Ephesians 5 vs. Episcopalians and the Effeminate
No one who actually believes the Bible to be God’s Word can dispute sexual immorality being sin. Sexual immorality is any sexual activity outside of a marriage between one man and one woman.
The Anglican Church in America had been traveling the ridge above the slippery slope, for a couple decades, with regard to the sin of homosexuality. Instead of calling sin, “sin,” the American Anglicans catered to the homosexual community, in condoning their sexually immoral lifestyle. Their incessant defense was love, and the argument against the Episcopalians is truth. Typically, love and truth go together (Eph 4:15), but when the definition of one or the other of these attributes of God is twisted, then conflict is sure to abound.
In recent years, the African Anglicans took a stand against the unrepentant American Anglicans. This brought a form of church discipline at Canterbury, England, the home of Anglicanism world-wide. The Global Anglican community has 85 million members around the world and is the third largest Christian denomination behind Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. This means the position the Anglicans promote on any issue is significant, for all of global Christianity.
The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus near the end of his ministry. His letter to them has six chapters. The first three speak of a Christian’s beneficial position “in Christ.” The second group of three chapters (4–6) informs the reader of how to live the Christian life. Our interest in having the Bible speak into the issue raised by the American Anglicans comes from Ephesians 5.
Christians are to be imitators of God in the same manner as a child imitates her parents (5:1). Because God is love (1 Jn 4:8), Christians are to walk in love (5:2). We imitate Christ, when we love in the manner He loved us, laying down His life for His church (5:2, 25; 1 Jn 3:16).
For the American Anglicans, this means unconditionally accepting homosexuals and their sinful sexual behavior. They argue, Christians are not loving homosexuals unless we accept them as God made them. This is a blasphemous idea, of course, because God did not make homosexuals behave in the deviant sexual manner they do (Gen 19:15; Lev 18:22; 20:13; Judg 19:22; Rom 1:26–27; 1 Cor 6:9; 1 Tim 1:10; 2 Pet 2:6; Jude 7).
God does not condone sexual misbehavior in any form. Pre-marital sex is sin. Extra-marital sex is sin. Rape is sin. Bestiality is sin. Homosexuality is sin. There is no grey area about sexual sin in the Bible. The Bible calls sin, “lawlessness (1 Jn 3:4).” God has revealed what His holiness looks like, and He gave us the Law, in order to show us, even exacerbate our disobedience (Rom 5:20). Worse, Jesus gave us a standard much higher than the Jewish religious leaders’ interpretation (Mt 5:22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44).
Sexual sin happens in the heart and in the mind before it happens in practice. God judges sinful thoughts and passions, as much as the actual practice of these sins. By the way, this is why we need Jesus Christ to save us, by His grace (Eph 2:8–9).
Sin is the anti-thesis of love. Love is obedience to God, and sin is disobedience (Ex 20:6; Jn 14:15). Therefore, homosexuals, in thought and practice, are disobedient to God. Christians who refuse to reify biblical truth are also disobedient. In collusion, liberal Christians and homosexuals are engaged in active and open disobedience to God. This is why the African Anglicans demanded action from Canterbury against the Episcopal Church in America.
Paul wrote, “But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints (5:3).” Clearly, this applies to the Anglicans in America. It calls them out for doing exactly the opposite of what Paul was instructing. Homosexuality is being named among them, even celebrated, and promoted by them.
Paul further argued the reason, “For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God (5:5).” Paul would surely write to the American Anglicans, “Have you not read your Bibles?” We know these things for certain.
Homosexuality and idolatry were intertwined in Paul’s teaching on the wrath of God (Rom 1:18–32). The charge of suppressing the truth is exactly what the spirit of homosexuality is doing in the West (Rom 1:18). Arguments in support of homosexual behavior must contend with clear biblical teaching, and the way to work this is to infiltrate the church and introduce false teaching. This has occurred in other mainline denominations, too.
Paul continued, “Let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience (5:6).” The African Anglicans were not deceived by the errant arguments. The fence-sitters in other parts of the world of Anglicanism, exist in a tug of war between the rhetoric and practice of their American brothers and the Africans, who apparently have Bibles.
Paul is not promoting, “God is love, only” theology. Paul’s epistles are where we learn much of God’s wrath against sinners (Rom 1:18; Col 3:6; 1 Thess 1:10; etc.). God hates those who do iniquity (Ps 5:5; 7:11; 11:5). Being under the spell of false teaching is nothing new (2 Pet 2). It is one way Satan has weakened the church from the beginning. The New Testament is filled with polemic against false teaching and homosexuality.
