But fornication and all uncleanness or unbridled lust, let it not be even named among you, as it becomes saints;
Paul has just held up Christ's self-giving love as the pattern for the believer's walk. He turns straight to the ugliest sins of the body and of money. Why must these sins not merely be avoided, but never even mentioned?
Chapter 5 opens with a call to copy God and to love as Christ loved. Then comes a guard. Close warmth among believers carries its own danger.
Still, the sweeter and more blessed it is, the closer it stands to evil — unless divine power and self-judgment keep it. It brings people together. It awakens spiritual affections. But what begins in the Spirit may end in corruption of the flesh, as we see at Corinth... These lusts of the flesh were not merely forbidden; they were not even to be named. They were God's holy ones, saints; and the question now was what is fitting for saints, not merely for men.
The warning does not call for a joyless life.
There is danger even among the saints of God. The devil can come in and turn love between believers into a snare. He does this not only when we allow open evil to break out, but through the unjudged leaning towards it... The Lord in no way forbids the happy cheerfulness which He loves in His saints. He does not call us to be monks. That is man's way of keeping the flesh under restraint, and only another form of self. We may have self in a legal form and self in a lax form. Under any form it is not Christ, and the only thing which God values now is Christ.
The ban reaches past behaviour to conversation, and for a reason.
The things listed in verse 3 appeal to instincts rooted deep in man's fallen nature. We do well to avoid the things themselves, and also the contamination that comes from thinking about them. We cannot talk about them without thinking of them, even if we condemn them in our talking. Therefore let us not talk about them.
It also settles how sin should be confessed in public:
The apostle Paul's confession in 1 Timothy 1:13 is a model. It is not "sharing" but a confession meant to praise the grace of God in reaching such a sinner as he was. Notice that his confession does not go into indecent details. He speaks only of how he opposed God — his blasphemy against God's truth and the harm he did to His people. As for confessing sexual matters in public, Scripture emphatically forbids this.
Silence is not softness. Talking about these sins lightly makes them look small. Older translations render the ESV's "sexual immorality" as "fornication":
This means that we should not mention these things frivolously and so make little of them... The Bible does not use the word fornication only for prostitution. It covers all sexual relations outside marriage — even where the couple mean to marry, and even if it happens only once.
The third word in the verse looks out of place beside the first two. The Greek word is pleonexia, "to have more":
It is not limited to money, and it is often linked with open wickedness. The word means "desiring more than is necessary," and so "reaching out to grab." That is why it is applied to the lusts of the flesh. It is declared to be idolatry (Col. 3:5).
That is why greed and immorality keep appearing side by side:
Elsewhere (Eph. 5:3; Col. 3:5), and especially in the first passage, covetousness and fornication are spoken of together. Fornication really springs out of covetousness, as the tenth commandment had already taught.
The measure is not public decency but identity. The order matters: the walk flows from what believers already are.
Since believers are "called saints" (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2), their ways should be such as are suitable for saints... They are not called to become saints by a holy walk. They are urged to a holy walk because God's calling has already made them saints... How unfit it is for people set apart like this to walk in uncleanness! And how wrong for followers of Him who was rich, and became poor for our sakes, to be clutching at the riches of this world!
The title itself carries the duty. A saint is "one set apart for God," and Scripture assumes "there is a line of conduct that is fitting for saints" (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
- Position first. The verse follows the call to walk in love as Christ loved us. Holiness here answers grace already received; it does not earn it.
- Standard second. You do not become a saint by clean living. You live as what God has already called you.
- Scope third. Covetousness stands beside immorality. Both grasp for more than God has given, and Scripture calls that greed idolatry.
- Speech fourth. These sins must leave our talk, not just our conduct. We cannot discuss them without dwelling on them, so keep the details out of public.
- Balance last. Silence about filth is not gloom. The Lord loves cheerfulness in His people. Monk-like rules only dress up self; the one thing God values now is Christ.
and filthiness and foolish talking, or jesting, which are not convenient; but rather thanksgiving.
Paul has just warned against immorality and greed. Now he turns to how God's people talk. This verse is not about crimes but about conversation — dirty talk, silly talk, and clever talk. It does not only ban them. It names a replacement.
"Out of place" is a word about fitness. Older translations read "not convenient." One writer explains it and ties the whole demand back to who believers already are:
They are not called to become saints by a holy walk. They are urged to a holy walk because they are saints through God's calling. The apostle says these things "are not convenient" — that is, not suitable. … It is not only in deed, but in word, that believers are to act in a way that suits saints.
