Ephesians 5: 1-7

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The following is a computer-generated transcript with only light editing. Ephesians chapter 5, verses 1 to 7: Follow God’s example, 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. 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, food,oolish 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 person is an idol, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such a things, God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, do not be partakers with them. At first, when you read these verses, you might think that God is against everything that is sexual. Is the ideal life that God wants of us, one that is free of sex and any thought of it? After all, in heaven, we’re told there will be no marriage. Well, no, that is not what the Bible teaches. There are strong warnings in these verses, but it’s not against everything that is sexual. The warnings are against sexual, immorality, and sexual impurity as well as greed. After all, God created us as sexual beings. He made us male and female, and everything that God made was very good. God also gave the right place for sex, that is, marriage. Genesis 2 and verse 24, God says, for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joyed to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. They’re united in body, in heart, they’re united as close as two people ever can be. And it’s in the context of marriage and marriage alone that God has created sex to be enjoyed. Within marriage, which is between one man and one woman, sex is a beautiful gift. It’s for having children, it also helps to unite a husband and wife. But outside of man, marriage, sex is immoral, impure, and that is when it brings God wrath. So let’s be very clear. These verses are not against sex, but they’re against sexual immorality. And the Bible gives us the right balance for how we’re to understand our bodies and how we should behave. Some, like in the Roman Catholic Church, give celibacy, that is, where you never marry, you never have sex. They give celibacy a place that the Bible never gives. So, priests in the Roman Catholic Church have to be unmarried. Now, singleness is good. The Bible tells us that very clearly in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, but it’s never commanded by God. The Roman Catholic Church also goes wrong when it says that within marriage, sex is only for having children. And so they don’t allow contraception. But no, it’s also for husband and wife to be drawn closer together. That’s at one extreme. On the other extreme, our culture goes the other way. It allows all kinds of sexual behaviour. As long as there are consenting adults, we’re told everything is okay.. While neither of these extremes works, because both of them depart from the pattern that God has given. So in the Roman Catholic Church, there’s a man who used to be a priest. He’s passed away now called Richard Sipe. He did a lot of research on this. He estimated that about 50% of priests at any one time, 50% of priests, monks, and bishops were no longer celibate. They’d have their secret families somewhere. And he said this bred a culture of deception that would hide all kinds of sexual immorality and led to the cover up of so much of the child abuse. It doesn’t work. But nor does a permissive society that we’re so familiar with in the West, nor does that work, it leads to broken families. It actually leads to sexual exploitation. It leads to so much hurt and damage in the lives of so many people. There is no way of life that is better than God’s way. His law alone gives the right balance the right way to live. Sexu

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