January 20 2026

Tuesday January 20

Something You Should Know

Ephesians 5:5-8

5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 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 be partakers with them. 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

Today we’re continuing our study in Ephesians chapter 5, looking specifically at verses 5 and 6, where the Apostle Paul speaks very plainly to the church at Ephesus reminding them of something that they should know. This is something that as believers and followers of Jesus Christ that should be obvious to us. What should we know? “That no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. And them Paul adds this warning with it: “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”

Now, it’s interesting that when you read Paul’s letters to the churches in Galatia and Colossae, you find that he says very similar things on this subject. In fact, here in Ephesians 5, we’ve already seen that we are called to walk in love (v. 2). In verse 8, we are told to walk as children of light. Then in verse 15, Paul says we are to walk circumspectly—not as fools, but as wise. In other words, the believer walks a different walk. He walks a different path. The path that we are walking is a narrow path that leads to life, not the broad path that leads to destruction.

The world around us is filled with envy, murder, wickedness, lewdness, idolatry, fornication—sins of the flesh, sins of immorality, and sins of the tongue, “filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting”. Paul has already told us in the earlier verses that as believers we are saints, and it is not fitting for saints to live this way (v. 3-4). These sins are to be put off. We are not to commit them, or for that matter, have anything to do with them.

Now in verses 5 and 6, Paul repeats some of the same sins and makes this truth very clear, which indicates that this is extremely important. We find the same warning in Galatians 5:19-21: “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

My friend, when we become born-again followers of Jesus Christ, we are transformed. We are transferred out of the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of Satan and evil, and into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God. Paul wrote in Colossians 1:13, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love”.  Jesus Himself said in John chapter 3, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see or enter the kingdom of God.” When we are born again, we receive a new life, and we now belong to a new kingdom.

In this kingdom, we should now live to please the King. We honor the King. We hallow the name of Jesus Christ. We pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” And because of that, we do not participate in the deeds that belong to the kingdom of darkness. Now, Paul is not saying that if a believer commits a sin—such as adultery, fornication, or some form of sexual immorality—that they automatically lose their salvation. That is not what he is teaching. What he is saying is that if a person practices these sins—if they continually walk in them and live in them—it proves that they have never truly been brought into the kingdom of light.

Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 7:21-23, when He said, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not done many wonderful works in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity; I never knew you.’” My friend, not everyone who claims to be a Christian truly is one. Some may talk like Christians at times, but their deeds and their works reveal that they do not belong to Christ. The Apostle John addresses this clearly in 1 John, when he says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” We who are truly born again have been transferred, transformed, and brought into the kingdom of light. We no longer walk in covetousness or idolatry.

I find it interesting that Paul repeats the same words in verse 5 that he used earlier in verse 3—fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness. He says these things are not even to be named among us. Then he adds that the covetous person is an idolater. This same truth is taught in Colossians 3:5, where we are told that covetousness is idolatry. In other words, something has been placed between us and God. Instead of living for God, a person chooses to live for self and the flesh—seeking to please what gratifies them rather than what pleases God.

That, my friend, is the world. And once again, Paul makes it clear throughout his epistles—and the Holy Spirit repeats it for our benefit—we are different. We do not walk as children of darkness. We are not sons of disobedience. Paul reminds us that “the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” There is a path that leads to destruction, and we are not to be a part of that path. Instead, we are to walk in the light, even as Jesus is the Light of the world.

We are different. May God help us to live differently. We have an inheritance in the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God. Oh my friend, this is something that we should know and these are words we need to take seriously—especially in our crazy, mixed-up, and immoral world today.

God bless you and may you have a wonderful, wonderful day.