The three words in this verse are milder than the sins listed just before them. That is exactly the point — the warning follows the evil into its socially acceptable disguise, and then supplies its opposite:
He does not limit his warning to unrestrained immorality, or to the greedy desire for whatever pleases man. He extends it to unholy language too, whether openly shameful or hidden under a veil of refinement… Here again he brings in not only the absence of what is improper in the Christian, but the positive side as well: the heart turns to God's goodness, and that breaks out in thanksgiving.
At first glance the verse sounds like a ban on laughter. Commentators say it is not:
The Lord in no way forbids the happy cheerfulness which He loves in His saints. He does not call us to be monks, which is man's way of keeping the flesh under restraint, and only another form of self. Self can take a strict, rule-keeping form, and self can take a loose form. In any form it is not Christ, and the only thing God values now is Christ.
The test is a Person, not a rule:
In the presence of Christ we will find joking unsuitable. This does not mean that the one who walks in the light of God's face is unhappy. No cloud hangs over the joy of the person who is in God's presence. But such a Christian feels which things do not suit someone called to imitate God.
One writer explains why even "foolish talk" is banned. The mouth drags the mind with it, even when the speaker means to condemn:
Things like those listed in verse 3 appeal to instincts deeply rooted in man's fallen nature. We do well to avoid the things themselves, and also the stain that comes from thinking about them. We cannot talk about them without thinking of them, even if we condemn them as we talk. So let us not talk about them… A Christian is neither a fool nor a jester, so let us not appear as either in our conversation.
The hardest item to give up is the one everyone admires, and dropping it has a cost:
We will soon find that refusing to join in foolish talking and jesting will bring plenty of scorn, and make us a spectacle. A quick wit or a clever reply is a natural ornament! But harmless as it may seem to us, there is very grave danger of defilement lurking here.
The verse ends with an exchange, not a vacuum:
Scripture is positive as well as negative; if folly is not to flow from our lips, giving of thanks should. Happy occupation! The heart is so satisfied with divine grace, and so taken up with Christ, that out of its abundance thanksgiving wells up to Him.
The trade is not joy for gloom. It is one kind of happiness for another:
Nothing is truly pleasant to the Spirit but Christ. In a saint, joy in the Holy Spirit should take the place of the thoughtless merriment that is natural to us. We are to trade the mirth that so often leaves a sting for that pure and precious gladness in which God Himself has a part.
Guarding the lips is not enough. Speech only reports what is already in the heart:
What is the remedy? Here it is — a heart filled with the peace of Christ, the word of Christ, Christ Himself. Nothing else will do. We must begin with the heart. Where the heart is fully occupied with heavenly things, we will make very short work of every attempt at evil speaking, foolish talking and jesting.
- Fitting — "Out of place" means unsuitable. The standard is not a rule list but what suits people God has already called saints.
- Refined — The warning reaches past open filth to polished, witty forms of the same evil.
- Free — Cheerfulness is not banned. Life in God's presence is happy, and harsh self-denial is only self in another form.
- Costly — A quick wit is an ornament people admire. Laying it down brings scorn; keeping it risks defilement.
- Exchanged — Thanksgiving takes the empty place. It starts in a heart occupied with Christ, not in guarded lips.
For this ye are [well] informed of, knowing that no fornicator, or unclean person, or person of unbridled lust, who is an idolater, has inheritance in the kingdom of the Christ and God.
Paul names impurity and greed, and then calls greed idolatry. That raises two hard questions. Why is wanting more treated as worship? And what does it mean to have no inheritance in the kingdom?
Two different Greek words for knowing stand side by side in the opening phrase. One writer explains what each one adds.
In Ephesians 5:5 the true reading brings both Greek words for knowing together: iste (from oida) and ginoskontes. Knowledge gained from outside had passed into inward, conscious knowledge. It was what they were well aware of, and knew. In the way the words are used, that process could not run the other way.
The word covers something far more ordinary than theft — which is exactly what makes it dangerous.
Covetousness involves no dishonesty. It is not even hard or sharp dealing. It is no more than the desire for more — the very spring of modern effort, the drive to better yourself that everyone is urged to have, from the workman to the millionaire. So the creature becomes the object, not God; and so covetousness is called idolatry. It is man looking down, not up in dependence on God.
Why does Paul call a greedy person an idolater? One writer answers by defining what an idol is.
