Verse 1 begins with the Greek imperative “Become, therefore, imitators of God.” The “therefore” (Revised Standard Version) links this command with what immediately precedes, that is, forgiveness of one another as God has forgiven us. The command to “imitate God” is unique in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 4.16 Paul commands his readers to imitate him; see also 1 Thessalonians 1.6; 2 Thessalonians 3.7, 9, and see similar statements in 1 Thessalonians 2.14; Hebrews 6.12; 13.7. In 1 Corinthians 11.1 Paul bases his command to the readers to imitate him on his own imitation of Christ. It is justified by the fact that Christians are God’s dear children. As children, they must imitate their heavenly Father. The specific application of the command to imitate God is found in verse 2: it is love, as the rule of the Christian life, which enables the children to be like their Father.
The clause Since you are God’s dear children may be expressed as “since you are God’s children whom he very much loves.”
In some languages the expression to be like him might suggest merely physical appearance, and therefore the statement you must try to be like him may be better rendered as “you must act as he does” or “you must follow his example.”
Your life must be controlled by love translates “walk in love” (Revised Standard Version); for the verb “to walk” see 2.2, 10; 4.1, 17. This love was shown by Christ, who sacrificed his life for mankind: he loved us and gave his life for us. The language here is the same as in 5.25 just as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it. The meaning of the statement “he gave himself” (see the similar use of the verb in 4.19) is made clear by what follows: “(as) an offering and a sacrifice to God for a pleasing odor.” The language the writer uses is derived from the Hebrew sacrificial system. Offering and sacrifice are two general terms which include all kinds of sacrifices, both grain and animal offerings.
The statement Your life must be controlled by love may be extremely difficult to translate in some languages, since love would not be regarded as an instrument for controlling anything. It may be possible to translate Your life must be controlled by love as “Whatever you do (or, the way you live) must be determined by the love you have for others” or “What you do is only right if you really do love.”
It seems only natural in English to use the expression gave his life for us, but in many languages this seems to be both an awkward and a strange way of speaking. One cannot “give life” in the same way as one can pass out presents to people. In some instances it may be satisfactory to translate gave his life for us as “died for us.” But the implication is that his dying was of his own initiative, and therefore it may be appropriate in some languages to translate “he let himself be killed for us” or “he offered (or, surrendered) his life for us.” The phrase for us must often be expressed as “as a benefit to us” or “in order to help us.”
The phrase “for a pleasing smell/odor” is also an Old Testament term; some 40 times it is used in the Pentateuch and indicates God’s pleasure with the sacrifice offered him. In the New Testament the same phrase is found in Philippians 4.18. The phrase sweet-smelling offering may seem like a contradiction, since burning flesh would scarcely seem to be fragrant. It may therefore be better to coalesce sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice that pleases God into a statement such as “as an offering and sacrifice that is pleasing to God” or “… which makes God happy.”
The Greek dative phrase “for God” may be taken with the preceding nouns, “an offering and a sacrifice” (so Abbott; Jerusalem Bible, Translator’s New Testament, and others), or with the following nouns, “for a pleasing odor” (Barth; Good News Translation, New English Bible, and others).
In languages where it is necessary to specify who is making an offering to God, this verse is something of a problem. Translators have to show that Christ is offering his own life to God as a sacrifice on our behalf. They may consider some of the following ways to do this: “Christ loved us and gave his own life that it could be a sweet-smelling offering and a sacrifice offered to God on our behalf which would please him”; or “Christ loved us and allowed that they should kill him. In this way his life was a sweet-smelling offering and a sacrifice made to God on our behalf, and this was pleasing to God.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1982. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .