Ephesians 5.1–14
A sermon from St Margaret’s Nedlands 20th September 2026
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 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. 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 become partners with them; 8for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Disclaimer: There is so much here that to comment on it all in one sermon is impossible. I have done the best I can with it.
How then should we live? This is the title of a book published in 1976 and then backed up by a series of videos. Francis Schaeffer was an American who lived mostly in Switzerland where he and his wife established the L’Abri Fellowship, a place where confused young intellectuals could come during their wanderings around the world, and sort themselves out philosophically. Western culture is forever throwing up new systems of thought. For the past 2 centuries these have been mainly anti-God. The philosopher to grab the minds of students in the 70’s was Heidegger’s brand of existentialism, which taught that the only way you could live authentically, and not be swept along with the crowd—the only way you could “ex-ist,” or stand out—was to end your life, your way, and at your time. Many young intellectuals of that generation were committing suicide. The subtitle of Schaeffer’s book was The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture. He traced the culture of the last 2000 years, the art, literature, music, and philosophy. How are we meant to live? The popular humanist thinkers shut God out of their thinking, and asked, how, the help of rational thought, can we be authentically human? Schaeffer exposed where putting man in the centre leads. What has developed philosophically and culturally since Schaeffer’s time has made him seem like a prophet. Were he alive he would hardly believe the confusion of modern, post-modern, and woke culture and thinking. But he would understand it. Children leaving school to join a political demonstration is a fruit of what they are being taught. What they are being taught is what their teachers are learning in the universities. What is being taught in universities is the latest answer f the philosophers to the question how we should live.
What Paul tells us today about how we should live—how we can be authentically human—does not put humans in centre-place; if we are to make any sense of life, God must be at the centre—because he is at the centre; everything comes from him, and ends with him.
When we revised the curriculum at George Whitefield College we laid it down that ethics would be studied in each of the three years of the degree. Why? Western societies have shut their ears to Christian doctrinal teaching, but they are more moralistic than ever. Discussion of moral issues is where Christians and others are most likely to interact. But ethics is a “hot” area. It is important for us to know what we believe, our morals, yes, but morals don’t come from nowhere; they come from our understanding of God, theology—or philosophy, if you like.
So what is today’s passage about? Mostly it is about sexual purity. However, it starts with an in-your-face statement about love:
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
We will never know how we should live—never know what it is to be truly human—until we put God back in centre place—in our thinking and in our life. The centre and heart of being human is knowing you are a child of God and that life is about imitating your heavenly Father.
I wonder how a Muslim would react to this? The God of Islam is beyond knowing. All that humans can know is his law. Islam teaches a way of life; it has its own answer to how we should live. A Muslim is one who submits, in hope of Paradise when Jesus returns. I often compare Christianity and Islam, not because I have a great knowledge of Islam, but because there are similarities, and the differences can sharpens up what we believe as Christians. The Bible tells us we can know God; he wants us to become his children, to love him and to imitate him. Last week I quoted my Muslim friend, Isaak, who had come to Christ ,saying, “I never heard about love as a Muslim.” His father owned a mosque. For Christians love is central. Why? Because we are to imitate God, and God is love. “Because Christ loved us, and gave himself for us …” Paul says.
There is something surprising here. We are to imitate God and walk in love—because Christloved us and gave himself up for us. This only makes sense when we see that Christ’s actions are so closely aligned with God’s that to speak of Christ loving us, is to speak of God loving us. In 2 Corinthians 4 Paul says that we see the glory of God in the face of Christ. God reveals himself by becoming a man in the person of Jesus Christ. Imitation of God and imitation of Christ are one and the same.
So, God is at the centre. And God has made himself known in Christ. And Christ loved us, and that (1960)puts love at the centre.
So, what is love (agape)? There are different kinds of love, and different words for them in Greek. The profoundest explanation of this still, is C.S. Lewis’s little book, The Four Loves. Family love (storge), is different to brotherly love (philadelphia), is different to erotic love (eros), which is different again from agape love. Agape-love is desiring good for another person, regardless of their deserving, or whether you get any return from them. Think of the person you like least—maybe you hate someone? Can you want good for that person, or would you do them harm if you could? Christ gave himself up to die for us, even when we were against him. We are to love, because God loves us and showed his love by Christ sacrificing himself for us. Lewis says that without agape-love the others go sour. This is because their love seeks something for itself, and if it is not forthcoming, love easily turns to rejection or hate. This is specially true in marriage. Erotic love is love, and is very real, but it is not the love God has towards us that we are told to imitate. Agape love and erotic love are related but should not be confused with each other. Paul goes on:
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.