You do not need to bow down to a piece of wood or stone to be an idolater. Whatever commands the heart is an idol. Giving the heart to that thing is idolatry, and the one who gives it is an idolater… What is covetousness? It is either a desire to get more, or the love of what we have… But whether it is the desire to grasp or the desire to hoard, either way it is idolatry.
It is easy to read a list of sins as a description of other people. One writer turns the list back on the readers.
These are things for use. They are exhortations, not merely to apply to other people, to measure them by, but to take home to ourselves. They are for saints, not for the world. No doubt we find the evil warned against in the world. Our hearts ought to feel for those who will have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. But remember that the main purpose of the Holy Spirit was to warn and guard the saints themselves.
Some hear such a warning as a threat to the freeness of forgiveness. One writer answers by pointing to God's unchanging nature.
It is most important to remember this. Let sovereign grace do all it will. Let it reach the worst. Let it cleanse the most defiled. Still God's moral ways do not bend. His nature does not change. He hates and can never tolerate wickedness. His love may find — and has found — a glorious solution to that difficulty in the cross of Christ. But God and sin can never walk or live together.
Does this verse put a believer's place in doubt? One writer answers by separating standing from conduct.
The believer is a joint-heir with Christ, for in Him "we have obtained an inheritance." But to have a part in the kingdom of Christ and of God, our character must suit it. Seen in Christ, we are already fit to share the inheritance of the saints in light. Here, though, the question is not so much one of standing as of conduct.
Another writer draws the line between a fall and a way of life:
A child of God may fall and commit some of these things, but no true believer will continue to live in them.
This verse looks ahead. It says both what such people will miss and what the kingdom will be like.
Those marked by uncleanness, covetousness and idolatry will not only miss the blessings of the coming kingdom of Christ and of God. Being disobedient to the gospel, they will also come under the wrath of God. Unlike this present evil world, the kingdom of God will be a place where love rules and lust is shut out. What will be true of the coming kingdom should mark the family of God today.
- Know it. Paul points to what the readers already know. Facts they were taught have become inward certainty.
- Name it. Covetousness is the desire for more. It needs no dishonesty, so it passes for healthy ambition.
- Face it. Whatever commands the heart is an idol. Grasping or hoarding, greed puts something in God's place.
- Own it. The warning is written to believers to guard them, not handed to them as a measuring stick for the world.
- Match it. Grace has not changed God's nature. The kingdom is where love rules and lust is shut out, and that future should shape life now.
Let no one deceive you with vain words, for on account of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Paul has just listed sins that shut a person out of the kingdom. He knows someone will always say it is not that serious. This verse calls that talk deception. Then it gives the reason God's wrath falls on a whole class of people.
The deception is not crude. It comes dressed as reasoning and learning. Its work is to make sin look appealing.
The apostle warns us not to let empty words deceive us. So men with their philosophy and science will excuse lust. They try to dress sin up in poetry and romance to make it look attractive. Even so, because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience. The "sons of disobedience" are those who have heard the truth but have rejected it.
One version of the empty words turns grace into a licence to sin. Paul answers it without a long argument.
Man's empty philosophy might indeed try to twist the teaching of grace into permission for immorality. But the apostle warns them against such corruptions of the truth... There is no need for a long argument. This teaching approves the very practices that bring God's judgment on the children of disobedience. Its emptiness is clear at once.
The phrase is not a label for one act. It is a family word. Some quotes here use the older wording, "children of disobedience."
Sons are those who show the typical or distinctive traits of their fathers. Scripture often uses this idea of a child standing for a parent in moral matters. So the "sons of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2) are those whose conduct shows disobedience as plainly as a son resembles a father.
Commentators differ on how wide the word "disobedience" reaches. Smith ties it to hearing the gospel and refusing it. Others read it as covering a whole way of life. One writer points to Saul, Israel's first king:
Here God explains the reason for His final judgment on Saul. It is the same reason as His judgment on every sinful man: disobedience and departure from God. And these are the very words we find again in Ephesians 2, the chapter that declares the sinner's condition of death: "sons of disobedience" and "without God in the world."
Those words matter. This wrath answers the sins Paul has just listed. It does not fall only on people who refuse the message about Christ.
We think it very unsound and dangerous to teach that people will only be judged for rejecting the gospel. "For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words: for because of these things [and not merely because of their rejection of the gospel] the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience."
The threat is not aimed at the believer. But the fact that such wrath is real is exactly what makes the next command urgent.
