Remain Sexually Pure
. . .
Understand the Lies the World Tells
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
Ephesians 5:6-10
It is amazing to think that the Apostle Paul has completely flipped the world of the Ephesian Christians in just a few short sentences.
Paul has been defining a lifestyle that is completely foreign to the one that they have known. They've been called to a life of truth telling; one of problem solving that excludes sinful anger; one of tenderness and forgiveness. In all, a life of love.
Last week we looked at how the Apostle laid out a sexual ethic that stood in great contrast to the culture at large. It is amazing to think that in such a short amount of space he has completely countered everything that was familiar.
Especially with the new sexual standards that they are to abide by, you can imagine how difficult Christmas dinner would be with the rest of the family. Grandma and Grandpa, who are your old timer pagans. Mom and dad are, of course, people of their time. They are your typical Artemis worshiping family. Your uncles and aunts, cousins, and siblings are all in the different trades which are offering their pinch of incense to Caesar and the other gods each day. They are the ones advocating and embracing the different sexual practices that you now have disavowed.
Needless to say, the family gatherings are going to be different.
Actually, there may be a new question that may arise in your mind. Being that you are to be so different and your lifestyle is to be so radically antithetical, the question that you may ask is this: “Should I even mingle with these people on a day to day basis?” Since my life is supposed to be so holy and at variance with almost everything that surrounds me, maybe it would be better to cloister myself off in a little monastery and segregate myself from everyone else. That way I will not be infected by the evils that they wish to espouse and we can be more apt to pursue this holiness of which Paul speaks.
Well, in this section of Scripture Paul puts the squash on that kind of thinking. He knows that the Christian walk is alien due to its standards. But it is not one of retreat. Paul knows that such a life is not only forbidden, it is impossible.
So the question becomes, what must we do? How do we live in this secular society? Being that we are rubbing shoulders with unbelievers and having to mix with them on a daily basis, how exactly do we do that?
Paul answers that with one simple sentence. It is in verse 6, “Let no one deceive you with empty words.”
Obviously, this has to do with the sexual purity to which he has just been speaking. We are not to be deceived into thinking that these kinds of perversions he has listed are in anywise okay. As he had said before, these are not to even be named among you.
But this idea of not being deceived is the guiding principle for our life in this world. We are to continue to go to these family gatherings. We are to continue to mingle at the workplace. Unbelievers will be a part of our lives. And instead of running from them, we are called to exercise discernment. We need to understand that the key to our holy living will be our ability to detect the lies and keep from being duped by them.
Which leads us to our passage. What Paul does in the verses before us is answer some of the leading lies that are advanced against us. Obviously, if we should not be deceived, then it is good that we be familiar with some of the more common deceptions that are out there. And what he does is give the answer to the top 4-5 arguments that are commonly advanced.
For instance, the number one argument that people use when it comes to normalizing sexual deviance is what you might call the pragmatic argument.
I. Argument #1 - The Pragmatic Argument
The pragmatic argument looks at the outcome of things. And they will say that its all rather harmless. As we mentioned last time, there are people out there who will say, “what does it matter? What harm will it do? If you have two consenting people doing what they please in the privacy of their own home who is it really going to hurt?”
And they will think that you are utterly absurd for taking such a strong stance against these practices. They will say that you are a prude and that you are just not in touch with the realities of the day.
But what does God’s word say in response to this? It answers with verse 6 and which says, “Because of such things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
They may like to try and dress it up with innocence and make all these practices sound harmless, but you can be guaranteed that this is a lie from the pit of hell. The fact of the matter is that it is incredibly dangerous. These vile things provoke God to anger and those who practice them will find themselves facing the fury of his displeasure. And there could not be anything more harmful than that.
Now, the commentators will say that the structure of this statement is such that you cannot determine when exactly this wrath comes. The verb “comes” is in the present tense. So there are some who say that it means that there are judgments that come in the present. Those would include some of the things that we mentioned last time: the emotional damage, the sexually transmitted diseases, the loss of meaningful relationships, the destruction of families, and so forth.
And it is true. Sexual deviance typically has consequences. Hollywood movies and television shows never show this. But you should realize that when you break God’s law (and especially the 7th commandment), there will be repercussions.
Others point out that the present tense can often be prophetical in its formulation. It can therefore stand for the judgment they will face at the end of time. Certainly, we know that some people may get along pretty well in this life. Their sins typically catch up with them, but we know that, even if God goes light on them in this world, they will not be able to skirt things in the world to come.
