Immorality, Impurity, Greed

Good Morning,

Ephesians 51-7 (NIV)
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 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.

These verses point out some of the things that run rampant in today's world that we ought not to do...even among Christians. I guess the best starting point would be that which many of us DON'T do, that Paul says we OUGHT to do: "Be imitators of God." Yes, that's a tough one and something that all of us need to work on, I'm sure. I've not yet met anyone who is 100% an imitator of God and His goodness and love. But we should be trying to be such imitators and be working on ourselves along those lines on a daily basis. I think we can all agree on that. Will any of us truly succeed? Probably not. But that doesn't mean we should give up the trying.

Then we go on and read those things we shouldn't have in our lives: sexual immorality, any kind of impurity, greed, obscenity, foolish talk, course joking. Paul says that these things, these behaviors, are improper for God's holy people and are out of place in our lives. But let me ask you here, do you have any of these behaviors or traits in your life? Even, perhaps, just a little bit? Now the answer for most of us would be that we do, at least some and at least sometime. We look at things we shouldn't, we do things we ought not to do, we have at least a little bit of greed, we use improper language, talk foolishly, and pass along crude jokes. Of course, not all of us are guilty of all of this all of the time. But we have to admit that some of us are guilty of much of this some of the time.

What we read here is a warning to us that we need to be on guard against such behaviors and simply not take part in them when we see it going on around us. "For this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person-such a man is an idolator-has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." Pretty strong words here, I think. But so very true. The fact is that a little bit of immorality leads to more and more. A small taste of impurity puts us on a path to constant impurity. Even just a small amount of greed can put us on a road to where money is the ultimate and total goal. Immorality, impurity, greed...they become idols for our lives just as surely as the golden calf was to the Israelites wandering in the desert.

What we read today is: Beware! Be careful! Be on guard! Not for just some of us or a few of us or even many of us. No, this is for ALL of us

Love, peace, and blessings,

David