Christian, for what purpose did God save you? If Ephesians 1:4 is true (and it is), why did God choose you before the foundation of the world? Why was the blood of Jesus shed on your account? For what end were all of your sins forgiven? What is the motivation of the Holy Spirit to seal you and keep you until the day of redemption? Did God choose you so that you would be happy? Was it for your joy that Jesus shed His blood? Is it for your satisfaction that the Holy Spirit seals and keeps you?
We are in Ephesians, and we have spent a considerable amount of time reflecting upon why it is that we exist and what it means to be alive with Christ. I have addressed multiple times throughout this series the question of purpose being a very important question that must be answered and how Ephesians answers that question for both the Christian and His Church. I recognize that there have been seasons in this nation and the world that were full of absolute craziness! We find ourselves in a time and place today where the word “crazy” doesn’t seem to be a strong enough word to describe the day and age we live.
From the century of the Church’s birth on Pentecost to 2024, there have been great catastrophes, devastating wars, insane tyrants, global pandemics, mass genocides, severe persecution, and so much more. Jesus said of His Church: “I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it” (Matt. 16:18). Besides the fact that those who make up Jesus’ Church are sealed and kept by the Holy Spirit, I am convinced that the Christians who endured and overcome from generation to generation did not forget who they were in Christ and what they once were apart from Christ. Every time churches or the Christians who made up those churches forgot those two things; they lost sight of the Church’s mission or worse.
Last week I spent all our time in Ephesians 5:1-2 on purpose; I did that because it is important to see and understand verses 3-5 in light of those first two verses. What I want to do with our time today is to spend it in 5:1-6, and here is why I feel the need to do that. Ephesians 5:1 and 5:6 are statements of identity and the verses sandwiched in between make more sense when you understand who you are as a Christian in light of who you once were. So, for what purpose were you saved? Ephesians 5:1-6 answers that question for us, and it is to these verses we now turn our attention.
You are More Loved Than You Can Imagine
To be a “beloved child of God” is to be treasured by God. If you are a Christian, this is your new identity. As a “beloved” child of God, you are the recipient of God’s rich grace that He has lavished upon you for an inheritance that will never run out. Jesus’ blood was the price He paid that will never default because it was sufficient to cover the price tag for past, present, and future sins (see Eph. 1:7-11).
Because you belong to God as His “beloved children” your identity is with Christ who is enthroned, “in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Eph. 1:20b-21). If you are a Christian, you who were far away from God, “have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (2:13). Christian, you are beloved because of the only begotten Son of God who, “preached peace to you who were far away” so that you would no longer be a stranger and foreigner to His grace; now, “you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household” (2:17-19).
To be a “beloved” child of God is to be loved by a God who is determined and committed to finish the work He started; He is building His Church as a “dwelling of God in the Spirit” (2:20-22), and you, Christian, are part of what He is building. This is why He saved you, and although happiness is a byproduct of discovering your purpose, you were ultimately saved to be holy! You were chosen in Christ to be, “holy and blameless before Him” (1:4). You were made alive with Christ, “for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (2:10). Because you have been made alive with Christ, you are being made holy through Christ. “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” is God’s command for God’s people for every season of life and for every generation past, present, and future (see Lev. 19:2).
The apostle Peter wrote, “If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:17-19). As the beloved children of almighty God, we are commanded not only to mimic Him in how we love but also in how we live in the pursuit and practice of holiness because our heavenly Father is holy. For what other reason would Jesus command: “You shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). Obviously, Jesus was not telling us that we could be perfect, but that we must strive to do what? To be imitators of God as His beloved children. This is what Jesus means when He said, “If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him. The one who does not love Me does not follow My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me” (John 14:23-24). My dear brothers and sisters, this is what Paul prayed for in Ephesians 3:14-19,
For this reason I bend my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner self, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.
So how do we imitate the God who is holy? We walk in love in the same manner that Jesus loved us. What does that kind of love look like? According to 1 Corinthians 13, it is a love that is patient, kind, not jealous, does not brag, and is not arrogant. It is the kind of love that does not act disgracefully, does not seek its own benefit; it not provoked, does not keep an account of wrongs suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, and rejoices with the truth (see 1 Cor. 13:4-7).
You Were More Sinful Than You Thought
According to verse 6, the reason why the sins listed in verses 3-5 are not to even be mentioned among those whom God made alive with Jesus is because when we were dead, we were “sons of disobedience” but that is not who we are now. When you were dead in your offenses and sins, Paul described in Ephesians 2:2 three ways you walked as the sons of disobedience:
- You walked according to the course of the world by walking in step with its values and culture that is contrary to the values and culture of God’s kingdom. What this means is that you loved the very thing God is opposed to: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (1 John 2:16).