But we recognize this truth in the face of the lie. It doesn’t mater how many studies are done. It doesn’t mater how many times it is revealed that any kind of sexual deviation from God’s law carries with it painful repercussions. People will always use this tripe as a way of trying to fool you into thinking that God doesn’t know what he is talking about.
This is where we stand strong though. We understand that actions have consequences. And, when one makes a life of unrepentant sin, those consequences can be eternal.
There is another lie that the world will throw at us. And this is the lemming argument.
II. Argument #2 - The Majority Rules Argument
This is also called the majority rules argument. You know the story about the little lemmings. They all go rushing towards the cliff and jump off of it to their demise. And since all the other lemmings are doing it, why don’t you join them.
This mantra is repeated over and over. “Look around! Everyone else is doing it. Why don’t you jump on the bandwagon?”
And there is a lot of convincing evidence to this, is there not? Pornography is everywhere. Sexual promiscuity is so rampant that it is sold on the street corner. It doesn’t matter which television channel you turn on, you are going to find that sex sells. And every show and every advertisement is seeking to allure you into thinking that such temptations are completely normal.
Well, no matter how popular it is, you should realize that it is still wrong. And when they say that everyone is doing it, you can go to verse 7. While it may be all the rage, God says, “Therefore do not become partners with them.”
In other words, it doesn’t matter what everyone else is doing. There’s one person who isn’t doing it. There’s a group of people who are to make it their goal not to be indulging their lusts and fantasies. They are Christians.
So, in the face of the lemming argument, you say no. You are one who is supposed to stand against the crowd and not go along with them.
That’s what it means when it says “do not become partners with them.” You are not to partner with them in their fornication or their wicked practices. There’s no alliance to be had there. You are not to go along with them. The way you act is to be different. The way you think about such things is to be different. There’s no alliance to be had in those realms.
This is a good thing to remember because it is not always just the “crowds out there.” This argument is so convincing and so tempting because it often has to do with people who are close to us. It’s peer pressure. It’s your friends who want you to give in. It’s your co-workers who are the ones who are seeking to convince you.
Or maybe it is loved ones. Dear relatives. If you are a first generation Christian, you might be in the same boat as these Ephesian Christians and the ones arguing with you can be your own family members.
So you can understand that this is a strong argument. Go along with us. Don’t rock the boat. You don’t want to be a fool, now, do you?
This is where you must understand who it is you partner with. Do you partner with the world and the flood of humanity that is against God? Or are you in league with Christ?
Sometimes they say that one person with Christ on his side is still a majority. That’s a good way to look at it. But it may still seem like a minority. And this is where you can say, “I don’t care what the masses say. I rather be in the minority, if it means being on the side of my Lord and my Savior.”
So you have the pragmatic argument and the majority rule argument. A third argument is what we call the argument from antiquity.
III. Argument #3 - The Argument from Antiquity
This is when people say, “This is the way its always been done.” It’s old. Its historical. It is based on years and years of practice. As a matter of fact, we’ve done it this way for generations. Now, obviously, you should not even question that things should be done differently.
I can’t remember which politician it was. But years ago I heard a liberal politician trying to support the homosexual agenda by pointing to antiquity. This was back when the topic of homosexuals in the military was a big thing. Some of you may remember the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that came out of this.
But this politician said that in past cultures, there were warriors who fought alongside their gay lovers. And he argued that this made them better warriors. He went so far as to say they fought with greater zeal and tenacity because they were fighting for love, and not just for king and country.
Now, if he were really building a good argument from antiquity he would see that no culture that has promoted the homosexual lifestyle has been long lasting. They all wither and die rather quickly. And that’s because they do not have the moral grounding necessary to make them able to stand the test of time.
But that’s the kind of thing you will often hear. They will say that these things are time tested and you shouldn’t try to change things up. Don’t be all crazy about this chasity in singleness and fidelity in marriage thing. We know that ____ is as old as the earth itself.
Now, what do we say to that? Well, we answer with what is said in verse 8. Paul says, “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.”
This is the counter to the antiquity argument. It is the realization that God had done a new thing in you. So what if it has been practiced for millennia? It doesn’t matter if it has not changed from the beginning of time. The fact of the matter is that there has been a change in me! And because God has brought me out of darkness and made me light, that makes all the difference in the world.
