MORALLY PURE
Message Recap
This week, Pastor Dre teaches about what Paul is trying to eliminate from our lives out of Ephesians 5:3-8.
"3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light."
“Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity.” This is not a test of your vocabulary; it is a test of your purity. Are there any of these that need to be eliminated from your lives?
That is, we are “set-apart ones” and no longer belong to the world of darkness around us. We are “called out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
Paul First Mentions Immorality.
Let me try to show you why I am persuaded that this word refers to premarital sexual intercourse and not just to (or even mainly to) adultery or marital unfaithfulness.
In 1 Corinthians 7:2 Paul says, "Because of the temptation to immorality [porneia], each man should have his own wife and each her own husband." In other words, before you marry, you are tempted to porneia. The sin in view is not adultery, but premarital sexual intercourse.
Take a look at John 8:41:
"You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.”
Here, Jesus is in a heated discussion with the Jewish leaders and pushes them so hard to recognize their own inconsistencies that they resort to an ad hominem argument and say,
"We were not born of fornication!"
The word is porneia and the point is, “WE weren't born that way; YOU were!” In other words, they are calling Jesus a bastard.
Therefore this is the natural meaning to give to the word here in Ephesians 5:3: Fornication should be eliminated from your life if you are a Christian. AIDS can only kill your body—fornication can kill your soul.
Impurity
The next thing to eliminate is "impurity" or "uncleanness" (v. 3). This is a word Paul uses a half-dozen times in relation to sexual sin (Romans 1:24; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 4:19; Colossians 3:5). These are the things that happen when a culture exchanges God for the creature. Those who have been called by Jesus Christ into his kingdom and glory will stand firm and pure against fornication and homosexuality.
Covetousness
The third thing Paul mentions in verse 3 is covetousness. This must be eliminated too from the Christian life. It generally refers to greed for money but is really much broader than that. It means strong, inordinate craving; an inability to be content and satisfied with the necessities of life and ministry.
Filthiness and Flippancy
The next three things to eliminate we can take all together for the sake of brevity. Verse 4 says, "Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity."
Paul seems to be concerned mainly about two related errors: 1) Treating things as gross or treating things as trivial; filthiness and flippancy, and 2) there are people who are so dirty inside that they can hardly
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And there are people whose vision of the world is so superficial that they trivialize everything! Paul condemns both of these and says, "Get rid of all filthiness and coarseness on the one hand, and all foolishness and levity on the other."
To learn more, watch the full sermon here.
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