Sermons on Ephesians 5:3-7
The various sermons below read Ephesians 5:3–7 as a tightly connected pastoral argument in which Paul's commands about speech and behavior, his warnings about wrath and loss of inheritance, and his pastoral exhortations function together to form the church. Common threads: warnings are treated as means of sanctification rather than contradictions of justification; the community must shape language so sin is not normalized; thanksgiving and humble speech are offered as the positive practice that replaces crude, trivializing talk; and the Spirit’s sealing is invoked as the mechanism that makes warnings both urgent and preserving. Nuances emerge in emphasis — some preachers highlight Paul’s rhetorical movement (command → warning → exhortation) and the hinge of “inheritance/kingdom,” others offer a close syntactic reading of verse 4 that reframes it as an explanatory gloss, and several draw different pastoral lines between naming sin solemnly and excluding persistent sinners from fellowship.
They differ sharply in tone and pastoral prescription. One strand leans into a familial, almost disciplinary rhetoric of wrath and visible boundary-maintenance—cataloguing sexual immorality, uncleanness, covetousness, and coarse jesting as behaviors that should not be tolerated in the body—while another stresses pneumatological assurance, arguing that sealing by the Spirit guarantees preservation so warnings are pedagogical, not threatening to justified believers. Some treat “not even to be named among you” as a qualified prohibition about manner (don’t normalize or joke about these sins), others read it as a stronger warrant for exclusion; some make thanksgiving the central corrective habit, others prioritize explicit boundary-setting and repentance. That divergence—assurance versus exclusion, syntactic redefinition of verse 4 versus pastoral cataloguing, formation of speech versus enforcement of holiness—forces the preacher to choose whether to foreground doctrinal assurance, communal discipline, liturgical formation of grateful speech, or...
Ephesians 5:3-7 Interpretation:
Living as Saints: The Call to Holiness(Desiring God) reads Ephesians 5:3-7 as a sustained Pauline argument that warnings about wrath and exclusion from the kingdom sit squarely within, and do not contradict, justification by faith alone; the sermon emphasizes Paul’s rhetorical move from command (don’t let these be named) to warning (such people have no inheritance) and then to pastoral exhortation (do not become partners), arguing that the warnings function as means of sanctification God uses to preserve genuine believers — the preacher repeatedly frames the tension (sealed by the Spirit vs. threatened with wrath) and resolves it by insisting that true justification issues in sanctification (those truly justified will be preserved and glorified), using the image of wrath as an almost familial, inevitable reaction to disobedience to underscore why Paul threatens rather than silences the church.
Transforming Speech Through Thanksgiving and Humility(Desiring God) offers a close-syntactic and functional interpretation of verse 4: it proposes that the awkward "and" and missing verb indicate verse 4 is not a new command but an explanatory gloss on verse 3 — Paul means “don’t let these sins be matters of joking; rather, cultivate thanksgiving” — and the sermon reads the vice of foolish/crude talk as rooted in two forms of pride (insecure jocularity that hides weakness and brash wit that seeks self-exaltation), arguing that thanksgiving (as the fruit of humility and Spirit-filled life) is the positive replacement for speech that treats shameful sins lightly.
Speaking Truthfully: Navigating Sin as Saints(Desiring God) interprets “not even to be named among you” as a qualified prohibition about the manner of naming: Paul forbids speaking of sexual immorality, impurity, and covetousness in ways that normalize, approve, or make them ordinary (casual, approving, or trivializing language), not an absolute ban on discussing them; the sermon insists Paul models a careful way to name sins — solemn, non-normalizing, and kingdom-aware speech — and locates Paul’s ethical category of what is “proper among saints” in how the community frames language about vice.
Living in Holiness: Warnings and Assurance in Christ(Desiring God) interprets the paragraph as a tightly structured ethical argument: the three imperatives (don’t let these be named; don’t partner with such people; let thanksgiving replace crude joking) are tied to the doctrinal claim that those who persist in these vices “have no inheritance,” and the preacher stresses Paul’s pastoral intent — warnings function as Spirit-wrought means of sanctification for those genuinely sealed, not as threats that undercut assurance; the sermon adds the analytic point that Paul’s use of “inheritance” (and its contrast with “kingdom”) is the hinge of his pastoral theology in the passage.
