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.