Ephesians 5:5-8 - Something You Should Know

The Apostle Paul speaks very plainly to the church atEphesus reminding them of something that they should know. This is somethingthat as believers and followers of Jesus Christ that should be obvious to us.What should we know? “That no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man,who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.  Now,it’s interesting that when you read Paul’s letters to the churches in Galatiaand Colossae, you find that he says very similar things on this subject. Infact, here in Ephesians 5, we’ve already seen that we are called to walk inlove (v. 2). In verse 8, we are told to walk as children of light. Then inverse 15, Paul says we are to walk circumspectly—not as fools, but as wise. Inother words, the believer walks a different walk. He walks a different path. Thepath that we are walking is a narrow path that leads to life, not the broadpath that leads to destruction.  Theworld around us is filled with envy, murder, wickedness, lewdness, idolatry,fornication—sins of the flesh, sins of immorality, and sins of the tongue, “filthiness,nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting”. Paul has already told us in theearlier verses that as believers we are saints, and it is not fitting forsaints to live this way (v. 3-4). These sins are to be put off. We are not tocommit them, or for that matter, have anything to do with them. Nowin verses 5 and 6, Paul repeats some of the same sins and makes this truth veryclear, which indicates that this is extremely important. We find the samewarning in Galatians 5:19-21.Myfriend, when we become born-again followers of Jesus Christ, we aretransformed. We are transferred out of the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom ofSatan and evil, and into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God. Paul wrotein Colossians 1:13, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness andconveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love”.  Jesus Himself said in John chapter 3, “Excepta man be born again, he cannot see or enter the kingdom of God.” When weare born again, we receive a new life, and we now belong to a new kingdom. Inthis kingdom, we should now live to please the King. We honor the King. Wehallow the name of Jesus Christ. We pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will bedone on earth as it is in heaven.” And because of that, we do notparticipate in the deeds that belong to the kingdom of darkness. Now, Paul isnot saying that if a believer commits a sin—such as adultery, fornication, orsome form of sexual immorality—that they automatically lose their salvation.That is not what he is teaching. What he is saying is that if a personpractices these sins—if they continually walk in them and live in them—itproves that they have never truly been brought into the kingdom of light. Jesusspoke of this in Matthew 7:21-23, when He said, “Many will say to Me in thatday, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not done many wonderful works in Your name?’ And thenI will declare to them, ‘Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity; I never knewyou.’” My friend, not everyone who claims to be a Christian truly is one.Some may talk like Christians at times, but their deeds and their works revealthat they do not belong to Christ. The Apostle John addresses this clearly in 1John, when he says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for ifthey had been of us, they would have continued with us.” We who are truly bornagain have been transferred, transformed, and brought into the kingdom oflight. We no longer walk in covetousness or idolatry. Ifind it interesting that Paul repeats the same words in verse 5 that he usedearlier in verse 3—fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness. He says thesethings are not even to be named among us. Then he adds that the covetous personis an idolater. This same truth is taught in Colossians 3:5, where we are toldthat covetousness is idolatry.