On one of my trips back to Cape Town I was walking through the college library and passed a table of students deep in discussion over an ethics assignment. An attractive young woman student looked me in the eye and said, “Why shouldn’t I sleep with my boyfriend, if I love him?” I was embarrassed; I must have mumbled something, but not the answer I should have given. I beat a hasty retreat.
What I should have said, is that God loves us and wants us to be happy. Because he loves us, he has given us his law is to protect us. He knows how he has made us, and knows better than we do, what will promote our happiness and unhappiness. Perhaps what I should have said is that when her boyfriend is ready to accept her as his partner for life, and commit to caring for her in sickness and in health, and they are ready to declare this commitment to the world, then is the time to tie the knot and begin sleeping together. That is God’s way. When you jump the gun, you do damage to each other, even if you eventually marry, and you do damage to society. Here we need to remind ourselves that the Christian answer to how we should live is personal; we live to please God. We may not understand why God tells us to behave this way and not that. There would be a lot of psychology and sociology mixed up with trying to figure things out for ourselves. God tells us how to live, and we do it because we love him and trust him that he is speaking for our own good.
Paul uses an interesting word in verse 10. Literally it says “approving what is pleasing to the Lord.” But the word translated “approving” (dokimazontes) means more. It means testing it by trying it out, and discovering from doing it that it is the best way. It is an idea we often find in the NT. We don’t figure it out first, and only then obey; we obey, and by doing what God says we figure out that it is the best way. This is fundamental to Christian morality.
Fornication (porneia) here is a blanket term for heterosexual activity outside of marriage. Impurity—uncleanness (akatharsia) refers to anal intercourse and other inherently dirty games. Paul associates greed with them to make a threesome. Perhaps it is because each is about self-gratification., not seeking the best for others, but getting as much as you can for yourself.
Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 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. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
We humans have a problem with sex. Sexuality is deeply embedded in our nature. It is one of God’s precious gifts, and, as with all his gifts can be misused. Fire is one of our best friends, but misused is a monster. According to Psalm 104, wine was intended “to gladden the heart of man,” but misused it becomes a destroyer. It seems that the greater the gift, the more destruction can come from its misuse.
The “act of love” when it is that. In a committed family relationship, it is a beautiful thing, intended to enrich and strengthen that relationship, and enable children to be brought into the world. It is meant to be special, almost holy. But Paul speaks in a context where sex is degraded by filthy talk, and where all forms of sexual activity were smiled upon. He speaks to people he assumes have been part of this.
And he warns us that God will judge these things. The desire for more and more, including more and more sex will be condemned in God’s time. There is no place for these things in the kingdom of God, nor for those who go on practising them. We can’t sugar-coat this. It contradicts all modern thought, though ironically it underpins much of the best in our culture.
We need to be careful here. “Let these things not be named among you,” says Paul. The church should be a place where honouring marriage and sexual purity are modelled. This sounds prudish. But remember Paul assumes most of its members come out of such a way of life. The church is a society of forgiven sinners, and forgivingness is our new nature. But the churches must have stood out from the surrounding culture of the ancient world. Nevertheless, the kind of censoriousness which sounds like we are good and others are bad has no place in the church. We are bound together with the human race. We are a forgiven community, but still a society of human sinners.
Our own society is nowhere near practising what was common among the Greeks and Romans, but it is moving in that direction. And it seems to me women usually come out the losers. Before the availability of birth control, families kept a tight rein on their daughters. No longer. A girl is free to roam. She wants to be loved, and when a man whispers sweet nothings, and promises the world, if only she will sleep with him, she agrees, only to be abandoned when she is no longer fun. The damage to her person may be great, and we cannot calculate the harm that is being done to our societal happiness. And, of course, men can also be badly damaged.
Today’s reading is very like the one Israel Folau referred to in a Facebook comment which brought the wrath of the establishment on him and led to his sacking. It upset me at the time, that there was no discussion of the truth or otherwise of what he said, only loud condemnation of him saying it. What is a preacher to do? We can only go on speaking the things God says, wherever that may lead. God’s judgement is real, and will have the last word.
Paul concludes with a reflection on light and darkness.
… at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
The “woke” generation believes it has woken up to the evils of society, evils that have often gone unrecognized. It can be intoxicating, thinking you are seeing the truth where others are ignorant. Paul calls us to a different kind of wokeness. Wake up to the evils of your past life and the society around you. There is no need to rail against the society around you; look to your own life. Christ died for our forgiveness. Christ rose to lead us into a new life that has no end. Strip off your old way of life, then, and see yourself as alive from the dead.