Don’t you ever forget that some old things need to be stopped. Just because it is old, does not necessarily make it right. There can be some legitimacy to tradition and honoring the past; don’t get me wrong. I’m not for all out revolution.
What we do need to realize that God does intervene in people’s lives. He changes the course of history and makes the trajectory of our lives head in a completely new way. That’s what conversion is. You were once in darkness, but now you are light.
Now, verse 8 is special because it actually addresses two lies. We’ve just seen how it addresses the lie of antiquity. But I want you to notice that it also deals with what I call the “Mr. Smarty Pants” argument.
IV. Argument #4 - The Intellectual Argument
By that I mean that sometimes people will appeal to intellectuals to make their case. They will cite experts and say that “studies now show…” In other words, they will make an appeal to some sort of Ph.D. or high profile person who is supposed to be the new know-it-all. And this expert will say that this or that practice is perfectly fine.
Oddly enough, it doesn’t take much to be an expert in today’s world. Evidently, you just have to have a really nice Instagram account and be considered an “influencer.”
Take this article that recently was posted on the Huffington Post. It’s entitled, “6 Signs A Non-Monogamous Relationship Might Be Right For You.” I’m not going to read the article, but it’s obviously pushing an anti-Christian agenda. It’s saying that you may be one of those people who don’t fit into a traditional monogamous relationship. How do you know if monogamy is really for you?
Well, as you may guess, as it goes through its list of reasons, it cites various people who are supposed to be experts in the area of polyamory and sexual promiscuity. One of them is called an educator and one of them is a full time writer on the subject. Now, who can argue with such credentials? They are educators. They are writers. They are obviously people who are smarter than us.
And wait, there’s more. They even cite research that gives some credibility to this. Did you know that 32% of Americans say that their ideal relationship is non-monogamous! That’s according to a 2020 YouGov poll.
It’s obvious, right? People who are smarter than you have spoken. Therefore it is settled.
Well, it’s not settled. Because verse 8 has something to say to the experts. Actually, verse 8 settles it, because it is the expert on experts.
Look at that verse again. Notice what it says about light and darkness. “At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Light and darkness in the Bible stand for more than just good and evil. It stands for knowledge and folly. Light has to do with understanding. Darkness has to do with that which is irrational and absurd.
For instance, earlier in the book of Ephesians Paul talked about having your eyes enlightened. And in chapter 4 he talked about how their understanding was darkened. There you see that this light and dark theme has to do with knowledge or the lack of it.
So, really, Paul is saying that you are the expert. You are the one who is light. You’ve been enlightened.
And notice what it says about the unbeliever. In speaking about the unbeliever (your former way of life), it says you were darkness. It does not say that you were in darkness, but you were darkness. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones has said darkness was in you. Prior to being in Christ you were characterized by folly, irrationality, absurdity, and wickedness.
That just goes to show that the experts, in so far as they contradict Scripture, are fools. They are not experts. And we should not even bat an eye when they try to advance something that is flatly against what God says. They may be promoted as these great intellectuals, but they really aren’t. They are nothing more than pawns for Satanic activity.
So don’t be fooled by the appeal to supposedly smart people. They are not as enlightened as they may be said to be.
Thus far we've seen the...
Pragmatic argument - what harm will there be?
Majority rules argument - everyone is doing it!
Argument from antiquity - it’s always been done this way
Mr. Smarty pants argument - the experts say..
There’s one more lie that we should be aware of. We are commanded not to let anyone deceive us with empty words. And we would be at a loss if we did not remember the religious or spiritual arguments.
V. Argument #5 - The Religious Argument
Unfortunately, some of the greatest evils come in the name of religious people. And I am not talking about Hindos or Muslim people. I’m talking about people who profess to be Christian. They call themselves Christians.
They have books that appear in Christian stores. They are pastors and professors in religious institutions. But the problem is that they are advocating for things that are not Christian.
This was one of the problems in Ephesus. There likely was a group known as the Gnostics. They were a group of people who had mixed some of the Greek ideas with Christianity. In Greek culture it was popular to believe that the spiritual world was the idea world. And anything that had to do with the physical world was evil. What you wanted to do is escape the physical world and ascend to the ideal world.
What that oftentimes translated into was a rather dim view of this world and all things physical. This is why sexual immorality could be as bad as it was. Basically, what you did with your body didn’t matter. It was evil anyway.
