My sister-in-law recently poked fun at me by posting this meme on my Facebook page. It pictures a rather stiff looking aristocrat at a sporting event clapping and saying, “I say, what a rather robust group of fellows. Which color are we rooting for?” She knows I don’t really do sports. I don’t watch football or basketball or baseball or golf except for when I’m with friends or family. But I still want to try and start today’s sermon with a sport analogy.
The chapters 1-3 of Ephesians are like an inspirational pep-talk. The coach is telling his players why he chose them, what he sees in them, how fantastic they are, and that they’re going to do great. It’s an encouragement. It feels good. It’s motivational. But in chapters 4-6 of Ephesians it’s getting real at halftime. The team is down by 21 points and the offense has to move the ball. The coach doesn’t pull any punches. They have to play differently or they’re going to lose (obviously, I’m talking about golf).
Coach Paul is telling the believers at Ephesus in Ephesians 5 how they must live. First came the motivation, now comes the action. As we read and study the second half of Ephesians 5 it can be a bit discouraging and frustrating. I don’t like him telling me how how it is or how to live. I don’t like to hear “Don’t do that” or “do this now” but it was good for the their church and it’s good for our church. So what play does Paul call believers to run?
We must abstain from immorality. (Eph 5:1-7, 18a)
For those of you who were here last week this theme is really a continuation of the contrast between the old self and the new self. Just like last week, Paul roots this change in following Christ Jesus himself.
1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (NIV®)
If I were to continue with a sports analogy, many sports have a team captain. For example, in soccer you have a team captain who is responsible for rallying the team on the field. It’s not a perfect analogy but I think we sometimes think of God as the owner of the team. He’s way up in the private boxes watching the game. But in reality, through Christ Jesus God has stepped down onto the field and has played the game with us. Now we can follow his lead and example. Although our team captain has stepped off the field, he will return at the end of the game. Until then, we follow his example. Loving and living like him.
So as we follow Christ, what are we supposed to do? Paul first outlines what we’re not supposed to do, the things we are supposed to avoid. Paul says we must abstain from immorality. What types of immorality?
Sexual (v3a, 5)
The first type of immorality is probably the one we think of first anyways, sexual immorality.
3a But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity,
“Sexual immorality” is the Greek word “porneia,” which is where “we get words like pornography.” What does pornea mean? It means any and all sexual activity outside of committed lifetime marriage between one man and one woman. At the end of chapter 5 Paul gives us a picture of marriage should look like by citing Genesis 2:24, which tells us God’s plan for marriage is rooted in the creation account.
Ephesians 5:31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” (NIV®)
So Paul is prohibiting people from engaging in all types of sexual activity outside of God’s Genesis design. This includes things like premarital sex, fooling around with your boyfriend or girlfriend, adultery, divorce and remarriage without following the Biblical guidelines, looking at pornography, filling your eyes with lustful images or movie clips, and when two men or two women engage in a sexual relationship.
But when Paul says “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality” does he mean that if you’ve ever committed one of these sins you can’t come to our church? I’ve been wrestling with what Paul is saying this week. On Thursday nights we are watching videos and discussing how Christians can offer both grace and truth to LGBTQ people. The Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender, the organization that created our curriculum, published a Pastoral Paper giving Guidance for Churches on Membership, Baptism, Communion, Leadership, and Service for Gay and Lesbian People.
The paper argues this is one of the reasons modern church membership is helpful. Modern church membership with its By-Laws and membership practices looks much different than New Testament membership, but it helps us navigate today’s difficult and often tricky environment. Membership provides us with a way to set expectations. We have one set of expectations for those who say “I’m a member of the family. I’m willing to submit to my family’s leadership and be held accountable to my brothers and sisters in Christ.” We have a different set of expectations for those who just attend our church. If you’re not a member of the family, you’re a guest. The paper says:
In a family, guests are not outsiders to be kept at bay but friends to be welcomed with hospitality. At our church, we invite guests to join the church family, but if they’re not ready we’re stoked to welcome them into the “living room,” give them the “best seats” in the house, and lavish the best we have in our “cupboards” to care for them and make them feel at home.
But there are expectations in a family: This is how we do life together. People joke about parents saying, “As long as you live under my roof…” but there is a reality that family needs a cohesive vision of life together. Family membership clarifies what we believe God the Father’s vision is for us as his children, adopted into his home “under the roof” of his authority, through the presence of Jesus in the power of his Spirit. (pg. 7-8)
I think this balance between welcoming LGBTQ people into our church as guests but holding off on membership until there is repentance and faith in Christ Jesus is a way to honor Paul’s teaching and also honor the way of Jesus, who ate and drank with people caught in sin (Luke 7:34). So what’s the first type of immorality we must abstain from? Sexual immorality. And the second?