Men might deceive them with empty words. They might chatter about Christian liberty and anything else. But "because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." He is speaking, of course, of the world, and not of Christians. He does not threaten Christians with the wrath of God. At the same time, this wrath really does come upon the children of disobedience, and that makes the warning deeply solemn. Christians, therefore, must not be in any sense partakers with them. There must be the fullest possible separation.
So what about someone who claims to be a Christian and lives in these sins?
The firm and decisive way in which the Apostle draws the line in verses 5 and 6 is very striking. The kingdom of Christ and of God is marked by holiness. The unholy are outside that kingdom and subject to the wrath of God. There was to be no mistake about this. Then as now, some wished to blur this sharp line and excuse unholy living. Other scriptures show that a true believer may fall into any of these sins. But no true believer is marked by any of them. Whatever people say about themselves, no one marked by such sins should be counted a true Christian.
- Empty words — the lie is polished, not crude. Philosophy, talk of liberty, and grace turned into permission all make sin look attractive.
- Real wrath — no long argument is needed. The very things people excuse are the things God's judgment comes for.
- Real family name — "sons of disobedience" means people whose conduct copies disobedience the way a son resembles his father. It is a character, not a slip.
- Real deeds — the wrath comes "because of these things." God judges people for what they have done, not only for turning down the gospel.
- Real separation — God does not threaten His children with this wrath. Its certainty presses them to share in none of it. A believer may fall into such sins, but is never marked by them.
Be not ye therefore fellow-partakers with them;
This one-line command hangs on a single word: therefore. It looks back at the sins that bring God's judgment, and it asks what people who have been delivered from those sins should now do about the people who still live in them.
Paul has just said that God's wrath falls on the children of disobedience because of the sins he has been listing. Verse 7 draws the conclusion. One writer answers those who twist grace into an excuse for sin:
Human philosophy might try to twist the teaching of grace into permission for immorality. But the apostle warns them against such corruptions of the truth. There is no need for a long argument. You can see at once how empty such teaching is. These were the very practices that bring God's judgment on the children of disobedience. They had been in that condition themselves. But God called them out of it. How could He bear to see them walk in the very acts He delivered them from?
The word "them" points back to a named group. One commentator explains who earns that name:
God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all the unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18). It hangs above all over those who keep sinning against the holy light of gospel truth. Such people are called here the children of disobedience (or unbelief). True faith and willing obedience are one and the same in principle, and this shows it. Faith is an active principle, and works by love. Men hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ but do not receive the truth in the love of it. That is when they become liable to the special condemnation announced here.
The verse could have ended with the practices. It ends with people. That last word carries weight:
Whatever they claim to be, they have no part in the kingdom of God. So we, who have an inheritance in the kingdom, can have no part with them. This is what verse 7 so plainly states. Notice too that the last word of that verse is them. We are not only to avoid the sins, but also to avoid all participation with the sinners. The persons as well as the evils are to be avoided. The difference between us and them is as great and as distinct as that between light and darkness.
The warning is not theory. One commentator names the excuse people use, and the places these things reach us today:
People may assume that because God is love, the grace of God is indulgent toward these sinful things, but it is not so. These very things are why the wrathful judgment of God falls on the children of disobedience (v.6). Will a believer let himself share in any way with such people? These things are so glaring today on radio, TV and in newspapers and magazines. Saints must be very careful and watchful against such contamination.
The refusal in this verse is not built on rule-keeping. It rests on what the believer has become:
You know that just doing what is right would never satisfy your renewed conscience. You must have the springs of action purified. It is what Christ has done that asks it of you. These unclean things, as I read in verse 3, do not suit saints. Am I to put uncleanness aside because it is uncleanness? No; I put it aside because it does not suit saints... I refuse to take part in uncleanness, because I was in darkness, but now I am transformed. I am a new creature, a child of light.
Refusing to share is where this passage starts, not where it stops:
It is not enough for our souls to refuse to be partakers with the children of disobedience, as in verses 6, 7. We must have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even expose them (v. 11). It is all part of our wonderful place and responsibility as children of light. This is not law, which only condemns by a standard applied from outside. It is an inward divine capacity that searches everything. Love is its source and its end, yet it spares evil even less than law does, and it brings in good by the Holy Spirit in Christ.
- Cause. God's wrath falls on these very practices. To share in them is to stand where judgment lands.
- Called. Believers were once in that condition. God called them out, and He will not bear to see them go back.
- Company. The verse ends with them — the people are to be avoided, not just the sins.
- Character. The refusal flows from a new nature, not a rulebook: once darkness, now a child of light.
- Continue. Not sharing is only the beginning. The light also exposes the works of darkness, and brings in good.