Ephesians 5:1–7 · WEB Classic
1 Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance. 3 But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints; 4 nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate, but rather giving of thanks. 5 Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man (who is an idolater), has any 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 on the children of disobedience. 7 Therefore don’t be partakers with them.
Believers are to be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us. The family relationship precedes the imitation. We learn to act like the Father because he has received us as his children. Obedience grows out of belonging.
The pattern of love is Christ’s self-giving. He gave himself as an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance. The language recalls the offerings of the Old Testament and identifies the Father’s acceptance of Christ’s obedient sacrifice. Love is defined through what Jesus actually gave, not through whatever conduct someone happens to find affirming.
The offerings in Leviticus help explain the fragrance language. Leviticus 1 describes an offering presented to Yahweh and accepted before him, with its burning described as a pleasant aroma. The image is of an offering received with favor. Paul applies it to the Son who willingly gives himself for us. The cross is not a conflict between the Father’s holiness and the Son’s love. The Son’s loving obedience is the sacrifice the Father receives.
That gives “walk in love” a definite shape. The word cannot simply mean that we approve whatever desire someone presently wishes to defend. Christ’s love gives itself to rescue people from sin and bring them to God. We have to learn love from the act Paul names rather than attach Christ’s name to a definition we brought with us.
That makes love costly without making every demand from another person legitimate. Christ’s sacrifice served a holy purpose. Christian love does not require assisting someone in sin or allowing him to use our kindness as a tool for further harm. It seeks his good before God, even where that good includes an unwelcome truth.
Desires brought under Christ
Sexual immorality, uncleanness, and covetousness must not characterize the saints. Paul is not saying the subjects may never be named in instruction; he is naming them himself. He means they should have no accepted place in the conduct of God’s holy people.
Covetousness stands beside sexual sin because both can involve desire claiming what it has no right to possess. The covetous person organizes life around acquiring what he wants. Another person becomes an object, a possession becomes a source of ultimate confidence, and God’s claim becomes an inconvenience. Paul calls such greed idolatry because the desire has taken a place of devotion that belongs to God.
The instruction also addresses filthiness, foolish talking, and crude jesting, replacing them with thanksgiving. It cannot reasonably prohibit all humor. It condemns speech that delights in moral corruption and turns what should be treated truthfully into material for shameless amusement. We should be capable of recognizing the difference between laughing at human absurdity and training ourselves to find someone’s degradation entertaining.
Thanksgiving offers a different relationship to desire. Gratitude receives good things as gifts from God instead of treating life as a list of pleasures owed to us. A grateful person can enjoy what God gives without making enjoyment his master. That attitude reaches our speech because what we celebrate reveals what we value.
Empty words cannot remove judgment
Paul warns that the sexually immoral, unclean, or covetous person has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. The terms describe people in relation to the evils governing their lives, and verse 6 associates the judgment with the children of disobedience. Paul used that expression in 2:2 for the former realm in which his readers walked. The warning identifies the conduct belonging to that condemned order and refuses to make it compatible with the kingdom simply because someone gives it a religious defense.
Paul has already told these readers to stop lying, stealing, and speaking destructively. Believers can commit serious sins; otherwise those commands would have no work to do. He has also identified them as sealed with the Spirit for the day of redemption. The warning must be read with both statements in view. It neither announces that salvation expires with each failure nor permits the church to bless the very conduct it is commanded to abandon.
First Corinthians 6:9–11 gives a useful comparison. Paul names people whose conduct excludes them from the kingdom, then reminds the believers that some of them had belonged to those descriptions. They have been washed, sanctified, and justified in Christ and by the Spirit. The point is not that their former sins were mild enough to overlook. Christ has changed their standing and identity, and their conduct must correspond to that change. Ephesians likewise contrasts the old realm of disobedience with the life of God’s beloved children.
Repentance is agreeing with God about the wrong and turning from it. It belongs to faithful Christian living, but it does not purchase forgiveness again or keep Christ’s redemption in force. A believer confessing a cruel act is not submitting a renewal application for salvation. He is admitting a wrong done by someone who belongs to Christ and taking responsibility for the obedience, restitution, or repair the situation requires. His security rests upon Christ’s finished work and God’s promise. That security gives him a reason to stop hiding.
A person struggling against sin may fail repeatedly while grieving what he has done and seeking help. Someone defending sin attempts to make the Lord’s command the problem. The distinction matters pastorally, but it does not give the church an infallible view of either person’s spiritual history. We call the struggling person to trust Christ and obey, and we confront the defiant person’s excuses. Neither should be offered a harmless allowance of immorality or told that repentance makes another installment on the price of redemption.
Verse 7 commands believers not to become fellow participants with the disobedient. Participation is a real danger, and the conduct belongs under real judgment. When someone professes faith while openly refusing Christ’s authority, the church must call him to repentance and faith rather than assure him that a past religious moment makes his present rebellion safe. A believer’s sin can bring discipline, damage relationships, and harm the people around him. Eternal security does not make those consequences imaginary, and Paul’s warning does not make Christ’s saving work temporary.
Empty words attempt to dissolve the warning. They can sound sophisticated, compassionate, or impressively theological while still telling people they need not take God seriously. Paul says wrath comes upon the children of disobedience because of these things. The church must refuse participation in the conduct and the excuses that protect it. Grace teaches us to leave what Christ died to forgive.