There are still some remnants of Gnosticism that lurk in our world today. Anything that says that this world is bad and we should ditch it for the future, spiritual world is good is a symptom of that kind of thinking.
But there are other kinds of false teachers in our day. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of false teachers. We have a lot of religious people going around telling us that sexual immorality is not sexual immorality. Perversion is not perversion. Go ahead and sow your wild oats, experiment, don’t be afraid to throw off the old traditional views and try something new.
There is a lot of that. And, unfortunately, they will try to use the Bible to defend their positions. They will tell you that the Bible really doesn’t mean what you think it means and that the church has actually been wrong about its stance on these positions for hundreds and thousands of years.
They will say I studied this issue in depth for the last several years. I’ve looked at the original languages. And what I have come to find is that homosexuality is not really condemned in the Scriptures.
And this is where we need to listen to what verses 8, 9 and 10 tell us. Paul says that you need to “Walk as children of the light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.”
The word discern actually means “to prove.” And it comes from the financial world. How do you know that a coin is really gold. It looks like gold; its got the same color. But it may be a fake. So what you have to do is test it to make sure that it is legit.
And that’s what you must do when it comes to the teachings you hear. All that you hear shouldn’t be naively accepted. You need to test it to make sure that it is legit. It needs to be proven. You must use your discernment.
A false teacher will come along and say, “Here, you see this darkness, this is what you should follow. The darkness is actually light.”
That’s the lie that they will try to pitch. And you might think that, well, this person is a pastor. They have one of those robe things. They have all kinds of followers. They talk about Jesus all the time. They must know what they are talking about.
Paul’s words are, “Do not let yourself be deceived.” No matter how spiritual they look and sound, you have to be careful. You need to make sure their word is true to God’s word.
Conclusion
Now, you see what Paul has done. He has equipped you with everything you need to know so that you will not be deceived. He’s addressed the 5 top lies; the five top arguments used to advocate against what God wants regarding sex and sexuality.
And again, you see that we are not called out of the world. We need to be in the world, but not of the world. And the key to that is that we don’t get fooled by the world. We have a huge problem in the church today; so much of it has caved to the culture. That’s because they’ve allowed themselves to be duped by their lies.
If we are going to be different, it means we need to be discerning. And we can go forward because we are aware of their tricks. We don’t need to run away and hide. We just need to recognize the folly for what it is.
Paul has been defining a lifestyle that is completely foreign to the one that they have known. They've been called to a life of truth telling; one of problem solving that excludes sinful anger; one of tenderness and forgiveness. In all, a life of love.
Last week we looked at how the Apostle laid out a sexual ethic that stood in great contrast to the culture at large. It is amazing to think that in such a short amount of space he has completely countered everything that was familiar.
Especially with the new sexual standards that they are to abide by, you can imagine how difficult Christmas dinner would be with the rest of the family. Grandma and Grandpa, who are your old timer pagans. Mom and dad are, of course, people of their time. They are your typical Artemis worshiping family. Your uncles and aunts, cousins, and siblings are all in the different trades which are offering their pinch of incense to Caesar and the other gods each day. They are the ones advocating and embracing the different sexual practices that you now have disavowed.
Needless to say, the family gatherings are going to be different.
Actually, there may be a new question that may arise in your mind. Being that you are to be so different and your lifestyle is to be so radically antithetical, the question that you may ask is this: “Should I even mingle with these people on a day to day basis?” Since my life is supposed to be so holy and at variance with almost everything that surrounds me, maybe it would be better to cloister myself off in a little monastery and segregate myself from everyone else. That way I will not be infected by the evils that they wish to espouse and we can be more apt to pursue this holiness of which Paul speaks.
Well, in this section of Scripture Paul puts the squash on that kind of thinking. He knows that the Christian walk is alien due to its standards. But it is not one of retreat. Paul knows that such a life is not only forbidden, it is impossible.
So the question becomes, what must we do? How do we live in this secular society? Being that we are rubbing shoulders with unbelievers and having to mix with them on a daily basis, how exactly do we do that?
Paul answers that with one simple sentence. It is in verse 6, “Let no one deceive you with empty words.”
Obviously, this has to do with the sexual purity to which he has just been speaking. We are not to be deceived into thinking that these kinds of perversions he has listed are in anywise okay. As he had said before, these are not to even be named among you.
