Ephesians

Reason Number 4: A Christian no longer has any excuse for indulging in sexual immorality.

Paul gives us the fourth of his five statements about the Christian and sexual immorality:

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. (Ephesians 5:6-10)

Paul’s argument is that all sexual misconduct is incompatible with Christianity because a Christian no longer has any excuse for indulging in it. He is not a child of ignorance anymore. He is not caught up in the web of deceit that is woven throughout our society. He is not self-deceived or brainwashed by the subtle propaganda of our age. He knows the truth about the God-given gift of human sexuality. So it is unthinkable that he should deliberately go back from light into darkness.

Notice how clearly the apostle draws this picture. If a person is born again by faith in Jesus Christ, he has been translated out of the kingdom of darkness, out of the power of Satan. He has been brought into the kingdom of light, into the power of God. This is the whole Christian gospel. So it is unthinkable that a Christian, who has been delivered from darkness and brought into the light, should turn his back on the light and return to the darkness.

The Christian should know that sexual misconduct will be the subject of subtle and deceitful propaganda. That is why the apostle warns, “Let no one deceive you with empty words.” We are being assaulted by a tremendous barrage of propaganda, all subtly designed to make us think that God’s moral standards are outdated and limiting. Most of our media—from books and magazines to films and television to music and advertising to the internet—are bent toward keeping our minds focused on immorality and illicit sex.

But the Christian knows what the world denies: Sexual sin evokes the wrath of God against the society that permits or encourages immorality. That is why Paul says, “For because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.”

As we discussed in Lesson 4: “The Work and Blessings of the Spirit,” the term God’s wrath is greatly misunderstood today. The wrath of God does not refer to God’s judgment coming down upon sinners as lightning bolts from heaven. It does not refer to the future Day of Judgment that the Scriptures foretell, because Paul makes it clear that this wrath is going on right now (see Romans 1:18). The wrath of God, as Paul speaks of it here, refers to the consequences that naturally arise when we misuse God’s gift of sexuality: broken and distorted relationships, broken families, emotional pain, anxiety, depression, jealousy, violence, and sexually transmitted diseases. These consequences are not caused by God’s deliberately smashing sinners beneath his thumb; they proceed in simple cause-and-effect fashion from the choices we make.