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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\\u2019s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person\\u2014such a person is an idolater\\u2014has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God\\u2019s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. \\xa0Therefore do not be partners with them. (Ephesians 5:3-7)

Something needs to be cleared up in this section before we can hear the whole. \\xa0In our present moment, it has been claimed\\u2014usually based more on 1 Corinthians 6:8-11 than this text of similar language\\u2014that indeed, those guilty of sins of a certain sort (especially of the deviant sexual kinds) will not inherit the kingdom of God. \\xa0

So we must be careful here to unite the text before us with the wider interpretive framework of the scriptures that we hold to from our Reformed tradition. \\xa0In the first portion of this text, Paul is speaking of particular sinful acts, like sexual immorality, greed, and coarse joking. \\xa0But in the middle of the text, he pivots to talking about people who are defined by nothing more than these acts. \\xa0

So, here\\u2019s the important corrective note to keep in mind when you read the \\u201cwill not inherit the kingdom\\u201d texts like this one: for those who are in Christ\\u2014no sinful act can ever again define them. \\xa0What defines us now is Christ: his salvation, his cross, his love, his grace, his life. \\xa0Though our acts still be as filthy rags, stained daily by sin until the day we die, even so, as Christians, we are declared righteous in the eyes of God. \\xa0Saints. \\xa0Not because of what we have done\\u2014but purely because of what Christ has done for us. \\xa0

Remember yesterday\\u2019s text that sets up the text before us today where Paul says we are \\u201cdearly loved children.\\u201d \\xa0Or again from the opening verse of this text where it reads \\u201cGod\\u2019s holy people\\u201d\\u2014this word that Paul has used throughout Ephesians shows up here once again: Saints. \\xa0The name for \\u201choly people\\u201d is \\u201cSaints.\\u201d \\xa0This, in Christ, is who you are. \\xa0It is the only thing that can now define you. \\xa0Sin cannot. \\xa0And while God\\u2019s wrath does indeed come on those who are disobedient, thanks be to God: we are covered by the obedience of Christ who bore God\\u2019s wrath for us\\u2014as if we \\u201chad never sinned nor been a sinner\\u201d (HC A 60). \\xa0We are safe from God\\u2019s wrath now\\u2014we are saved\\u2014because we are God\\u2019s holy people, his children, his saints. \\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0

OK then, so why does Paul set up this contrast in a letter to the \\u201cSaints in Ephesus\\u201d if \\u201cidolator\\u201d and \\u201cimmoral\\u201d are no longer descriptors that fit their case? \\xa0Well, because Paul is inviting the Ephesians, who themselves used to be defined by these things and who still living amidst a sin-broken culture that is defined by these things, to live like the new creations\\u2014the saints\\u2014that they have become! \\xa0

It is not a command that says: \\u201cstop being who you are.\\u201d \\xa0It is a command that says: \\u201cdo not partner with the world around you.\\u201d \\xa0It is a command that invites the Ephesian saints to become more fully who they already have become in Christ. \\xa0And in Christ\'s own life: was there any hint of sexual immorality, impurity, greed, obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking? \\xa0Of course not! \\xa0Neither should there be any hint of these among those who are called to be imitators of Christ\\u2014because he didn\\u2019t do that sort of thing. \\xa0

If we are to inherit the kingdom of God\\u2014and as God\\u2019s dearly loved children, you had better believe that we are\\u2014then we ought to aspire to act like it. \\xa0The models for our imitation are no longer to be the immoral, impure, greedy, or idolatrous people around us who aren\\u2019t inheriting the Kingdom. \\xa0No, we are now princes and princesses of the King, we are set apart\\u2014of royal blood\\u2014and so we are to imitate Christ who is the King, and live like our family name of \\u201cChristian\\u201d calls us to. \\xa0Let the way of the Kingdom begin to shape us into the people of the Kingdom that in Christ we already are. \\xa0

Is this a simple task? \\xa0Not at all. \\xa0Will we do it perfectly? \\xa0Of course not. \\xa0But we press on, because Christ goes before us\\u2014defines us\\u2014and it is to him that we belong. \\xa0And so our prayer:\\xa0

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:17-21).

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