But this idea of not being deceived is the guiding principle for our life in this world. We are to continue to go to these family gatherings. We are to continue to mingle at the workplace. Unbelievers will be a part of our lives. And instead of running from them, we are called to exercise discernment. We need to understand that the key to our holy living will be our ability to detect the lies and keep from being duped by them.
Which leads us to our passage. What Paul does in the verses before us is answer some of the leading lies that are advanced against us. Obviously, if we should not be deceived, then it is good that we be familiar with some of the more common deceptions that are out there. And what he does is give the answer to the top 4-5 arguments that are commonly advanced.
For instance, the number one argument that people use when it comes to normalizing sexual deviance is what you might call the pragmatic argument.
I. Argument #1 - The Pragmatic Argument
The pragmatic argument looks at the outcome of things. And they will say that its all rather harmless. As we mentioned last time, there are people out there who will say, “what does it matter? What harm will it do? If you have two consenting people doing what they please in the privacy of their own home who is it really going to hurt?”
And they will think that you are utterly absurd for taking such a strong stance against these practices. They will say that you are a prude and that you are just not in touch with the realities of the day.
But what does God’s word say in response to this? It answers with verse 6 and which says, “Because of such things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
They may like to try and dress it up with innocence and make all these practices sound harmless, but you can be guaranteed that this is a lie from the pit of hell. The fact of the matter is that it is incredibly dangerous. These vile things provoke God to anger and those who practice them will find themselves facing the fury of his displeasure. And there could not be anything more harmful than that.
Now, the commentators will say that the structure of this statement is such that you cannot determine when exactly this wrath comes. The verb “comes” is in the present tense. So there are some who say that it means that there are judgments that come in the present. Those would include some of the things that we mentioned last time: the emotional damage, the sexually transmitted diseases, the loss of meaningful relationships, the destruction of families, and so forth.
And it is true. Sexual deviance typically has consequences. Hollywood movies and television shows never show this. But you should realize that when you break God’s law (and especially the 7th commandment), there will be repercussions.
Others point out that the present tense can often be prophetical in its formulation. It can therefore stand for the judgment they will face at the end of time. Certainly, we know that some people may get along pretty well in this life. Their sins typically catch up with them, but we know that, even if God goes light on them in this world, they will not be able to skirt things in the world to come.
But we recognize this truth in the face of the lie. It doesn’t mater how many studies are done. It doesn’t mater how many times it is revealed that any kind of sexual deviation from God’s law carries with it painful repercussions. People will always use this tripe as a way of trying to fool you into thinking that God doesn’t know what he is talking about.
This is where we stand strong though. We understand that actions have consequences. And, when one makes a life of unrepentant sin, those consequences can be eternal.
There is another lie that the world will throw at us. And this is the lemming argument.
II. Argument #2 - The Majority Rules Argument
This is also called the majority rules argument. You know the story about the little lemmings. They all go rushing towards the cliff and jump off of it to their demise. And since all the other lemmings are doing it, why don’t you join them.
This mantra is repeated over and over. “Look around! Everyone else is doing it. Why don’t you jump on the bandwagon?”
And there is a lot of convincing evidence to this, is there not? Pornography is everywhere. Sexual promiscuity is so rampant that it is sold on the street corner. It doesn’t matter which television channel you turn on, you are going to find that sex sells. And every show and every advertisement is seeking to allure you into thinking that such temptations are completely normal.
Well, no matter how popular it is, you should realize that it is still wrong. And when they say that everyone is doing it, you can go to verse 7. While it may be all the rage, God says, “Therefore do not become partners with them.”
In other words, it doesn’t matter what everyone else is doing. There’s one person who isn’t doing it. There’s a group of people who are to make it their goal not to be indulging their lusts and fantasies. They are Christians.
So, in the face of the lemming argument, you say no. You are one who is supposed to stand against the crowd and not go along with them.
That’s what it means when it says “do not become partners with them.” You are not to partner with them in their fornication or their wicked practices. There’s no alliance to be had there. You are not to go along with them. The way you act is to be different. The way you think about such things is to be different. There’s no alliance to be had in those realms.
This is a good thing to remember because it is not always just the “crowds out there.” This argument is so convincing and so tempting because it often has to do with people who are close to us. It’s peer pressure. It’s your friends who want you to give in. It’s your co-workers who are the ones who are seeking to convince you.
Or maybe it is loved ones. Dear relatives. If you are a first generation Christian, you might be in the same boat as these Ephesian Christians and the ones arguing with you can be your own family members.