- You walked according to the prince of the power of the air (the devil). A prince is another word for “ruler” and the ruler of this world is the devil, and the legions of demons under his command. He is described as the “god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4) and a roaring lion (1 Pet. 5:8) who describes himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). This is the one we blindly followed thinking his steps would lead to life, but instead they lead to death.
- Your walk was governed by a different spirit who works in the children of disobedience and the fruits of that spirit are, 1) the lusts of our flesh, 2) indulgence of the desires of the flesh, and 3) of the mind. The guiding and governing of that evil spirit is what sets people apart as children of wrath instead of beloved children of God.
Because of God’s rich mercy, because of His great love, and because of His grace, He made those of us who were dead in our offenses and sins… alive together with Christ. Listen, if you are alive… you are no longer dead! What is always necessary for a resurrection to happen, is change in the DNA of the dead must take place! When you who were once dead in your offenses and sins were made alive with Christ, your spiritual DNA changed! You who were unable to love God, can now love Him. You who were once motivated by a malevolent spirit are now empowered by the Holy Spirit. You who once walked in step with the devil, now are able to follow Jesus. You who were blindly aligned with this world, now belong to the kingdom of God with the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, knowing the hope of your calling, while experiencing the boundless greatness of God’s power in your life (Eph. 1:18-19a).
What Paul is addressing in verses 3-4 has to do with the culture and pattern of your life in what you do and what you say. The sins listed in these verses have to do with, “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life” (1 John 2:16), that characterized Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden and every sin ever since. Against the backdrop of what is the root of sin, consider what Paul says here: “But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking, which are not fitting…”
The Greek word that we get “sexual immorality” from is “porneia” and is a word used to describe all forms of sexual sins. Sexual sins include any form of sexual sin outside of the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman such as fornication, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, or even lustful thoughts (Matt. 5:27-30). Why are sexual sins singled out here as those sins that must not even be mentioned among Christians? Because sex is designed by God to be shared exclusively within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman; we are told, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church” (5:31-32). This is why the Bible also commands: “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers” (Heb. 13:4).
It is not just sexual immorality that must not characterize the life of the Christian, impurity and greed must not characterize the Church either. The Greek word uses for impurity (akatharsia) is frequently used in reference to sexual sins but can also be used to describe sins as impure and obviously unholy. The type of greed referred to in these verses is the desire to take that which does not belong to you. Remember that the heart of sin is “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life” (1 John 2:16), and the fruit of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is sexual immorality, impurity, and greed. In verse 5, Paul warns us: “For this you know with certainty, that no sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, which amounts to an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” How does committing these sins fall into the category of idolatry? Think about it, all sexual sins make a god out of sex where the one committing such sins involves participating in what is unholy by taking what does not belong to you, whether it is an image or another person’s body to make it your own out of a belief that that sexual experience will give you what God cannot give you.
Related to the sins we do with our bodies are the sins that flow out of our hearts and from our lips. This is why Paul continues in verse 4, “…there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking” from the mouth of the Christian. Jesus said of the heart that belongs to Him: “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil person out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart” (Luke 6:45). If you have been born again, if you have gone from spiritual death to spiritual life in Christ, then the DNA of our dead spiritual corpse has been changed to the living DNA of Jesus Christ! This is why the Bible has such strong things to say about such sins!
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:9-11)
Paul is not saying that we will never sin, but what he is saying is that those of us who are truly alive with Christ, walk in a way where the pattern and culture of our lives does not include ongoing sexual immorality, impurity, greed, filthiness and foolish talk, and vulgar talking. We are alive in Christ and no longer bow down in worship to the idols of the world we live in. Our satisfaction comes from the God of the living and no longer from the prince of the spiritually dead; or as one commentator wrote: “Believers have a God more satisfying than sexual sin and greed, a God worthy of endless thanksgiving, a God who has given them a kingdom.”[1]
We who have been made alive with Christ, have not been saved for the kind of cheap and anemic happiness our world offers, but for a holiness only God can provide through a Jesus who can only satisfy. Our purpose is to worship God, not to live for cheap substitutes. It is because of our new life in Christ that we are able to live lives characterized by a thankful heart.
Perhaps some of you have fallen into patterns of sin characterized by the verses we have studied this morning. Let me leave you with an invitation by our Lord Himself and a prayer for us all.
First, Jesus’s invitation to you who feel stuck: “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light” (Matt. 28-30).
Second, a concluding prayer from Psalm 130,
1 Out of the depths I have cried to You, Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice!
Let Your ears be attentive
To the sound of my pleadings.
3 If You, Lord, were to keep account of guilty deeds,
Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with You,
So that You may be revered.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And I wait for His word.
6 My soul waits in hope for the Lord
More than the watchmen for the morning;
Yes, more than the watchmen for the morning.
7 Israel, wait for the Lord;
For with the Lord there is mercy,
And with Him is abundant redemption.
8 And He will redeem Israel
From all his guilty deeds.
Amen.