Greed (v3b, 5)
3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
It’s really important to see that Paul equates sexual immorality and greed as equally sinful. Broadly speaking the church in America has clearly called out the evils of sexual sin, but we haven’t as clearly called out the evilsof greed. I think it’s because our culture by and large approves of greed. There is a good side to capitalism. The opportunity for financial independence. But there’s also a dark side to capitalism—the insatiable need to consume. Consumerism is greed. This Christmas if you go to the mall I hope you will avert your eyes when you walk past widow displays that uses sexuality to sell their products. But I hope you’ll apply that same level of effort to avoiding consumerism, which may mean cutting your trip to the mall short or not going at all. The mall is just one place we are tempted by greed. What about all the online deals or the sales after Christmas or just buying into the message, “I’ll be happy if I can just have that thing or… if my Christmas bonus is this large or… you fill in the blank.”
Spoken (v4, 6-7)
4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
If we shouldn’t participate in sexual immorality, we shouldn’t joke about it. A clear marker between a Christian and a non-Christian should be what comes out of our mouths. Our words reflect what is in our hearts, and if Christ has changed our hearts, then a sign of that is uplifting and good words. As believers, we must avoid spoken immorality. And finally?
Drunken (18a)
We must avoid drunken immorality. I’m jumping ahead to verse 18.
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,
Debauchery means indulging in pleasures like extra-marital sex, drugs, and alcohol. Drunkenness lowers our filters and self-control so that we say and do things we wouldn’t normally do if we were sober. Drunkenness gives control to our flesh, but as Christians we’re called to give control to the Holy Spirit. So we must abstain from immorality that is sexual, greedy, spoken, or drunken.
We must abstain from immorality and expose our darkness to Christ’s light. (Eph 5:8-14, 18b)
We talked about this last week. It’s not only that we must turn away from sin, repentance includes turning to something. It’s not “What should we turn to?” but “Who should we turn to?” Christ Jesus.
We have a new identity in Christ. (v8-10, 18b)
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord.
If we know Christ, we were once in darkness but are no more. Before Christ Jesus we were stumbling around in a dark room. We couldn’t see. We were blind. Now it’s like the curtains have been opened wide and the light floods in. So we should no longer live like we are in a dark room. Don’t try to put the blackout curtains up. We may accidentally trip over something we left on the floor, some old sin pattern, but the more our eyes become accustomed to the light the less we will want to live in the darkness anymore.
It also says “you are light in the Lord.” You are light. That’s a statement about our very nature. In Christ, you are no longer a sinner but a saint. Yes you sin but the identity of sinner no longer applies to you (Mark 2:17; Rom 5:8; John 9:31). You no longer fit in that category. Just because you plumb on occasion does not make you a plumber. You are light. There’s something about us at our base-level that has changed.
We have lots of different ways we can identity ourselves. I’m a pastor, a husband, an engineer, a teacher, a mom, a dad, a brother, a sister. These aren’t bad ways to think about ourselves. But our core way to identify ourselves should be in relation to God. We are his children of God. We are saints. We are light just like our older brother Jesus.
John 1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (NIV®)
This speaks of Jesus. Our light doesn’t emanate from ourselves. It comes from a relationship with him.
Shine Christ on your darkness. (v11-14)
We want to admit our sin but not just so we can air our dirty laundry but so that Jesus can fill the space the darkness left behind. This is why when we expose each other’s sin we don’t just point out the bad but also apply Jesus and offer forgiveness and grace.
11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. […]
13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.
14 This is why it is said:
“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
Expose means “to lay bare.” Have you ever been in a black room and touch something but you’re not quite sure what it is? There are things in our heart that we can’t quite tell what they are. Is it lust or beauty? Is it greed or a responsible use of my money? Is it sin or not? Bring those things into the light. Tell a brother or sister in Christ. Expose it to the light, and let the light do its work. Let Christ work on it through them.
The most beautiful part of our passage is verse 14 when Paul quotes an early church hymn that sang of the resurrection. When we bring our sins into the light we are actually re-enacting the resurrection. The resurrection is the promise that one day you and I will come out of the darkness of death into the light of eternal life with Christ Jesus forever and ever. So when we bring our sins out of the darkness and into the light it’s like we are experiencing a “mini-resurrection.” And you feel it in your spirit too. The guilt and burden washes away and you feel renewed and hopeful once more. That’s a dim reflection of what the resurrection will be like. Shine Christ in your darkness.
We must abstain from immorality, expose our darkness to Christ’s light, and give thanks to God. (Eph 4:15-20)
19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We go to things like sexual immorality and consumerism because as humans we experience emptiness. This is because of humankind’s broken relationship with God. But those things won’t satisfy. Only God can satisfy our hearts, and so Paul calls us to gather in a fellowship and together worship and praise God. It’s attributed to the Greek philosopher Pythagoras as once saying, “Music is the language of the heart, the only language that enters the soul without having to pass through the filter of the brain first.” We sing songs of thanksgiving as a way to resist temptation, shine Christ’s light on our sin, and cultivate a grateful heart. We must abstain from immorality, expose our darkness to Christ’s light, and give thanks to God.
Pastor Jonathan Romig preached this message at Cornerstone Congregational Church. You can download a PDF copy of this sermon above, which includes further endnotes and references. Click to listen to sermons or to read our story.
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