Clean Christians

“Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.” —Ephesians 5:1–7

The city in which the church was found to which this letter was addressed abounded with iniquity of the vilest kind and it was therefore of great importance that the early Christians should be warned of the danger of following in the ways of those still in their sins, and it is just as necessary today. The human heart is unchanged and with all our veneer of civilization unmentionable vileness are practiced throughout the length and breadth of our land, enough to cause every Christian heart to shudder and make one feel the importance of living very close to the Lord Jesus Christ that we may be kept from these evil things.

Notice upon what the apostle bases the call to clean living. “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.” “Therefore,” that is, of course, because of what he has told us in the previous verses. He has told us that God for Christ’s sake has forgiven us, that God thought enough of us to send His only begotten Son in the world that we might live through Him, that God was as in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing men’s trespasses unto them; but because those trespasses were imputed to Him, the Holy One, when He took our place and bore our shame, endured the judgment due to our sins, because of this, let us walk now in such a way as to manifest the gratitude of our hearts for so great salvation. “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.”

The word rendered, “followers,” really means “imitators.” “Be ye therefore imitators of God.” In what sense are we to imitate God? One thinks of a passage in the Old Testament where God said to His people, “ye shall put out of the camp of Israel every leper”—every one who hath any kind of a vile infectious disease, not only for the safety of those who were not yet infected; but the singular thing about it was that back in the Law, the reason given is this, “Because ye shall be holy, for I the Lord thy God am holy.” And as in the legal dispensation all physical uncleanness was looked upon as a thing accursed and not fit for the holy presence of God, so today all uncleanness of the flesh and spirit must be put away if we would walk in fellowship with the Holy One. To imitate Him in holiness of life, to imitate Him in purity of thought, to imitate Him in cleanness of speech as His dear children, children in whom He can delight;—this is what we are called upon to do.

You parents know how there are times when your own children, much as you love them, cause you sorrow and grief if they walk in disobedience, if they fall into anything that dishonors the family name, anything that grieves your heart, and so it is with God’s children. The least sin indulged in in the life of God’s children grieves the Holy Spirit. If we would be His dear children, in the sense of children in whom He can delight, we must walk before Him as imitators of God and “walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for sweetsmelling savor.” The reference here, of course, is to the burnt offering. In the burnt offering spoken of in the first chapter of Leviticus, we have the offerer coming to God with a sacrifice not merely because of any sin committed but because his heart is filled with thanksgiving and he wants to present something to God as an expression of his loving adoration. And so there is one aspect of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross that rises far above the mere meeting of our need, it has in view the glorifying of God in the scene where He had been so terribly dishonored.

The Lord Jesus said to His disciples on the last night on which He was betrayed as they sat with Him at the table, “That the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father hath given me commandment even so I do. Arise, let us go hence,” and He went out to die. Why did He endure that death upon the cross? His first object was the glory of the Father. God had been so terribly dishonored in this world, He had been dishonored by the first man and all that had come after him, but here at last was a Man who walked this scene in absolute holiness. He said, “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30). And to do the will of God, He went to that cross. He went there to settle the sin question for us, but above everything else it was to show that at least one man had been found to whom the glory of God meant more than anything else, to whom the will of God meant more than any personal desires that He Himself might have had. And so in Gethsemane’s garden we hear Him saying, “Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt." This is the great Burnt Offering. He offered Himself without spot to God a sacrifice of sweetsmelling savor. But we are not left out. He offered Himself for us, a sacrifice of sweetsmelling savor to God for us. And since we have thus been redeemed what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversations and godliness.

