A Stirring Summons to Purity, Part 2

In the Christian life, belief and behavior go hand in hand, or at least that's how God designed it.

But given our sinful nature, convictions are often inconsistent with our conduct, and the results are devastating. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll continues a message he introduced yesterday, in which he cites a stern warning that's recorded in Ephesians chapter 5. Using very strong language, Paul instructed his friends to remain consistent with their belief and behavior.

No matter your age or marital status, these principles apply to us all. Chuck titled his message, A Stirring Summons to Purity. Paul's whole approach when he gets to the fourth chapter of Ephesians is to turn from the subject of belief, that's chapters 1 through 3, to behavior, chapters 4 to 6. And his favorite word for behavior is the four-letter word, walk. Walk. Walk in a manner worthy of your calling. He says it right out of the chute in verse 1 of chapter 4. Verse 17 of chapter 4, don't walk any longer as the Gentiles walk.

He goes back beyond the cross, he goes back to the days of the lost condition of his readers, and he says you Gentiles walked in that manner, and then he even spells out the reasons that did that, and how it worked its way out, including verse 29, unwholesome words that are not to be a part of your vocabulary. I mentioned that specifically because today's thoughts in chapter 5 tie in to that one description in chapter 4 verse 29. But the point here is the Apostle is saying I want your behavior to be in league with your beliefs, and now that we have established what is right to believe regarding salvation, chapters 1, 2, and 3, let me help you now know how to walk, chapters 4, 5, and 6.

Wonderful letter. Now if that's not enough to motivate you, look at his opening line of chapter 5 verse 1. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children.

Mimic God. In fact, it's reasonable because we're God's children, like father, like son, like parent, like children. Our father is God.

He is our Heavenly Father, so it stands to reason as beloved children we are to carry on our lives with the characteristics that are true of him. He's good. Let's be good. He's kind. Let's be kind. He's just. Let's be fair. He is holy.

Let's be pure. He is full of grace. Let's demonstrate and live out grace. He is righteous. Let's think clearly about that and demonstrate righteousness, and the list goes on and on. In fact, the Apostle mentions one that you would expect. He so loves this word and has written more on it than any of the other writers of the scriptures. Walk in love.

He's back to his word again on behavior. Walk. Walk in love just as Christ loved you. Here his example is an earthly example. He comes from the father with whom some would have difficulty identifying, and he turns to the God-man, Jesus, who left heaven and took upon himself human flesh and lived on this earth a little over 33 years, modeling the life of God.

And what characterized him? Two things. One, self-sacrifice, and second, a fragrant life, a fragrant aroma. Now, why would anybody who names the name of Christ want to live a self-centered life and give off a foul stench rather than a fragrant aroma? Why would anyone of faith, any follower of Jesus, want to live inappropriately?

Well, let me teach you a little theology and then let's use this passage as to give you another answer to that question. Why? When you were lost, you lived under the domination of your old nature. Your carnal nature controlled you. Your heart was filthy. Your mind was dirty. Your tongue followed suit.

It was obscene. Your eyes focused on that which was wrong rather than that which was right. You loved to disobey, and you had no power to change the above. You came to the cross and you realized Christ died for me. He paid the penalty for my sin, a life that I deserve and a death that I really should own.

He took for me. And by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, I take his righteousness, which I haven't earned. It's grace, remember.

And I have now access to his power, which I didn't have before. The problem is I also bring into the Christian life this old nature. Unlike what Charles Wesley taught, we have a nature that stays with us. We will sin until the day we die. Hopefully not as often, or as grossly, but we will still fail. Becoming a Christian means that we have been forgiven. It doesn't mean we have been perfected, except in our position.

In our horizontal life, we still have the old nature. If your arm is broken and someone who is with you in the emergency room tells you about Christ and you receive the Lord Jesus, you come to Christ but you bring your broken arm with you. You don't suddenly have an arm that's healed.

I mean, it just doesn't work like that. You bring that broken arm with you, you come all the way to the cross and beyond because you have an old nature that will never get any better. It never will be what it should be until the Lord takes you home. It's like the old hymn, then we shall be what we should be, then we shall be what we would be, things that are not now nor could be soon shall be our own.

Sounds like a tongue twister. It's a grand hymn, then we shall be where we should be, then we shall be what we should be, things that are not now nor could be because of this old nature soon shall be our own. But we're not there yet. We're not glorified. So one of the reasons that we behave wrongly is we have an old nature. However, we no longer live under its domination.

It doesn't rule. The cookie jar can be there and the aroma can be smelled from the cookies, but you really don't have anything to worry about as long as you rely on the power that is within you, the Holy Spirit, who will never lead you into sin. So there is this constant seesaw, this constant yo-yo. Which one will you listen to?

Which one will you rely on? You rely on the flesh, you'll yield. You rely on the Spirit, you will walk in victory. A second reason that these things happen is because we have formed habits and we like to return to them for pleasure. I realize that I'm talking to people who are not gutter drunks. I am not talking to people who are living debauched, godless lives. I'm talking to people who are living next to the cookie jar.