So you can understand that this is a strong argument. Go along with us. Don’t rock the boat. You don’t want to be a fool, now, do you?
This is where you must understand who it is you partner with. Do you partner with the world and the flood of humanity that is against God? Or are you in league with Christ?
Sometimes they say that one person with Christ on his side is still a majority. That’s a good way to look at it. But it may still seem like a minority. And this is where you can say, “I don’t care what the masses say. I rather be in the minority, if it means being on the side of my Lord and my Savior.”
So you have the pragmatic argument and the majority rule argument. A third argument is what we call the argument from antiquity.
III. Argument #3 - The Argument from Antiquity
This is when people say, “This is the way its always been done.” It’s old. Its historical. It is based on years and years of practice. As a matter of fact, we’ve done it this way for generations. Now, obviously, you should not even question that things should be done differently.
I can’t remember which politician it was. But years ago I heard a liberal politician trying to support the homosexual agenda by pointing to antiquity. This was back when the topic of homosexuals in the military was a big thing. Some of you may remember the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that came out of this.
But this politician said that in past cultures, there were warriors who fought alongside their gay lovers. And he argued that this made them better warriors. He went so far as to say they fought with greater zeal and tenacity because they were fighting for love, and not just for king and country.
Now, if he were really building a good argument from antiquity he would see that no culture that has promoted the homosexual lifestyle has been long lasting. They all wither and die rather quickly. And that’s because they do not have the moral grounding necessary to make them able to stand the test of time.
But that’s the kind of thing you will often hear. They will say that these things are time tested and you shouldn’t try to change things up. Don’t be all crazy about this chasity in singleness and fidelity in marriage thing. We know that ____ is as old as the earth itself.
Now, what do we say to that? Well, we answer with what is said in verse 8. Paul says, “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.”
This is the counter to the antiquity argument. It is the realization that God had done a new thing in you. So what if it has been practiced for millennia? It doesn’t matter if it has not changed from the beginning of time. The fact of the matter is that there has been a change in me! And because God has brought me out of darkness and made me light, that makes all the difference in the world.
Don’t you ever forget that some old things need to be stopped. Just because it is old, does not necessarily make it right. There can be some legitimacy to tradition and honoring the past; don’t get me wrong. I’m not for all out revolution.
What we do need to realize that God does intervene in people’s lives. He changes the course of history and makes the trajectory of our lives head in a completely new way. That’s what conversion is. You were once in darkness, but now you are light.
Now, verse 8 is special because it actually addresses two lies. We’ve just seen how it addresses the lie of antiquity. But I want you to notice that it also deals with what I call the “Mr. Smarty Pants” argument.
IV. Argument #4 - The Intellectual Argument
By that I mean that sometimes people will appeal to intellectuals to make their case. They will cite experts and say that “studies now show…” In other words, they will make an appeal to some sort of Ph.D. or high profile person who is supposed to be the new know-it-all. And this expert will say that this or that practice is perfectly fine.
Oddly enough, it doesn’t take much to be an expert in today’s world. Evidently, you just have to have a really nice Instagram account and be considered an “influencer.”
Take this article that recently was posted on the Huffington Post. It’s entitled, “6 Signs A Non-Monogamous Relationship Might Be Right For You.” I’m not going to read the article, but it’s obviously pushing an anti-Christian agenda. It’s saying that you may be one of those people who don’t fit into a traditional monogamous relationship. How do you know if monogamy is really for you?
Well, as you may guess, as it goes through its list of reasons, it cites various people who are supposed to be experts in the area of polyamory and sexual promiscuity. One of them is called an educator and one of them is a full time writer on the subject. Now, who can argue with such credentials? They are educators. They are writers. They are obviously people who are smarter than us.
And wait, there’s more. They even cite research that gives some credibility to this. Did you know that 32% of Americans say that their ideal relationship is non-monogamous! That’s according to a 2020 YouGov poll.
It’s obvious, right? People who are smarter than you have spoken. Therefore it is settled.
Well, it’s not settled. Because verse 8 has something to say to the experts. Actually, verse 8 settles it, because it is the expert on experts.
Look at that verse again. Notice what it says about light and darkness. “At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Light and darkness in the Bible stand for more than just good and evil. It stands for knowledge and folly. Light has to do with understanding. Darkness has to do with that which is irrational and absurd.
