QUALITIES OF A NEW LIFE (PART 9)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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.

For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Ephesians 5:3, 5

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Sin is improper.

It’s improper for any person God has ever created but it’s especially inappropriate for Christians, those referred to as God’s holy people in today’s scripture verse, the 3^rd verse in Ephesians, chapter 5.

As we have seen in this series which began back in chapter 4, a transformation is expected anytime a person chooses to believe in Jesus. In his letter to the believers in Ephesus, Paul describes this transformation as putting on a new self. Earlier in the New Testament, we find the Apostle likening the transformation to a person becoming a new creation through belief in Christ.

The “new” in each of these discussions refers to turning away from living in accordance with the ways of the world, ways of iniquity that run in opposition to the way the Lord expects a person to live. Christians are to no longer behave the way they used to and as we see in verse 3, there are three specific things Paul calls the Ephesian Christians (and us) to eliminate.

First, a Jesus follower is required to turn away from sexual immorality.

Note that the Bible doesn’t say to not have sex. It is okay for a man and a woman in a marital relationship to have sex but that’s it. Any other sexual act is considered immoral and the scriptures command a Christian believer to not have a hint of sexual immorality show up in their behavior.

Look at the world and all you seem to see is sex permeating through every fiber of society. In fact, it has become so prevalent that people don’t even seem to see immorality when it is happening. This is because outside of living for Jesus, there is a belief that anything goes and all is permissible. As long as it makes you feel good, do it.

Our Lord doesn’t prescribe to that practice. A life of transgression is a life lived as His enemy because the very sin that people decide to commit liberally, sin that includes sexual immorality, is the sin that led Him to sacrifice His Son on Calvary’s cross to bring salvation to a lost world, a world full of sinners who had fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

For this reason, the Lord calls those who trust in Jesus as Savior to be pure, to set themselves apart from the world by putting on a new self free from sexual depravity. They are also to turn from greed.

At its core, greed is a self centered ambition. It is self serving and uncharitable. It focuses on the me and mine, not the we and us.

Jesus was the antithesis of greed. Every single part of the world’s Savior was self sacrificing, so much so that He willing surrendered His own life so others could live.

Christians are to be like the man they are named after. They are to always be willing to place the needs of another ahead of their own. They are to see that everything they have, their time and talent and treasure, has been given to them for the purpose of furthering the expansion of God’s kingdom here on earth and to bring glory and honor to Him in every way through the process.

Shedding behavior that is sexually immoral and eradicating an attitude of greed from oneself.

These are two other qualities expected of someone who puts on a new self through Christ Jesus.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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