And because they smell so good, and because more people than ever in our generation are enjoying the cookies, it is our tendency to let down our resistance and to yield. This passage says, don't go there. Now, the but that begins verse three is a very eloquent, contrastive particle, if you will.

It's contrasting what has just been said with what is now being introduced. Walk in love just as Christ loved you and gave himself up as a sacrifice, as a sweet smelling aroma. But, but, on the other hand, there is another lifestyle that is always going to be available and I command you, I say to you, don't even let a hint of it be in your life. Guard against this.

Guard against the erosion. But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. And there must be no filthiness, silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. Let's back off and briefly address these six particular subjects that are brought to our attention. Immorality, impurity, greed, filthiness, silly talk, coarse jesting. Fair enough?

Let's take the first two together. Immorality, which is the word porneia, obviously we get pornographic from it. Pornography, it's a broad word. May have in mind adultery. May have in mind fornication. May have in mind the fantasies that are fed from the old nature that lead to such, at least mentally. It would be broad enough to include that because the word impurity is added.

Acatharsia is this word. And when I bring these words to your attention, I might add that you may be surprised to know that not until Christ came on the scene did the secular world really see sexual immorality as wrong. Did you know that? It was expected that men would have their mistresses, and they did. No one told them it was wrong because it was not believed it was wrong, certainly not in the first century era of the Greeks. The worship of certain idols carried with the worship the quote sacred priestesses who serviced the worshiper. They were prostitutes who engaged in immoral acts with those who worshipped the god. Some of the gods were multi-breasted to emphasize fertility and the pleasure of illicit sex.

They would not have called it illicit at all. It was interwoven in the society. Homosexuality was not that uncommon even among the emperors who had their boys. Perversion was a part of lifestyle in the first century. It was extreme. It was uncontrolled. It was expressed.

It was not simply degrading thoughts but a whole corrupt lifestyle. It was all part of the Roman world. Paul is writing to the people of Ephesus, some of whom lived in it before the cross. And so he is addressing the behavior of the Christian as being altogether different from the pagan lifestyle of their past. So he gets specific.

This kind of writing would have never been found among the intellectual secular writer of that day, or any writer from the pagan world. This is unique truth, even in the day in which it was written. When you mention greed in this context, verse 3, I take it to mean more and more and more of the sensual, the never satisfied, self-centered preoccupation with illicit sex, which comes in any form. Advertisements. Our culture is turning in that direction more than ever. I was watching a Calvin Klein advertisement between a particular sports program that Cynthia and I were looking at. And this particular advertiser was helping us become aware of an aroma of a fragrance called obsession.

Perfect. And here is this very seductively dressed woman and this man who I'm not sure had obsession on his mind, certainly not the fragrance when he is with this woman. And the language of the advertisement, the allurement of the setting, the breezy soft conditions, the music, all of it lended itself to the sensual mind. And you could read, you could undress them in the process of being exposed to the advertising of obsession. I was sitting in a restaurant several weeks ago and there was a little card on the table put there by that restaurant said, let us help you have your affair next weekend. And it described how the rooms are private and what the rooms provide.

And I'm sure if you confronted anybody who was running that hotel restaurant, they would say, oh, business has their business affairs that go on here all the time. That's what we, but the innuendo is clearly moving toward the sensual and it feeds you with that. And it makes you feel comfortable with that.

That's Paul's concern that the erosion that happens in this kind of setting might lose its edge and you might be tempted to take the cookie and think little of it. After all, everybody's doing it. The old English poet Alexander Pope put it so well, vice is a monster of such frightful mean that to be hated needs but to be seen. But seen too often familiar with his face, we first endure then pity then embrace. When is the last time you blushed at a movie?

When was the last time you turned a program off? Because that's just going too far. Now, if that isn't enough, he goes a little further and talks about filthiness. It's translated filthiness here. The same word. Look at verse 12 is translated disgraceful.

See that in 5 12. It is disgraceful. Same Greek word. Look at Colossians 3 and verse 8, a third use or translation of the same root term, 3 8. Put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. There it is again, abusive speech.

Back to Ephesians 5. It's a reference to dirty talk. That's the colloquialism for it today. Talking dirty. Not necessarily or not only profanity, but the the innuendo of words that have that kind of meaning that move in that direction. The next term is called silly talk.

Look at that. Morologia. We get the word moron from the first part of the word.

Logia is the word from logos, which is all the words logos, which is a term or a word or verbiage. Moronic verbiage. Silly talk.

Interesting colorful Greek word. It means pointless and unnecessary talk. In this context it would be unnecessary dirty comments.

Shaded words. It's not referring to those who are intellectually deficient, but those who are morally debauched. Silly talk. Obscenities. Silly talk. Coarse jesting.

Look at that. There must be no filthiness, silly talk, or coarse jesting. That word means turning something that is said or done no matter how innocent into something suggestive, sensual, or immoral. You want an example? Any late night entertaining talk show host.

