Set Free from Sexual Immorality (Ephesians 5:3)

Is real freedom from sexual sin actually possible for a Christian? In a culture saturated with sensuality and sexual confusion, many believers wonder whether true purity is realistic or if constant struggle is simply inevitable.

In this Bible study from Ephesians 5:3, Nathan Johnson explains Paul’s powerful command that there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among God’s people. Discover why the early church viewed holiness in this area as essential to Christian life and how the gospel provides real power to walk in freedom, integrity, and purity.

If you are seeking biblical clarity about sexuality and want to understand how Jesus Christ sets believers free to live holy lives in a sensually saturated culture, this study will help you see both the seriousness of the call and the hope of true transformation.

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Key Passage: Ephesians 4:1-3

Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
– Ephesians 4:1–3

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Footnote Reference ⁽¹⁾

You Do You

• ChatGPT – The cultural statement “you do you” means that someone should be true to themselves, follow their own desires or preferences, and not worry about what others think. It’s a way of expressing encouragement for personal authenticity and individuality. Essentially, it suggests that a person should live their life in a way that feels right to them, without being overly concerned with societal pressures or the opinions of others.

• I am my own “standard” for life, pleasure, fulfillment, and rightness of behavior

• Judges 17:6, 21:25 – … every man did what was right in his own eyes.

• Proverbs 21:2 – Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but Yahweh weighs the hearts.

Not Even a Hint

• Ephesians 5:3– … must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints …

• NOT modern church thought – “don’t talk about it”

• Ephesians 5:3 (NIV) – But among you there must not be even a hint … 

• Ephesians 5:3 (NLT)– … Such sins have no place among God’s people.

• There should not be a speck, a hint, a drop of poison (sin) in our lives

• Tension: sanctification – so as God reveals specks, we need to be quick to repent and continue to live by the grace of God … but you don’t have to continually live with the junk of the world in your life – there is hope, freedom, and victory in Christ Jesus!

• Do not justify or excuse sin – take sin seriously 

• We are not to live like unbelievers … for they are not going to inherit the Kingdom of God and their lifestyle represents a different kingdom

• 1 Corinthians 6:19–20– Or do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

You CAN live the victorious Christian life!

• 2 Corinthians 9:8– And God is able to make every grace abound to you, so that in everything at every time having every sufficiency, you may have an abundance for every good deed …

• Romans 8:37 (NJKV) – Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

• Jude 1:24–25– Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

• 1 John 5:4–5 – For everything that has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the overcoming that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

• 1 Corinthians 15:57 – … but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

• 2 Corinthians 2:14 (NKJV) – Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ …

• Also see: John 10:10; 16:33; Romans 6:14; 12:1–2; 16:20; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 5:17;  Galatians 2: 20; 5:16–17; Colossians 2:15;  James 4:7; 2 Peter 1:3–4;

• We must live above reproach to such a degree that even outsiders (unbelievers and those who seek to hurt or undermine us) would have no ability to spread rumors or accuse us of anything ungodly (i.e., the life of Daniel)

Not a Hint … in 3 Specific Areas:

Sexual Immorality (Fornication)

• SEXUAL IMMORALITY (porneia) – sexual immorality, fornication, unchastity … it is a broad term covering any sexual sin*—any sexual acts outside the boundary of covenant marriage between one man and one woman (including but not limited to: prostitution, promiscuity, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, and incest)

• the verb form of porneia (the noun) is porné (prostitute)

• FOUND: 26x in NT (always as “sexual immorality”)

• 43x OT (used for the action of Tamar with Judah; what God rescued Israel from (Ezekiel 16); etc)

• First word in sentence … front loaded with importance. 

• Early church emphasis on having to give this up to be a Christian.

• Roman culture (everything permissible and encouraged)

• Saints, Temples, and their Prostitutes

• To be a “holy one” (saint) in ancient culture often referred to someone who worshipped the gods, which included engaging in sexual rituals with temple prostitutes. Paul turns this on its head and says a “holy one” (saint) is one who is given to the one true and living God, and Him alone … and does not engage in any sexual activity outside of the covenant marriage.

• Acts 15:19–20 – [Jerusalem Council] “Therefore I judge that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from sexual immorality and from what is strangled and from blood.

• 1 Corinthians 6:13b – Yet the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

• Galatians 5:19–21 – Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

• Colossians 3:5–7– Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

• 1 Thessalonians 4:3–5– For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God …

• Peter Thomas O’Brien – In contrast to the loose living that prevailed in the Hellenistic world, New Testament (and in particular Pauline) teaching required unconditional obedience to the prohibition against ‘fornication’ (note Paul’s warnings to the Corinthians: 1 Cor. 5:1; 6:12–20; 7:2; 10:8; 2 Cor. 12:21). // Peter Thomas O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999), 359.

