we imitate God. Who's the biggest influencer in your life? Answer that question today, and I hope you'll be changed by doing that. Hey. Thanks for listening to 7 minutes of scripture today on the compared you podcast. If you wanna know more about what we do here, go to improve body image.com. We'd like to invite you on our 40 day journey, which uses my 40 day body image workbook to take you on a 40 day journey to completely transform your body image.

[00:10:36]:

If you are tired of thinking about yourself in a negative way and want some freedom to stop obsessing over the way you look and actually be able to imitate Christ and love others well, start by grabbing this book. You can go grab a copy. Everywhere books are sold, it's called the 40 day body image workbook. And then join us for the 40 day journey. It starts January 7th. You can sign up for that online at improve body image.com. Look for the 40 day journey tab. Thanks Thanks for joining us today.

[00:11:01]:

I hope something today has helped you stop comparing and start living. Bye bye. The compare to podcast is proud to be part of the Life Audio podcast network. For more great Christian podcasts, go to life audio.com.