Walking in the Light

Lo3si me] Kalynk

(God's Magnificent Work through Christ)

Ephesians 5:3-14

The creation of the human being is an amazing work of art. God created us. God created us male and female. He created us mental, emotional, social and sexual beings. God designed sex to be protected in the holy bond of marriage. However, human beings always misused the gift of sexuality and made a mess out of it.

Humanity decided not to obey God, and since the early days of creation fornication, adultery, immorality and homosexuality became part of the reality of the world. Just read Genesis and you will find that what Paul describes here in the Letter to the Ephesians is not new.

Modern Western society idolizes sexuality and is obsessed with it. It is so sad that there are no boundaries for sexual expression. Ethics and the sense of shame are lost. Anything goes.

Ephesians has been called “the epistle for today” because not much has changed. The city of Ephesus was a touristic center. People loved to visit the temple of Artemis. Alexander the Great had contributed a library to the new temple in the city, making this temple an important place to visit. However, this temple was run by a fertility cult, and was full of prostitution.

Paul lived in Ephesus for 2 1/2 years, and knew exactly how they lived and behaved. Paul encouraged the Ephesians not to go back to the “dark” life they used to live. He knew the Christians were surrounded with the temptations of immortality but he wanted the believers to make a commitment to walk in the light.

Five big No’s

“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. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.” (3-4)

a. Sexual immorality- the Greek word is porneia. This word comes from the verb “to sell” from which we get the word pornography, which means “bodies for hire, prostitution, fornication.” It means we are destroying what God gave us. Remember, our bodies belong to God.

b. Impurity (uncleanness) means impure motives, lust, and profligate living.

Chuck Swindoll writes about lust:

“Its alluring voice can infiltrate the most intelligent mind and cause its victim to believe its lies and respond to its appeal. And beware, it never gives up… it never run out of ideas. Bolt your front door and it’ll rattle the bedroom window, crawl into the living room through the TV screen, or wink at you out of a magazine in the den.”

c. Greed (covetousness) means the desire to have more, the desire to have something that does not belong for you. It is a strong drive that needs to be controlled.

d. Obscenity (filthiness) means offensiveness to morality and decency.

e. Foolish talk or coarse joking is humor that is dirty. There is nothing wrong in having a sense of humor, but what kind of humor? Dirty jokes nowadays circulate faster and wider through the internet.

In one word, garbage in, garbage out. What do we feed our mind?

Paul is warning us not only to stay away from immoral behavior, but also not to even “hint” (vs. 3) or “mention” (vs. 12) sexually immoral things. This is a very serious problem.

Instead Paul gives a solution, be thankful.

Thanking God is our way to worship him. Being thankful is to have a grateful heart that finds joy in life. A thankful person is a person who is content in life. We thank God for the beauty of God’s creation in our life. People are not an object of lust; people are created for communication in respect and love. In this way we defeat lust.

We will continue in English.