The Consequences of Man’s Immorality (2)

Having mentioned several characteristics of counterfeit love in Ephesians 5:3-4, Paul now turns to the consequences of such immorality in verse 5-7: For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.

We looked at the first last time: those whose lifestyle results in their having no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Second, Paul adds that because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Even more unpopular today is the preaching about God’s wrath. Instead, to get large crowds, the emphasis is upon “felt needs,” “seeker-sensitivity,” social activism, and entertainment.

The more and more common approach of “ministry” today is addressing “felt-needs” and being “seeker-sensitive,” in spite of the clear fact that Scripture does not support either. This was brought home to me recently while attending a conference on using computer technology in ministry. Now let me say that I love technology, computers in particular. Like any other tool, they can be used to make our work more efficient and even enable us to accomplish more. What is happening in many churches today, however, is that technology is obscuring the Truth. In order to appeal to more people, we are using more technology and less Truth. Fancy presentations and other technology greatly appeals to the senses, so the messages is “toned down” to attract as many people as possible. Jesus is often “sneaked in the back door” and even presented more as a Savior who “meets our needs” instead of condemns and forgives our sin and demands our obedience. We have lost sight of the fact that the Gospel is about God’s wrath upon the sinner and Christ’s sacrifice as salvation from that wrath.

Man does, indeed, think he can do anything and get away with it. If I dare be controversial for just a moment, many people today scoff at the thought that AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are the “wrath of God.” But that is exactly what they are. Yes, there are those who contract HIV from blood transfusions and the like, but those are not the rule; such diseases are spread by behavior. Let men scoff, but God never has allowed men to go unpunished and He never will.

This is proven without question by the verb tense in the clause cometh the wrath. Cometh is in the Present Tense, so the idea is not that wrath awaits sometime in the future, rather it is already here. Yes, there is more wrath coming—“the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14-15; 21:8)—but God’s wrath is present even today on the children of disobedience, that is, those who “are of [their] father the devil” (Jn. 8:44) and who “do not obey the truth” (Rom. 2:8). As commentator William Hendrickson pictures, “These sinister practices attract God’s displeasure like a fully lit up enemy target attracts bombs.”

Yes, what we’ve shown here is a “hard saying,” but it’s no less true.