It is always with a shock that the sensitive soul turns to the next verse, and is brought up against terms that speak of the vilest corruption of which the human heart is capable. This is given that we may realize that all these things must be judged if we would not walk with Him who has redeemed us to God. And so we read, “But fornication, and all uncleanness (impurity), or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints.” The world rendered “covetousness” does not refer here to greed for money. It is rather, sensual greed. It is the vile, disgusting greed for sensual gratification, the vilest thing of which the human heart is capable. Is it possible that saints of God need to be warned against these things? Yes, because in every believer there is the same corrupt nature that there is in the man or woman of the world. It is true that the saint has received a divine nature and the Holy Spirit of God has come to dwell in him, but nevertheless, he must always watch against the least activity of that old nature lest he fall into sin through not judging its first motions toward that which is evil.

“Fornication, and all uncleanness (or sensual greed).” These things are in the very air around us. Modern literature is full of them, and the worst of it is that they glory in their vileness. But some say, “Well, our modern writers at least are very frank, they show up sin as it really is.” Yes, frank enough in the way they speak of it, disgustingly so, and yet they seem to throw a halo about it as though these unclean things are so natural to human beings that no one need to be ashamed of them. And the world is fast getting to the place our Lord Jesus Christ predicted it would just before His second coming. He said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man,” and, “as it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man.” The days of Noah were days of great corruption and violence. The days of Sodom and Gomorrah were days of unmentionable vileness, and we are living in very similar times. All of our boasted civilization has not changed the tendency of the human heart one iota and the child of God is to guard against every evil tendency. The first approach to it is always in the mind and so He warns against impure thoughts. We are not to indulge in thoughts that are impure. We are to guard against lust of every description. Can you think of any greed more dreadful, more vile, more disgusting than that which would lead one to plot the ruin of an innocent young girl’s life? It would break the heart of parents who have tried to bring up a precious daughter in the right way, if one came in and sought to turn her away from the path of goodness and purity. Can you think of anything more dreadful than an attempt to break up a happy home by coming between husband and wife, turning one or the other aside from the path of rectitude and right? And yet these things about everywhere. This is the greed about which the apostle warns us. The pathetic thing is that people look with such indifference upon these things.

Walking along the street in a certain city some time ago, right in front of me were two young women evidently out for their lunch hour. They were speaking so loudly that it was quite impossible not to hear all that they were saying. In the most frivolous way they were discussing one of these wretched triangle affairs, and the one said to the other, “Well, you know, I have great respect for So and So. When she found out that she was in love with him and that his wife did not care for him anyway, she went to her and said, ‘Look here, you don’t want your husband; I do. You give him a divorce and I will take him off your hands.’ “I think that was splendid,’” said the other girl. What is society coming to that young women in their early twenties have such low, disgusting, vulgar ideas of marriage. The impurity of the times, the uncleanness of the days in which we live is felt everywhere you go. But Christians are called to be examples of the very opposite.

Notice what we read in verse four, “Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.” Every word here needs careful consideration. The apostle is not warning us against that bright, happy conversation which leads people sometimes to exchange agreeable thoughts and give vent to lively natural humor. He is not calling us to be long-faced, unhappy people who do not dare to tell anything that provokes an innocent laugh. In fact, I am rather afraid of these people who are so holy that they cannot laugh. A good, hearty laugh is a healthy thing. God meant man to laugh. That is the one thing that distinguishes him from all the other creatures. Until scientists can find a monkey who can laugh, they will never find the missing link! God rejoices over His people and laughs in scorn when men think to thwart His will. The apostle is thinking here about something against which every Christian needs to be on the guard. He has warned against these sins and now he says, “Let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints.” It is even defiling to talk about it, even to pass on the news that other people have fallen into those things. If as servants of God we have to do with these things, we find it necessary to get into the presence of God in prayer, for they leave their effect upon the heart and mind.

“Neither filthiness,” that is, indecency—do not talk of indecent things. “Nor foolish talking,” which really means buffoonery, making a jest, talking like a fool about unclean things. You know people who do that, people who jest of unclean things, people who think it bright, smart to use words of double meaning, words that bring the blush to the cheek of a beautiful Christian young woman or even trouble a right-thinking Christian young man. It literally means, “a fool’s talk,” and the man who talks this way demonstrates that he is a fool. The word “jesting” is really ribaldry” and is another word that implies in a deeper sense making jest of things that should never be talked about. Christians should be clean, Christians should be like their blessed Lord, clean in thought, in word, and in deed.

