Walking in Love, Purity, and Truth

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Walking in Love, Purity, and Truth

Ephesians 4:32-5:7

There’s a temptation for every believer: blend into the world around you, or pull away from it entirely. I’ve seen both, and neither one reflects what Scripture calls us to. The real question, the one I kept coming back to as I studied Ephesians 4 and 5, is this: what is a believer’s relationship to the world? If you are a child of God and you go out and live in this world, which you do, what does that actually look like? Paul gives us two answers in Ephesians 4:32 through 5:7, and they belong together even when they feel like they’re pulling in opposite directions.

The heart of this passage is that the gospel sets the standard — not just for how we get saved, but for how we live. “All that the gospel is asking is that we treat other people the way that we’ve been treated by God.” We have been forgiven completely, at great cost, with no shame. And on that basis, we are to forgive, to love, and to walk in holiness before a watching world.

Point One: Your Love Makes a Difference to the World

When I read verse 32 of chapter 4 — “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you” — what strikes me is the standard. Not just forgive, but forgive *as God forgave you*. That word “forgave” is a definite, completed act at a definite point in history. We can point to the cross, where our Savior cried “it is finished,” because He came to pay a debt that we owed and could not pay. And God forgave us completely, at great cost, and with no shame. I think about the prodigal son’s father — the Bible says he rose and ran to meet his son while the boy was still down the road. “Wherever you are this morning and whatever sin you are committing or have committed, we have a Father that’s willing to run and meet you.”

That same love is our model toward others. Romans 5:8 says God demonstrated His love toward us while we were yet sinners — rebels, enemies. And so I asked the room: do you need to love people who are your enemies, people who might hate you? “That’s our standard. That’s what the Bible says.” I shared the story of a missionary named Jim Childs, who lived in homosexuality for over thirty years before coming to Christ — largely because one woman just kept loving him and telling him about Jesus. She didn’t win him with sarcasm or condemnation. We must take a right position, but we also must have a proper disposition. The greatest thing a person trapped in any sin needs is not “stop doing that.” They need Jesus. And when they have Jesus, old things pass away.

Point Two: Your Personal Holiness Makes a Difference to the World

Here’s what puzzled me at first about this passage: why does Paul move from love straight into sexual immorality and impurity? But I told my wife on the way to church — love without light is just sentimentality. You don’t tell a child who wants to play in the road, “I love you, go ahead.” Love has boundaries. And those boundaries are holiness.

Verses 3 through 7 address two specific areas: our conduct and our communication. On conduct — and I want to say this graciously — God is not against physical intimacy. “God is the one who created sex. It’s a gift He has given mankind.” But the text goes after the wrong use of that gift. The Greek word *porneia*, where we get the word pornography, covers the full range of sexual sin named throughout the New Testament. And Paul says these things “must not even be named among you” — a continuous prohibition. Warren Wiersbe wrote in 1988 that “instead of the church holding a strong stance about morality and preaching to the world, the world is now preaching to the church.” That was 1988. These are serious days.

On communication — the “filthiness, foolish talk, and crude joking” of verse 4 — Paul says *instead, let there be thanksgiving*. I had to ask myself why thanksgiving is the opposite of sexual sin and covetousness. Then it clicked: sexual sin is wanting what you don’t have and shouldn’t have. Covetousness is the same — just the desire for more. “God’s remedy for wanting more is, why don’t you be thankful for what God’s given you now?” Don’t let anyone deceive you with empty words on this, as verse 6 warns. Proverbs asks, “Can a man bring fire into his bosom and not be burned?” My brother, my sister — if you bring fire into your bosom, you will be burned.

Discussion Questions

  1. The pastor described God’s forgiveness as complete, costly, and without shame, using the image of the prodigal son’s father running down the road. Is that how you picture God’s posture toward you — and does it shape how you forgive others?
  2. The conference illustration showed a gap between how believers felt toward the LGBTQ community (compassion) and how that community believed believers felt (condemnation). Where do you think that gap comes from, and what would it take to close it?
  3. Paul calls thanksgiving the antidote to both covetousness and impurity. How does a practice of gratitude actually guard your heart against wanting what you shouldn’t have?

—

If you’re here this morning, or reading this now, and you’re entrapped, tempted, or ashamed, I want you to hear this: “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, will cleanse you from all sin.” He forgave you completely, at great cost, and He will not rub your nose in it. Come to Jesus. Get a friend to walk alongside you. And if you’re reading this without a personal relationship with Christ, He loves you, He died for you, and He is willing to save your soul today. I would love nothing more than to show you from the Scriptures how that happens.

Ken FreireEphesians 4:31–32

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