Living as Sacrifices: Embracing Transformation in Faith(SermonIndex.net) reads the passage as pastoral boundary-setting: Paul’s commands are practical markers of what a church should permit and what it should refuse to normalize, and the sermon unpacks each term (sexual immorality, uncleanness, covetousness, shameful speech, foolish talk, coarse jesting) in moral and pastoral detail, arguing that Christians should not be comfortable in the fellowship if they persist in these things and that the passage functions to call people to repentance and visible transformation rather than to provide cover for ongoing sin.
Ephesians 5:3-7 Theological Themes:
Living as Saints: The Call to Holiness(Desiring God) emphasizes the theological theme that justification and warnings coexist: true justification inevitably issues in sanctification because God preserves his own by the Spirit, so Pauline warnings about wrath are pastoral tools of preservation rather than contradictions of forensic assurance; the sermon presses that sanctification is the means by which the promise of glorification is guaranteed, linking Ephesians 5:3-7 to Paul’s broader soteriological chain (predestination ? calling ? justification ? sanctification ? glorification).
Transforming Speech Through Thanksgiving and Humility(Desiring God) presents the distinct theological theme that thankful speech is an ethical and spiritual antidote to sinful frivolity: thanksgiving is portrayed not merely as moral etiquette but as a Spirit-produced humility that displaces the pride manifest in foolish and crude talk, making thanksgiving a formative communal practice that guards against normalizing vice.
Speaking Truthfully: Navigating Sin as Saints(Desiring God) highlights an ethical-theological theme of ecclesial language-formation: what counts as “proper among saints” is a communal formation of speech and categories that resists cultural normalization of sin; the sermon argues Christians must cultivate the habits of naming sin in ways that preserve its seriousness before God and the reality of divine judgment.
Living in Holiness: Warnings and Assurance in Christ(Desiring God) develops the theological theme that pneumatological sealing and ethical exhortation work together — the Spirit’s sealing is not a one-time guarantee that allows moral drift but an ongoing sanctifying influence that incorporates warnings as God’s means to guard the inheritance of the saints; the sermon frames Paul’s warnings as part of the Spirit’s pedagogy.
Living as Sacrifices: Embracing Transformation in Faith(SermonIndex.net) brings forward a pastoral-theological theme that the church is not a safe haven for comfortable unrepentance: Christian fellowship requires visible holiness, and Paul’s words function as both boundary markers and a call to personal transformation (the theme that grace requires actual change and repentance is pressed strongly).
Ephesians 5:3-7 Historical and Contextual Insights:
Transforming Speech Through Thanksgiving and Humility(Desiring God) notes intertextual-linguistic context by linking Paul’s phrasing “as is proper among saints” to the same Greek idea of what is fitting used in Colossians 3:18, suggesting Paul deploys an ethical category familiar in his letters (the “fitting” or “proper” for Christian households and communities), and uses that inter-letter lexical tie to argue for an ethic of propriety grounded in Pauline usage rather than a strictly deontological checklist.
Living as Sacrifices: Embracing Transformation in Faith(SermonIndex.net) provides lexical-historical detail about the Greek term behind “foolish talk” (morologia) and illustrates how early Christian usage (and parabolic contexts like the ten virgins) frames such speech as unprofitable, irresponsible, and spiritually dangerous; the sermon situates certain terms (fornication/fornicator, uncleanness, covetousness) in first-century moral categories and then contrasts how the surrounding pagan culture flaunted behaviors that the early church considered shameful, making Paul’s commands an intra-first-century corrective to contemporary public morality.
Ephesians 5:3-7 Cross-References in the Bible:
Living as Saints: The Call to Holiness(Desiring God) extensively cross-references Ephesians 2:1-3 (humanity as “children of wrath” and “sons of disobedience”), Romans (justification by faith — Romans 3 and 5), Romans 8 (putting to death deeds of the body and marks of being led by the Spirit), James 2 (faith and works), 1 John 2 (keeping commandments as evidence of knowing God), 2 Thessalonians 2:13 (saved through sanctification by the Spirit), and Ephesians 1 (sealing by the Spirit and guarantee of inheritance) to argue that Paul’s warning in 5:3-7 coheres with his soteriology — each reference is used to show that sanctification and warnings function within God’s saving will and to rebut “empty words” that would deny wrath or make warnings irrelevant.