In place of these things, what should occupy the Christian tongue—“Rather giving of thanks.” There is a beautiful play in the Greek language that does not come out very clearly in the English. The word translated “jest” and the term “giving of thanks” begin exactly the same. The Greek for the one is eutpanovlia, the Greek for the other is, euxtapiotia. You can see how the apostle was just balancing the one word against the other. Not eutrapalia but eucharistia; that is, not ribaldry but thanksgiving, not vile talk but praising the Lord, not filthy conversation but that which brings glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. On one occasion I was attending  a conference of Christians and a number of us were guests at the home of a very devoted believer. As we gathered between meetings one day in the beautiful drawing room, a lady suddenly said, “Well, now, we will go out and help our hostess and get the dinner ready.” Possibly fifteen men were left together. A man who had just come in remarked, “Since the ladies have gone out, there is a story I got hold of today I would like to tell you.” Before any one else had a chance to speak, a friend of mine said, “Just a minute, brother, there are no ladies here, but the Holy Ghost is here and is more sensitive than the most fastidious lady. Is your story fit for Him?” The man was big enough to say, “Thank you, Mr. B—, I accept the reproof. I will never tell such a story again.” Remember, the Holy Spirit of God is grieved if believers stoop to any of the things mentioned here.

And now the apostle warns us that if any reject such instruction as we have here and live in uncleanness, they simply give evidence that they are not Christians at all. They are children of the devil wearing the livery of Christ. “This ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolator, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” Why does he couple idolators with these other things? Because this kind of a beast worships only himself. What does he care if he breaks other people’s hearts, what does he care if he wrecks young lives, breaks up homes; he must satisfy his own base cravings? He worships one god, that god is himself. It is absurd for a man like that to profess to be a Christian.

When I think of the stories that those of us who are ministers of Christ have to hear—of the hundreds of brokenhearted young women who have come to me and told the awful story of their betrayal, of the breaking down little by little of their higher ideals and the ruin that has come, I feel the greatest punishment that their betrayers could bear would be to have to listen forever to such stories and know that they were responsible for them. When I have had fathers and mothers come and sit weeping as they have talked to one who was once the joy of their home, the love of their hearts, and tell how she had been lured away into sin and their hearts were broken and they could no longer find the joy in their child they once did, I have said, “If these betrayers of innocent girls would only have to sit in the confessional and listen to stories of this kind year after year, it would be a fitting punishment.” And people like that profess to be Christians! “But,” you say, “they are sometimes in the church.” More shame to them, coming under the cover of the church and pretending to be what they are not in order to go on in their vile, sinful way! Christians ought to be clean, Christians ought to be pure because Christians are children of the Holy One, the Holy God.

“Be not ye therefore partakers with them.” While one may pray for them, yet there is to be no fellowship with them—no condoning of their vile deeds. They should be made to feel that they are unclean lepers until their sins are confessed and judged and they have given evidence of being delivered from them. God give us Christians to walk in love, that love which would ever preserve us from working any harm to any one else, that love which would lead us ever to seek the good of others and never in any sense their hurt, even “as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor.”

You may say, “But what if some have fallen into just such things, is there no hope?” No hope until the sin is judged, no hope until it is confessed, no hope until with earnest desire to be completely delivered from it they turn to Him who is the Holy and the True and cast themselves in penitence and faith upon His atoning work. Then, trusting Him, they will find that He gives them a new heart and a new life and makes them lovers of purity and goodness.

“Tell me what to do to be pure
In the sight of all seeing eyes.
Tell me, is there no thorough cure,
No escape from sins I despise;
Will my Saviour only pass by,
Only show how vile I have been?
Will He not attend to my cry,
May I not this moment be clean?
Oh, wash me in the blood of the Lamb
And I shall be whiter than snow.”