Eph. 5:1-20
Let us start with reading the entire passage for today.
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. – Eph. 5:1-2
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. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them. – Eph. 5:3-7
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” – Eph. 5:8-14
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. – Eph. 5:15-20
The Bible is filled with commands to obey. Here are the commands we went over in chapter 4 last week:
1. “Live a life worthy of the calling you received…”
2. “Be completely humble…”
3. “And gentle…”
4. “Be patient…”
5. “Bearing with one another in love…”
6. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
7. “You must no longer live as the Gentiles do…”
8. “Put off your old self…”
9. “Be made new in the attitudes of your minds…”
10. “Put on the new self…”
11. “Put off falsehood…”
12. “Speak truthfully…”
13. “In your anger do not sin…”
14. “Steal no longer…”
15. “Must work…”
16. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths…”
17. “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit…”
18. “Get rid of all bitterness…”
19. “Get rid of all…rage…”
20. “Get rid of all…anger…”
21. “Get rid of all…brawling…”
22. “Get rid of all…slander…”
23. “Get rid of all…every form of malice…”
24. “Be kind…”
25. “Be…compassionate…”
26. “Forgiving each other…”
In chapter 5 we read:
1. “There must not be even a hint of sexual immorality…”
2. “There must not be even a hint of…any kind of impurity…”
3. “There must not be even a hint of…greed…”
4. “Nor should there be obscenity…”
5. “Nor should there be…foolish talk…”
6. “Nor should there be…coarse joking…”
7. “But rather thanksgiving…”
8. “Let no one deceive you with empty words…”
9. “Do not be partners with them.”
This is a long list of things to do and not to do. A lot of people think that this is what Christianity is…”Do this. Don’t do that.” If that was truly the case, then we would be the same as many of the other religions of the world. It would also be very disheartening. We would wake up thinking that all we were yesterday was a failure and all that we will be today is a failure. I left some commands out of this list. They’re in chapter 5. Do you know what I left out? The main target is missing. The power is missing.
My kids have done things in the past that they weren’t interested in. They were doing things that they didn’t have any experience with or any skills to do and, yet, there they were trying to do it. Sarah was two years old when we left Wilmington. I would sit a the desk and type on my computer. At the age of 1.5 years, she really hadn’t typed that many pages for school yet. Her experiences and skills were a little on the lacking side. She would climb into my lap and begin typing away. It wasn’t very elegant. She used her fingers but sometimes she used the palm of her hands. What she wrote wasn’t comprehendible. She had only been walking for about eight months and, yet, she was typing up her first essays on the subject of “lt34bhrt7zv42zzzzaa30.”
She didn’t understand what the box was that I was pecking on. She didn’t know much about church finances, sermons, or evangelism plans, but that didn’t stop her. She wanted to do what I was doing. She wanted to be like me. Paul said, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children…”
No Christian has it all figured out. No Christian knows everything in the Bible or understands all prophecy. Every Christian sins, and oftentimes we do it willingly. I’ve sinned by doing some of the things in the list we went over earlier. I fail as a father, as a husband and as a church leader. A righteous life flows from being imitators of God. Being like him is the target. Max is on the archery team at school. What would happen if he misunderstood what the target was? He could be aiming for the lights or the doors or the walls. He will experience more sense of accomplishment if he aims at the target. Otherwise, he has an extremely small chance of hitting the bullseye. If we’re aiming just for the commands, then we’ll be all over the place. We’ll probably face great discouragement in our Christian walk.
The power is missing as well. Imagine you work for an employer that is offering a greater job. You only need to complete one task. The factory you work for needs an extremely important part. Their main machine is inoperable without it. He tells you to go pick up the part. You’ll be the hero of the year. Everyone will be so grateful, except the employees who don’t want to come to work. Your boss gives you the keys to the company vehicle. He tells you where the car is. He also gives directions about traveling to the place where the part is. He gives detailed instructions on where to go once you get there and who to talk to. You have the part name and the part number written on a piece of paper, on your phone and inked on your arm. You’re not going to fail at this mission.
You get in the car and turn the key over but nothing happens. It tries to turn over but it surely won’t start. Then you realize that there’s no gas in the gas tank. He has sent you on this mission but it has become impossible because there’s no fuel to make the car go anywhere. You’re super discouraged. There’s no way you can get this done. In my scenario, there is no Uber, Lyft, or other businesses like that. No one will let you borrow their car. There is no options for boat, train or airplane. So, besides the option of car-jacking, you’re stuck.
Before I became a Christian I heard of some of the things that I shouldn’t do and should do. But no one ever sat down me and personally explained how the Holy Spirit empowers a believer to live the Christian life. The Holy Spirit empowers someone to be an imitator of God. Because I lacked the power, I didn’t think I could stop doing bad things. I surely didn’t desire sharing the gospel, reading the Bible, or praying either. I didn’t realize that the Spirit would give me those desires and help me start dropping some of that old, bad fruit.
