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 [Eph. 5:3–4].
The sins described here are those which are prevalent
among unbelievers. These are the common sins in the world today. All of them
have to do with low forms of immorality. Paul is saying that the child of
God cannot habitually engage in these. Even a slight indulgence brings about
a revulsion and agony of soul. I have made this statement many times, and I
repeat it again: If you can get into sin and not be troubled or bothered by
it, you are not a child of God. I do not think there is any other
alternative. But if there is conviction in your heart, you can rise and go
to your Father as the Prodigal Son did. You are a son of the Father, and
only sons want to go to the Father’s house. I have never heard of a pig that
wanted to go there. The sins listed here are low sins which characterize the
ungodly person.
When you as a believer go to God to confess your sins,
you don’t just bundle them up and hand the bundle to God. It is not a
wholesale affair. Rather, you spell out each sin to Him. For example, if you
have a biting tongue and are a gossip who hurts people, tell Him
that is your sin. When you
go to God in confession and name the specific sin, it restores fellowship
with Him. These sins are sins that believers drop into sometimes. When they
do, they are to confess them to God. Fénelon puts it like this:
Tell God all that is in your
heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear
friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys,
that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them;
tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; talk to Him of
your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of
your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your
depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you
unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises
you to yourself as to others.
If you thus pour out all your
weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will
never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have
no secrets from each other never want subjects of conversation. They do not
weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they
seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of the heart,
without consideration, just what they think. Blessed are they who attain to
such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God.
The great need of all believers is to go to God and tell
Him what is really in our hearts. Someone may say, “It is just unbelievable
that Christians would even commit such sins as are listed here.” Friend, if
you had been a pastor as long as I have, you would know that they do fall
into these sins. Many Christian people feel that they have committed an
unpardonable sin, but they have not. There is
a way back to God!
“Fornication” is accepted by the world as a norm of
conduct. It is a sin that is looked upon as not being very bad. When the
gross immorality of the hour started creeping in, it was called the
new morality. Some time
ago many of us were shocked when we heard that in the college dormitories
the boys and girls were in the same building but on different floors. Now it
has changed so that boys and girls are roommates. When I went to college,
the boys could, visit in the living room of the girls’ dormitory. And I
still think that is the best way to do it. I’ll stick with the Bible.
Fornication is a sin. Regardless of where you are or who you are, if you are
living in fornication today, you cannot be a child of God. Someone may say,
“Wait a minute. You said a child of God could confess a sin and come back
into fellowship with God.” That is right, but a child of God cannot confess
a sin and then persist in living in
that sin. That is a dead giveaway that such a person is not a child of God.
“All uncleanness” includes all forms of immorality.
“Covetousness” is a grasping desire—and not just for
money or material wealth. It may be a desire to be mentally superior to
someone else. It could be coveting a home or a position. Some people love to
be president of something. Of course, it also includes the covetousness for
money. It has been said that the miser thinks dollars are flat so he can
stack them, and the prodigal thinks they are round so he can roll them.
Whether one stacks them or spends them, covetousness means gaining
everything for your own selfish ends.
Some people try to garner together all the honors of this
world. I know ministers who would never be guilty of trying to get rich, but
they surely are after position. They want a position in their denomination
or in their community. Covetousness is a rotten sin that is in our old
natures.
“Let it not be once named among you.” This means they are
not to be spoken of with approval or desire. Obviously, I am naming these
sins with neither approval nor desire.
“Filthiness” speaks of the utmost in depravity. These are
the low-down, dirty things one hears today.
“Foolish talking” means to gloat or brag about sinning.
Have you ever heard men or even women boast about how much they drank at a
party? Have you heard them boast of their conquests in the realm of sex?
That is foolish talking.
“Jesting” does not mean good, clean humor—I’d be guilty
of jesting if it meant that. Jesting means to make light of sensuality and
immorality. It means telling dirty stories.
“But rather giving of thanks” is to be the context of
Christian conversation. I would often play golf with a very wonderful
Christian layman whom I loved in the Lord. Sometimes an unsaved man would
join us. He would make a few bad shots, and then he would lose his temper.
He would ask God to damn the golf course, the sand traps, his golf clubs,
and anything else he could think of. My friend would always say, “Praise the
Lord, bless the Lord.” The unbeliever would ask, “Why do you say that?” The
Christian would ask, “Why do you take God’s name in vain?” The reply would
be, “It’s a habit.” “It’s also a habit with me,” my friend would say. “Every
time I hear a man ask God to damn something, I praise and thank Him for
something. I sort of want to balance the budget down here.” On several
occasions that stopped the cussing. And it is good for us as Christians to
make a habit of giving thanks.
McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible
Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997,
c1981, S. 5:261-263