For instance, earlier in the book of Ephesians Paul talked about having your eyes enlightened. And in chapter 4 he talked about how their understanding was darkened. There you see that this light and dark theme has to do with knowledge or the lack of it.
So, really, Paul is saying that you are the expert. You are the one who is light. You’ve been enlightened.
And notice what it says about the unbeliever. In speaking about the unbeliever (your former way of life), it says you were darkness. It does not say that you were in darkness, but you were darkness. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones has said darkness was in you. Prior to being in Christ you were characterized by folly, irrationality, absurdity, and wickedness.
That just goes to show that the experts, in so far as they contradict Scripture, are fools. They are not experts. And we should not even bat an eye when they try to advance something that is flatly against what God says. They may be promoted as these great intellectuals, but they really aren’t. They are nothing more than pawns for Satanic activity.
So don’t be fooled by the appeal to supposedly smart people. They are not as enlightened as they may be said to be.
Thus far we've seen the...
Pragmatic argument - what harm will there be?
Majority rules argument - everyone is doing it!
Argument from antiquity - it’s always been done this way
Mr. Smarty pants argument - the experts say..
There’s one more lie that we should be aware of. We are commanded not to let anyone deceive us with empty words. And we would be at a loss if we did not remember the religious or spiritual arguments.
V. Argument #5 - The Religious Argument
Unfortunately, some of the greatest evils come in the name of religious people. And I am not talking about Hindos or Muslim people. I’m talking about people who profess to be Christian. They call themselves Christians.
They have books that appear in Christian stores. They are pastors and professors in religious institutions. But the problem is that they are advocating for things that are not Christian.
This was one of the problems in Ephesus. There likely was a group known as the Gnostics. They were a group of people who had mixed some of the Greek ideas with Christianity. In Greek culture it was popular to believe that the spiritual world was the idea world. And anything that had to do with the physical world was evil. What you wanted to do is escape the physical world and ascend to the ideal world.
What that oftentimes translated into was a rather dim view of this world and all things physical. This is why sexual immorality could be as bad as it was. Basically, what you did with your body didn’t matter. It was evil anyway.
There are still some remnants of Gnosticism that lurk in our world today. Anything that says that this world is bad and we should ditch it for the future, spiritual world is good is a symptom of that kind of thinking.
But there are other kinds of false teachers in our day. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of false teachers. We have a lot of religious people going around telling us that sexual immorality is not sexual immorality. Perversion is not perversion. Go ahead and sow your wild oats, experiment, don’t be afraid to throw off the old traditional views and try something new.
There is a lot of that. And, unfortunately, they will try to use the Bible to defend their positions. They will tell you that the Bible really doesn’t mean what you think it means and that the church has actually been wrong about its stance on these positions for hundreds and thousands of years.
They will say I studied this issue in depth for the last several years. I’ve looked at the original languages. And what I have come to find is that homosexuality is not really condemned in the Scriptures.
And this is where we need to listen to what verses 8, 9 and 10 tell us. Paul says that you need to “Walk as children of the light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.”
The word discern actually means “to prove.” And it comes from the financial world. How do you know that a coin is really gold. It looks like gold; its got the same color. But it may be a fake. So what you have to do is test it to make sure that it is legit.
And that’s what you must do when it comes to the teachings you hear. All that you hear shouldn’t be naively accepted. You need to test it to make sure that it is legit. It needs to be proven. You must use your discernment.
A false teacher will come along and say, “Here, you see this darkness, this is what you should follow. The darkness is actually light.”
That’s the lie that they will try to pitch. And you might think that, well, this person is a pastor. They have one of those robe things. They have all kinds of followers. They talk about Jesus all the time. They must know what they are talking about.
Paul’s words are, “Do not let yourself be deceived.” No matter how spiritual they look and sound, you have to be careful. You need to make sure their word is true to God’s word.
Conclusion
Now, you see what Paul has done. He has equipped you with everything you need to know so that you will not be deceived. He’s addressed the 5 top lies; the five top arguments used to advocate against what God wants regarding sex and sexuality.
And again, you see that we are not called out of the world. We need to be in the world, but not of the world. And the key to that is that we don’t get fooled by the world. We have a huge problem in the church today; so much of it has caved to the culture. That’s because they’ve allowed themselves to be duped by their lies.
If we are going to be different, it means we need to be discerning. And we can go forward because we are aware of their tricks. We don’t need to run away and hide. We just need to recognize the folly for what it is.