You and I are trying to learn the will of a person, not the formula to a problem. What word does Paul use to describe a person who goes their whole life not searching the word of God so that they can determine what God desires? The answer is in verse 17. He said that person is a fool. When we come before God one day we can’t say, “Oh, I didn’t know that was what you were wanting!” One of the things he desires for us is to “be filled with the Spirit.” The Greek text is written as “continually be being filled by the Spirit.” It’s not a one-time experience. When a person receives the Holy Spirit they are immersed or “baptized” into the Spirit. That’s what Paul talked about in Romans 6. That’s what the disciples experienced in Acts 2. But, we can make a decision every day to be filled with the Spirit. In Colossians 3 Paul said that being filled with the word has the same things associated with it as being filled with the Spirit. I encourage you to read that today before you go to bed. In Ephesians 5 it says, “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Being filled with the Spirit is opposed to being drunk with wine. How does a person get drunk? The alcohol people drank during the day of Paul was mostly on the weaker side compared to the liquor we have now. Paul didn’t say alcohol or liquor. He said “wine”. There was wine that only had a mild amount of alcohol. But there was something else that was considered “strong drink.” The milder wine was used to make the water palatable or to help with stomach ailments. The “strong drink” was beyond wine in the amount of alcohol. What does a person have to in order to be drunk? A person would have to drink a lot of wine. In other words, they wouldn’t get drunk on just one glass.
To be filled with the Spirit we must be filled with the Words of God. I don’t think that’s the only thing we need to do in order to be filled with the Spirit. Christians wonder why they lack power in their lives. One reason is because they don’t take in enough of God’s word on a regular basis. You don’t accidentally get drunk. You decide to take the time to drink and you decide to put the glass to your mouth, over and over and over. Then, you decide to swallow. The pathway to imitating God is by continually be being filled by the Spirit.
How is God described in chapter 5? He’s mainly described as loving. In verse one it says that we are “dearly loved children” and that we are to “live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” (Eph. 5:1) In 2 Corinthians 4:6 we see that God wanted to give us “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” We can know what God is like by looking to Jesus. That’s why Paul said to love like Christ and to give yourself like Christ. Even though it was uncomfortable at times, Jesus did the Father’s will. Even though it was painful, he went to the cross.
According to the end or chapter four, what did God do for us because of his love? He was kind and compassionate to us, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32) What flowed from his kindness and compassion? It was forgiveness. Kindness and compassion flow from love. Forgiveness flows from kindness and compassion. So, Paul is being very specific here. He’s saying that our love towards others should manifest as forgiveness. This is what he’s specifically telling us to imitate.
Mankind has conquered many challenges since the beginning of time. We’ve created and mastered certain technology. But it doesn’t take being filled with the Spirit to do that. We’ve mastered the science of growing of food. But it doesn’t take being filled with the Spirit to accomplish that either. We’ve traveled to the moon and explored the depths of the ocean. But it doesn’t take being filled with the Spirit to do this. Forgiveness, on the other hand, is a different challenge altogether. You can’t forgive without being filled with the Spirit.
If we didn’t do all the bad things listed in Ephesians 4 and 5, then we would be pure. But we don’t attain to this by avoiding a bunch of bad stuff, otherwise we’d all have to become monks. We focus on being filled with the Spirit. This, in turn, will help us become imitators of God. As we align ourselves with being loving like God loved us, then we would inherently pursue purity. If I love someone then I won’t commit the sin of slander. If I love God and am thankful for what he has given to me then I won’t be greedy, nor will I commit sexual immorality. If the Holy Spirit lives in me, then I would be concerned about what I say and what I see because I know that he lives in me. I don’t want to grieve him.
Paul said, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity…” (Eph. 5:15-16) How can we be careful how we live and to make the most of every opportunity? He says, “understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Eph. 5:17)
We choose light over darkness, kindness and compassion instead of harshness and indifference, righteousness over unrighteousness and love over hate. We choose being filled with the Spirit over being filled with obscenity, sexual immorality or anger. Some of God’s will is straightfoward, understandable and doable. When we stand before God one day we can’t say, “Oh, I didn’t know you wanted that!” It’s each of our own responsibility to search out God’s will in his word. You can’t blame it on your pastor for not teaching it to you. You can’t put your parents at fault for not sharing it with you.
Adam and Eve knew what God’s will:
God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’ – Gen. 1:28
And one more thing… “You can eat from any of the trees in this garden, but don’t you dare eat from that tree over there.” These things were the known will of God. It was clear as can be. It was understandable and it was doable. But they chose darkness over light, and unrighteousness over righteousness. They chose to be filled with something that would only provide temporary satisfaction.
So, the title of this sermon is Therefore Be Pure. What does “pure” mean? One way to think of it is: freedom from any contaminants that would make a substance deviate from its intended purpose, appearance, strength, etc. The Cambridge English Dictionary states that it’s “the state of not being mixed with anything else.” In other words, if we’re filled with the Spirit, then we won’t be filled with anger, bitterness or alcohol.
I’ve been finishing up replacing the engine on my truck. I had the engine covered with several layers of tarp and trash bags. Somehow water got into the engine during a big rainstorm. The water, which was the impurity, would have made the engine fail if I didn’t get it out. The engine wouldn’t be able to operate as the creators intended. We too wouldn’t be able to operate as our creator intended if we are filled with sin. If you use something in a way that the creator didn’t intend, then that is called abuse.
On a spiritual level, I think that purity isn’t just the absence of sin. It’s mainly about the presence of God. In Revelation 21, John said,
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp…Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. – Rev. 21:22-23,27
Where the fulness of God’s presence is sin cannot be. When we stand before God one day he will give us a glorified body, without sin. When we see God in his fulness sin will flee. When light shines the darkness will vanish. So, what do you think will happen when we are filled with the Spirit? We will start seeing these troubling sins disappear. We will become more like God. As a result, we will start seeing more-and-more righteous fruit in our lives.
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