Ephesians

Reason Number 5: A Christian cannot preach against immorality while indulging in it.

Paul gives us the fifth of his five reasons why Christianity and immorality are mutually exclusive:

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:

“Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:11-14)

Sexual immorality is incompatible with the Christian faith because the Christian is commanded to expose the true character of sexual sin. How can you expose what you are engaging in? That is not just inconsistent, it’s hypocrisy! The church of Jesus Christ is directed by the Holy Spirit to be a source of biblical truth on matters of sex.

In 1 Timothy 3:15, Paul calls the church “the pillar and foundation of the truth.” Only the church is qualified to teach the world the true nature of sex. We are commanded to unmask the false sexual values of this age and reveal God’s truth about how sex is to be expressed within marriage. We are not just to shun immorality—what Paul calls “the fruitless deeds of darkness,” but we are also to expose those deeds for what they are.

How do we expose sexual sin? Not by denouncing it—the world is unimpressed by people who go around denouncing sin. What makes an impression on the world? People who live the truth and exemplify God’s wholesome, beautiful plan for marriage and human sexuality. We expose error not by screaming about the error but by illuminating truth with the brilliant example of our lives, lived in healthy, holy obedience to God.

Paul concludes with a wake-up call: “This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you’” (Ephesians 5:14). Keep your minds and hearts alert. Hold fast to the Word of God, to the truth as it really is, and Christ will give you light. Then let your light shine! Live the truth and speak the truth. Speak it boldly. Yes, talk about sex—the kind of sex life that God designed and intended for each of us. Expose the darkness by shining God’s truth out into this morally dark world.

God does not call us to retreat to a monastery or a convent somewhere. He calls us to live out a Christian code of morality and sexuality in a pagan and perverse world. As Paul tells us in Philippians 2:15, God calls us to live “so that [we] may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which [we] shine like stars in the universe.” What a challenge! What a clarion-call to holy living in a world of deceit and sin!

Friend in Christ, this is an important subject and we must regard it with all seriousness. We are being engulfed on all sides by a tidal wave of sexual propaganda designed to undermine the foundations of morality and Christian faith. Christians must take a bold stand in obedience to God’s moral law, both in their words and in their lifestyle before the world.

History shows that when the gospel of God’s grace penetrates a society, even in the midst of the most depraved sexual practices, islands of purity and Christ-like love have formed and spread, touching entire cities, and ultimately transforming the sexual practices of empires. This is where the power of the church lies—in the willingness of its people to obey the Word of the living God.

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