Paul warned, “Therefore, do not be partakers with them (5:8).” It simply does not get any clearer than this statement. Avoid those who are practicing unrepentant immoral behavior. Instead, we are inviting proud sinners, who flaunt their deviance and disobedience into our churches, waving their rainbow flags.
Rainbow flags are ironic. God made a covenant promise to Noah, to never pour out His wrath in a flood of water judgment, ever again (Gen 9:11). So, the homosexuals usurped the rainbow to tell the world that God loves them and their behavior. They seem to miss another story where God poured out His wrath on the homosexual twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19). He used fire there, and He will use fire again in the future (2 Pet 3:10–12).
Good parents repeatedly warn their children, “Be careful who you hang out with because you will become like them.” Bad company corrupts good morals (1 Cor 15:33). Liberal Christian hebetude is nothing in comparison to the bold, proud spirit of the homosexual. When these two mix, the homosexual will prevail upon the liberal Christian. Paul said, “Don’t mix.”
Paul has more reasons for Christians to avoid the immoral homosexual community, “for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (5:8).” Light and dark cannot occupy the same space. Before God converts a sinner into a Christian, he walks in the futility of his mind (Eph 4:17). He does his dirty deeds in the dark (Jn 3:19). His darkened mind is no match for Satan, who is ever blinding him from the Gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:4).
Children of light come into being when the Holy Spirit comes into their being (Mt 3:11; Acts 2:38). God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all (1 Jn 1:5). The Spirit of Christ is the morning star rising in the hearts of new believers (2 Pet 1:19; Rev 22:16). Darkness is fading away. The illumination is getting brighter, as more of Christ is found in the heart of a believer in Jesus (2 Cor 4:6). Paul insisted, “for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth (5:9).” Homosexuality is not good. Homosexuality is not right. Homosexuality is not truth. The acceptance, celebration, and promotion of sin does not belong in the church.
Paul’s ambition was to please the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:9); and He wanted the Ephesians to be pleasing to God, too, “trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord (5:10).” This never includes the deeds of darkness (5:11), which should be exposed, not celebrated (5:11). If it is disgraceful to even talk about these immoralities (5:12), then how can the American Anglicans justify their full embrace of sin?
Paul trusted the light, more light, to illumine the truth (5:13). Do we want the Christian conversion of homosexuals? Of course, and we are encouraged to tell them the truth about Christ’s death on the Cross for His people (Jn 10:11, 15; Eph 5:25). The alternative is eternal punishment in the hell of the lake of fire (Mt 25:46; Jude 7; Rev 20:14–15).
Some of God’s elect are currently in the darkness of the sinful homosexual lifestyle, and they need Christians to suffer to bring them the light of truth (2 Tim 2:10). The blood of Christ is sufficient to bring forgiveness to the repentant homosexual, who places her trust in Jesus Christ (Mt 26:28; Eph 1:7; 1 Pet 1:18–19).
Without repentance, no sinner is justified (Acts 2:38; 5:31; 11:18; Rom 2:4; 2 Tim 2:25). Sinful lifestyles must be fully forsaken, and Jesus Christ fully embraced. Here is the battle every Christian must face, in his or her desire to be obedient to Christ (Rom 7). Sin is very powerful, but Christ is more powerful than sin (1 Jn 4:4). His grace is always sufficient, to help believers overcome sin and walk in a manner worthy of their calling into Christianity (2 Cor 2:14; 1 Jn 5:4). There is no perfection for the Christian in this life, but we overcome by faith in Christ (1 Jn 5:4).
Paul distinguishes between the wise and the unwise (5:15) in this evil world (5:16). When the American Anglicans fully accept homosexuals and their sinful behavior and lifestyle, they are being unwise. Paul wrote, “Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is (5:17).” The will of the Lord is clear, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication (1 Thess 4:3).”
Finally, always giving thanks for God’s unfailing truth and providence, we can be assured that this error, by the American Anglicans and others, will be corrected through repentance, or schism at a later date. True believers will always come out of Babylon when the homosexuals come out of the church closet (Rev 18:4).
With the desire for unity in the church and the bond of peace, we must pray for the Episcopal Church in America. She remains in error and in sin on this issue. We can give thanks to our African brothers for having called out their American brethren on their sin. When mercy and truth meet together, and righteousness and peace have kissed one another (Ps 85:10), then we know it will be a holy kiss (Rom 16:16), pleasing and acceptable to God.
David E. Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
February 8, 2021
