Lent 3
Eph
5:1-9
3/7/21
In
chapters four and five of his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul has a
great deal to say about “walking.” In
chapter four he says, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk
in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” Then he writes, “Now this I say and testify in the
Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the
futility of their minds.” Next in chapter five he says in our text, “And walk in love, as Christ loved us
and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to
God.” Then at the end of our text he states, “Walk as children of
light.” Finally, later in the chapter he adds, “Look
carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise.”
Now obviously, “walk” is a metaphor that refers to how a
person lives. Just by listening to these
verses, you can tell that in this section of Ephesians, Paul is providing
exhortation and instruction about how Christians are to live. At the same time,
our text makes it very clear that this concern for how Christians are to live
is grounded in what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. For Paul, as for Jesus
and the New Testament as a whole, God’s saving work for us in Christ and our
lives as Christians can never be separated from one another.
The apostle begins our text by saying, “Therefore be imitators
of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved
us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice
to God.” Paul tells us as Christians to
be imitators of God, and to walk in love.
Yet the reason we are to do this is because we are God’s beloved
children. We have received Christ’s
love which has been demonstrated by the fact that he gave himself up as an
offering and sacrifice to God. And the “therefore” with which our text begins
is based upon what Paul has just said at the end of chapter four: “Be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
There is Gospel all over the place here! The apostle says that God has forgiven you in
Christ. The way he did this was an
expression of Christ’s love for us, as he gave himself up on the cross as an
offering and sacrifice to God. The
language of offering and sacrifice expresses the fact that Jesus gave himself
in death to make atonement for our sin.
Where our sin had been a barrier that separated us from God, Jesus’ sacrificial
death for our sins has removed it by giving us forgiveness.
Yet God’s love for us has not only been expressed by
Christ’s death. It has also been given to us by Jesus Christ’s resurrection
from the dead. In the first chapter Paul
referred to
“what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who
believe, according to the working of his great might that he
worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at
his right hand in the heavenly places.”
Through faith and baptism you have
been joined to Christ – you live as those who are in Christ. Because of this,
his saving work of forgiveness and resurrection is yours. For this reason Paul has written in the
second chapter, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the
great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have
been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
God the Father loved us by giving his
Son to die for our sins. Christ, the Son
of God loved us by giving himself as an offering and sacrifice on the
cross. God raised Jesus through the work
of the Holy Spirit, and now the Holy Spirit has called you to faith. For these reasons, you are indeed God’s
beloved children.
The apostle calls us to be imitators
of God. Specifically, he says that we
are to walk in love. This love seeks the
good of others – my spouse, my children, my parents, my friends – even when it
means sacrificing for them. Paul says in
this letter that we are to bear with one another in love as we are eager to
maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This means that we forgive others, because
God in Christ has forgiven us. It means
that are willing to overlook the weaknesses and annoyances of others, rather
than commenting on them and calling attention to them.
Through the love of God, the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ has won forgiveness and life for us. Christ has given us this forgiveness through
baptism. As Paul says in the next
chapter, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for
her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing
of water with the word.” Because of
Christ we are saints – we are holy in God’s eyes. By the work of the Spirit, we have received
regeneration – we are a new creation in Christ.
We also know that we face the
continuing struggle against sin. The old Adam clings to us. There is the need to resist sin, and instead
walk in God’s ways. We must continue to
return in faith to our baptism – the source of the Spirit’s work in our
life. Paul says in chapter four that
there is the need “to put off your old man, which belongs to
your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful
desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to
put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true
righteousness and holiness.”
And so Paul says in our text:
“But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even
be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no
filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but
instead let there be thanksgiving.”
The apostle addresses a topic that was a pressing concern in the first
century Church: the misuse of sexuality.
The foolish talk and crude joking to which he refers are sexual in
nature.
The Greco-Roman world of Paul’s day
assumed that slave owners had sex with their slaves. The use of prostitutes was
considered normal, and the Roman government even ran brothels so that the poor
would have use of them for sex.
Pornographic images were present in many different settings. It was a free for all when it came to sex –
the only real limitation being that the wife of another man was off limits.
Into this world the Church
proclaimed the Gospel, and shared God’s will that had been established when he made
creation. The Church proclaimed how God had created man and woman to be joined
as one flesh in marriage. The one flesh union of sexual intercourse was only
intended for a husband and wife in marriage.
Any other use of sex outside of marriage, or between two people of the
same sex, was a violation of God’s will.
It was sin. This was a radically
different worldview and understanding of life.
In particular, it placed limitations on men that Gentiles has
never known before.
When you read the epistles of the
New Testament, you find that they constantly address this subject. They do
because sex is such a powerful force in human lives – one that God intends to
be channeled within marriage as it produces children and families. They do,
because God’s will was such a completely different understanding of life.
And they do, because the teaching of
Scripture is not just a matter of opinion.
It is God’s will and has eternal consequences. Paul goes on to say in
our text: “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually
immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you
with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes
upon the sons of disobedience.”
Almost two thousand years have
passed since Paul wrote these words. The first century has become the twenty
first century. And yet when you look
around at the world, it feels like we are in the movie “Groundhog Day.” It is as if we are doing the first century
all over when it comes to the way the world views sex.
But,
to be honest, we are probably worse. Our
world has told women that they should be free to use sex however they
want, just like men. But men and women
are different, and when women treat sex like men, it’s the men who get all the
advantages. And the ancient world wasn’t
so stupid as to say that someone who is a man can really be a woman, or vice
versa.
The apostle warns us not to be
deceived by the empty words of the world.
Instead, we need to listen to God’s words of truth. He is the One who created us as man and
woman. He instituted marriage and gave us the gift of sex to be used within
marriage. His will is the way in which these things are a true blessing to
us. And the violation of his will – the
use of sex outside of marriage in fornication – brings the wrath of God against
sin.
The apostle urges us in twenty first
century, just as he did to the Ephesians in the first century, not to listen to
the lies of the world. He says in our
text, “Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one
time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as
children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is
good and right and true).
Conceived and born as sinners, we
were darkness. But through his Spirit,
Christ has called us to faith in his death and resurrection. We are therefore
light in the Lord. We are beloved
children of God, because Christ loved us
and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to
God. By God’s grace we are
saints – holy in his eyes because of Jesus. In baptism we have received the
washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Because this is so Paul tells us to, “Walk as
children of light.” This walk produces the fruit of light – it produces all
that is good and right and true.
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