Transforming Speech Through Thanksgiving and Humility(Desiring God) links the argument in Ephesians 5:3-7 forward and backward within Paul’s letter: it cites Colossians 3 (same Greek “fitting”) to establish the ethical vocabulary, and it points readers to Ephesians 5:18–20 (be filled with the Spirit; addressing one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs; giving thanks always) to show how thanksgiving as the Spirit-filled disposition is Paul’s intended replacement for crude joking and foolish talk.
Speaking Truthfully: Navigating Sin as Saints(Desiring God) brings in Ephesians’ internal argument and other Pauline ethics: it references Ephesians 4 (put off the old self), notes Paul’s general moral language about propriety, and implies links to the eschatological sorting of Matthew 13 (parable of tares) to illustrate that outward membership can mask inward unbelief; the sermon uses these Biblical touchpoints to support the claim that naming must not normalize sin and that subtle language choices can be evidential of real belonging.
Living in Holiness: Warnings and Assurance in Christ(Desiring God) groups multiple biblical cross-references to make its core claim: it references Ephesians 1 (sealing and guarantee of inheritance), Ephesians 4:30 (do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed), 2 Timothy 4:18 (the Lord will bring Paul safely into his kingdom), 1 John 2:19 (those who fall away show they were never of us) and Romans 8 (putting to death deeds of the body) to explain why Paul can and must both promise security and call for holiness, portraying warnings as the Spirit’s means of keeping the sealed.
Living as Sacrifices: Embracing Transformation in Faith(SermonIndex.net) explicitly cross-references a wide range of passages to define terms and apply pastoral judgments: it quotes 1 Peter 2:21-24 to model Christlike sacrifice, 1 John 1 (walking in the light vs. darkness), Hebrews 13:4 (honor marriage), Matthew 13 (parable of the weeds/tares), Romans 2 (wrath stored up for the unrepentant), and 1 Corinthians (Paul’s strong disciplinary instructions about living in open sexual sin) to show that the New Testament writers consistently connect visible holiness and church discipline with genuine membership and eschatological inheritance.
Ephesians 5:3-7 Illustrations from Secular Sources:
Living as Saints: The Call to Holiness(Desiring God) uses metaphorical analogies (wrath likened to a familial parent and sanctification likened to an ongoing preserving work) rather than named pop-culture stories, framing divine wrath as an expected parental-like consequence of habitual disobedience and depicting the Spirit’s sanctifying warnings as the means by which God “keeps” his children — these metaphors serve to make the theological point about warning and preservation concrete for contemporary listeners.
Transforming Speech Through Thanksgiving and Humility(Desiring God) employs social-psychological description as an illustrative frame: the preacher distinguishes two personality types behind foolish talk — the insecure “silliness” that keeps people at a distance, and the brash, showy joker driven by pride — and then shows how thanksgiving (as humility) counters both; this use of psychological portraits (insecure vs. showy) functions as a secular-psychological analogy to explain how thanksgiving transforms communal speech.
Speaking Truthfully: Navigating Sin as Saints(Desiring God) points to contemporary linguistic practice and cultural examples as secular illustrations, notably criticizing the unqualified use of terms like “homosexual marriage” (arguing Christians should speak of “so?called homosexual marriage”) and calling out media normalization of sexual immorality in films and TV as practical modern analogues of what Paul forbids; the sermon uses the specific contemporary example of how naming practices (phrasing, qualifiers) shape moral perception in the public square.
Living in Holiness: Warnings and Assurance in Christ(Desiring God) employs a vaccination analogy to explain sealing: the sermon explicitly contrasts a static medical vaccination (which protects regardless of continuing behavior) with the Spirit’s sealing, which is described as an ongoing sanctifying process — this secular-medical analogy is used to help congregants grasp why warnings and sanctification can coexist with assurance.
Living as Sacrifices: Embracing Transformation in Faith(SermonIndex.net) uses several concrete secular or anecdotal illustrations tied directly to pastoral application of the passage: a youth?minister anecdote about a couple caught at Lovers Point having their secret exposed (used to illustrate “walking in darkness” vs. “walking in light”), a missionary’s encounter with a poor African tribe whose members nonetheless struggled with covetousness (used to illustrate that covetousness is not a problem of material scarcity but of the heart), and cultural references to stand?up comedy/roasting and bullying to exemplify “coarse jesting” and the social dynamics of crude humor — each story is deployed to dramatize how the behaviors Paul condemns function in ordinary life and why the church must resist their normalization.