• Walter L. Liefeld – Of all the areas of life that can be ruined by sin, it is sad that the most intimate relationship, the sexual—with all its potential for beauty, joy and fulfillment—is so vulnerable, so easily ruined and so prone to bring public disrepute. // Walter L. Liefeld, Ephesians, vol. 10, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997), Eph 5:3.

Impurity

• ALL (pas) – every; any and every kind

• IMPURITY (akatharsia) – impurity, uncleanness, immorality, defilement, filth, refuse, vileness, foulness

• ah-kath–ARE-see-YAH

• it’s the opposite (Greek prefix “a” – the complete lack) of “clean” or “pure”

• Literally: “the lack or absence of cleanliness or purity”

• The word is rather broad in its application, and seems to take in whatever is left over beyond pornea.**

• FOUND: 10x NT (interesting that in 8, maybe 9 (1 Thes 2:3), of them it talks specifically about impurity/sexual immorality … but in Matthew 23:27 it is about “uncleanness” (filth) in the “whitewashed” lives of the Pharisees … 

• Matthew 23:27 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”

• everyone thinks you are holy, pure, righteous, and godly … but inside you’re full of death

• Tony Merida – … when Paul says “any,” it should not be limited to sexual sin (cf. 4:19). It basically means we should live lives of pervasive holiness, following the command, “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Pet 1:16). // Tony Merida, Exalting Jesus in Ephesians (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 122.

Greed

• GREED (pleonexia) – greed, to covet, insatiableness, avarice, consuming ambition; the excessive and immoderate desire of acquiring more and more of something (typically wealth)

• av-ris

• While we often correlate greed with wealth or property, in Paul’s day the concept of greed (pleonexia) “expressed the idea of being insatiable, not being able to be filled or satisfied.” And can be applied to every area of life.***

• FOUND: 10x NT (Romans 1:28–32, *29: Ephesians 4:19, 5:3; Col 3:5; 2 Peter 2:14) … interesting how many times greed/covetousness is linked with sexual immorality

• Also see Luke 12:32–34; 1 Timothy 6:6; 6:9–10; 6:17

• Tony Merida – … few think the topic [of greed] applies to them. … no one has ever confessed, “Pastor, I think I may be greedy” or “I think I love money too much.” Why? Is it because no one is guilty or because we are not “watching out” for this blind spot? I think we know the answer. In materialistic cultures greed is the air breathed. We must seek to put this idol to death. // Tony Merida, Exalting Jesus in Ephesians (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 123–124.

The Heart of the Problem

• Mark 7:20–23 – And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

• Matthew 5:27–28– “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

• The emphasis is on the heart – the issue is not “out there” and I allow it in … rather it is already in me and I demonstrate it outwardly (actions)

• Your outward actions is merely a reflection of your heart.

There is hope and freedom from sexual sin!

• Ezekiel 36:26 – “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

• God can change the heart!

• 1 Corinthians 6:9–11– Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

• F. F. Bruce – But the fact that they still have to be warned against such vices shows how strong, in a pagan environment, was the temptation to indulge in them even after conversion.  // F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984), 371.

• 1 Corinthians 10:13–14– No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

• Colossians 3:5–7 – Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

• Jude 1:24 – Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy …

Identity, Preferences, and Passions

• Regardless of what your past has been, regardless of what your current struggle may be, regardless of where you have placed your identity or what attracts you sexually … there is hope and freedom available for YOU in Christ Jesus!

• Christopher Yuan – Chastity in singleness and fidelity in marriage. // Christopher Yuan, Holy Sexuality and the Gospel (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2018).

• Romans 1:16– For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes …

• The Gospel is powerful enough to deal with and transform our sexual deviancy!

Repent, Believe, and Surrender

• Romans 12:1–2 – Therefore I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect.

• 1 Corinthians 6:19–20– Or do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

• Mark 1:15 – [Jesus] “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Live by His grace

• 2 Corinthians 9:8– And God is able to make every grace abound to you, so that in everything at every time having every sufficiency, you may have an abundance for every good deed …

FOOTNOTES

(1) A

Photo Credit: Kevin Carden

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In Our Next Study Together …

I invite you to join me on this journey from the book of Ephesians to discover God’s eternal purpose, His plan for your life, and learn how to practically live out an abundant and fruitful Christian life. 

• The focus of our next study: Ephesians 4:7
  • We are going to dive into the concept of Jesus giving us the gift of grace and what purpose His grace serves in our lives.
  • I encourage you to read through Ephesians a couple of times this week and focus specifically on Ephesians 4.