You got it. Most of the humor is below the waist humor. Most of it revolves around that which is immoral, indecent, degrading, or just plain moronic. But you know the problem? It's hilarious.

Okay? It's all right to chuckle at that. We won't judge you for that. I sometimes think, why in the world am I laughing at it? And why do I tolerate that? Now I have people write me and say, you know, your sense of humor. Have you ever read Ephesians 5 and verse 4?

Yeah. And you need to know before you decide to write me about that that I live with the purest woman since the virgin Mary. I have a built-in conscience that in case the Spirit of God falls down on the job, she is there to help out. And it's good.

Who knows where I'd be if it weren't for that great lady. But you know what? Having said that and been vulnerable enough to admit that I do love a great sense of humor, this has nothing to do with a great sense of humor. This is all about coarse and vulgar stuff.

I don't need to explain it any further, do I? You know there is great humor. In fact, the Lord gave us laughter.

We're the only animal, only creature he made that has real guttural laughter based on intelligent information. And we just can laugh our hearts. And it is emotionally healthy. It is even spiritually uplifting.

Listen to three verses. Proverbs 17 22, a joyful heart is good medicine. Proverbs 15 13, a joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but when the heart is sad the spirit is broken.

Proverbs 12 25, anxiety in a man's heart weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad. If I could be honest with you, if I could change one thing about the Christian world today, I would give it a better sense of humor. We all take ourselves much too seriously. Some of you have been hurt and abused and broken in your life and in the process you have become humorless.

It's not attractive. So this is not about a sense of humor. This is about taking that which could otherwise be just left alone and innocent and turned into something dirty. Some people have the ability to do that regardless of the subject. That's the problem.

And it all revolves around the subject of sex. That's the context. Do you notice the end of verse four and does it bring a question mark to your mind? Why does he end the verse like this, but rather giving a thanks? What does that mean? When you read your Bible and you come to a section or a couple of three words that somehow flag, I call them the words that flag, they send up a flag in my mind.

The flag words, you need to think them through. There must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting, but rather giving a thanks. Thanks for what? What's it about?

Listen to me. Who created sex? Our Heavenly Father who gave it to the first couple that he married and he told them right out of the shoot, he said, I want you to multiply and to fill the earth and subdue it. I give you the pleasure, the joy of intimacy which can be enjoyed between the two of you and the implication is not with anybody else. So the giving of thanks is the giving of thanks to God for the gift of sex as he has put it together in its beauty and joy and innocence between a couple who is married. I came across a wonderful book called The Mystery of Marriage by a Canadian named Mike Mason. He wrote back in the mid-1980s this wonderful paragraph.

Just listen, concentrate with me, think through it. What can equal the surprise of finding out that the one thing above all others which mankind has been most enterprising and proficient in dragging through the dirt turns out in fact to be the most innocent thing in the world? Is there any other activity at all which an adult man and woman may engage in together apart from worship that is actually more childlike, more clean and pure, more natural and wholesome and unequivocally right than the act of making love? For if worship is the deepest available form of communion with God then surely sex is the deepest communion that is possible between married human beings and as such is something absolutely essential to our survival. Great writing. What a risky statement to put in a book.

And we are so enamored with the dirtiness of sex that it's all we can do to bring ourselves to put it on the level of the same word as pure and fun and beautiful and right. We're midway through a message from Chuck Swindoll called A Stirring Summons to Purity. This study in Ephesians chapter 5 will continue on Monday's edition of Insight for Living. To learn more about this ministry visit us online at insightworld.org. Now Insight for Living Ministries has produced a number of resources to help you grow in God's grace. For instance Chuck wrote a devotional that includes 365 daily reflections for the new year. It's called Good Morning Lord Can We Talk? And additionally we've created a flip calendar designed to hold a prominent spot in your home or office. It's called Quotable Chuck Daily Insights from the Pulpit and both resources will become a welcome to the new year and either one would make a thoughtful Christmas gift as well. To purchase the daily devotional and the flip calendar go to insight.org slash store or call one of our friendly staff members.

If you're listening in the U.S. call 1-800-772-8888. And then just before we sign off and the weekend begins all of us at Insight for Living are praying this study in Ephesians inspires you to become an agent of God's grace in a world that's craving to feel a touch of His kindness. 2020 will go down in history as a year filled with uncertainty, fear, and even hostility. Because Jesus has broken all barriers through His sacrificial death on the cross it's all the more reason to become a people of grace. In that spirit we're inviting you to join us in taking God's message of grace all across our country and even around the world through Vision 195. The majority of your gift is applied right here in North America where you hear Chuck's teaching and then a small amount is all that's needed to carry Insight for Living beyond our borders. To give a donation today call us if you're listening in the United States dial 1-800-772-8888 or just go to Insight.org. Join us again Monday when Chuck Swindoll's study called Becoming a People of Grace continues right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message A Stirring Summons to Purity was copyrighted in 2000, 2001, and 2009 and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.