Ephesians 5:1-7 

Introduction: In this passage of scripture, we read one of the greatest challenges and expectations for the believer. The great pattern for the believer is God himself. The believer is to walk through life following God every day of his or her life. 

The Believer is to Follow God: 

1. By BEING a Follower of God- Vs 1 A believer can’t follow God from afar. There is a difference between a person that gets saved by Faith in Jesus Christ and a person who is saved and following God. 

• • • A person cannot follow God unless he/she becomes a follower of God. We become a follower of God by: 

1. • Being Surrendered– yielded, given up, delivered to the power of another. This means that were not going our way, but the way that He wants us to go. We are following Him, not the other way around. Daniel 3:28 “Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.” 
   • Being Committed– There are so many Christians that are not committed to God. Christians follow God until they need to do something that is too hard to do, too difficult, something that requires commitment. II Timothy 4:10 “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world”. 
   • Being Devoted– by being set apart, being dedicated, being addicted. I Corinthians 16:15 “I beseech you, brethren, ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints”. 

2. By Loving as Christ Loved- Vs 2 notice how He “gave Himself for us”. Christ died in our place, in our stead, as our substitute, this the greatest love a person can have for another. 

1. • We love if were loved, we love if they treat us good, we love if we get something in return, etc. 
   • John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”. 
   • I John 4:20 “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”  
   • The believer is walk in love, just as Christ has loved us and given himself as an offering and a sacrifice to God. 

3. By being Clean-Bodied-Vs 3 That is by being morally pure. By keeping our body clean. Speaking it leads to doing it, and that’s why God says to not even talk about it. 

• • Be Free from Fornication– I Thessalonians 4:3 to abstain from fornication: to know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor”. This is moral purity. We must resist the passion of lust: sex, pornographic material, exposure, looking, touching. 

1. • Be Free from Uncleanness– foulness, dirtiness, filthiness. Ephesians 4:17-19 
     • I Thessalonians 4:7 “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness”. 

• • Be Free from Covetousness– To be dissatisfied with ones lot, to be greedy. To desire what is not mine or forbidden. 
    • • It is to love and pursue money instead of being content. 
      • It is to make possessions to goal of this life. 
      • It is to live for self instead of for God. 
      • Covetousness is idolatry, and must be mortified- Colossians 3:5 

4. By being Clean-Mouthed- Vs 4 This means using only clean and holy speech. This kind of speaking pleases God. 

• • A believer cannot let his mouth become foul, polluted, filthy, and vile. This is speech and conduct. 
  • Immorality and indecent conversation and jokes are to be the farthest thing form the mind and conversation of the believer who follows God. God has nothing to do with such filth.

1. • Foolish talking- empty, unthoughtful, senseless, wasted, idle words, purposeless. 
   • Jesting- joke, talk foolishly, suggestive and off colored joking. I Peter 3:10 “For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his life that they speak no guile”. 
   • Solution- giving of thanks. This is what should come out of our mouths instead. 

5. By knowing God’s Warning- Vs 5-6 The warning is this: 

• • • a person can deceive you with vain words. Once saved always saved, doesn’t matter how you act and what you do. Christ already died for our sins. Especially the young people that are here. 

• • • a person that practices these things, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 

1. • • Doing this will cause a person to loose their inheritance in heaven. 
     • I Corinthians 6:9-10 “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind…shall inherit the kingdom of God”.
     • Galatians 5:19-21 “shall not inherit the kingdom of God” 

6. By separating ourselves from the Unclean- Vs 7 Not only should we not partake in any of the sins mentioned in these verses but we are to separate ourselves from those who take part in such sins. 

• • II Corinthians 6:14 unequally yoked together 
  • II Corinthians 6:17-18 “come out from among them and be ye separate” 
  • II Thessalonians 3:6 “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us”. 

Conclusion: A true believer will follow God by being committed, surrendered, and devoted to Him. The believer will also love as Christ loved, keep a clean body, keep a clean mouth, will know God’s warning, and will separate from the Unclean. This is not to hurt us but to help us in this life and when we get to heaven we get to reign and rule with Him.