There's a fly in my soup...

There’s nothing like a cheesy joke to start a blog post:

“Waiter – there’s a fly in my soup!

Keep it down sir, or everyone will want one.”

Now, I don’t propose for one minute that we have to dissect all jokes, but what does this one hang on? It’s the fact that there’s something in the soup that doesn’t belong there. The fly has absolutely no place in the soup. It’s not in the recipe, and if the chef put it there on purpose you’re eating in the wrong kind of restaurant...

During recent posts we’ve looked at what Paul is teaching us about being a functioning Church. We’ve looked at how every member must be the part, play their part, and be set apart. In Ephesians 5 Paul outlines something that has no part in the people of God. It’s like the fly in the soup; it should not be there and will do nothing but spoil the perfect body of Christ that the Church is called to be.
 
When we take God’s gift of sex (yes, ‘gift’ – something good given by God), ignore the context in which it was given to be enjoyed, and use it purely to meet our own selfish needs, that’s essentially what the Bible calls ‘sexual immorality’ (v3).  Paul warns very strongly that there must not even be a hint of it in the Church.

Following Paul’s argument, when we ignore the blueprints of God’s design for sex, it leads to impurity and greed (v). Again, we need to stress that the Bible does not teach that sex is wrong, but if our attitude and behaviour debases sex and twists it to suit ourselves, we essentially become impure and not fit for God to use. Our greed (or covetousness) twists our desires towards the things we don’t, or cannot have. Further, it leads to obscenity, foolish talk and coarse joking (v4), where God’s gift of sex becomes nothing more than gossip and cheap innuendo.

Paul wants us to take urgent action to surgically remove sexual immorality from the Church. Why?

Firstly, because it has no part in our Christian identity. We’ve covered this idea of identity in an earlier post, but let’s sum it up – we are not what we used to be, and our behaviour should not be what it used to be. We should be following “God’s example” (v1, sometimes translated as “Be imitators of God”) and living a life of love (v2) which mirrors the example Jesus set in his life and death. Christians cannot remain distinct from the world unless we cherish our new identity. How much do we value being dearly loved children (v1) of God? Does it show itself in the way we live?

Secondly, we need to deal with it because it has no part in God’s new kingdom. In verses 5-7 we see that the world promotes idolatry, promiscuity and the breaking of God’s law on the premise that it will make us happy or that it feels right. There’s no part for this in the Church. How many lives have been wrecked by that empty promise of fulfilment? In Revelation, John describes a vision from God which pictures the end of the world as we know it and tries to put it into words. God is making everything new, and will once again live among his people (as was his intention back in Genesis 1-3). There’s a perfect eternal kingdom coming, and there’s no part for sin in it. If we don’t deal with this, there’s no part for us either.

So what practically we can do about this? V7 encourages us to not be partners with those who try to mislead us or who don’t take Paul’s warning here seriously. We’re all sinners, and before Jesus ascended back to heaven he asked us to go out into the world and tell people about him. Paul’s instruction here isn’t to hole ourselves up in some remote village and disconnect from the world – that’s direct disobedience to what Jesus instructed and he’d be horrified at the thought.

We do need to re-sensitise ourselves though. We’re bombarded with messages every day that tell us that a liberal view of sex is okay. The Bible says it isn’t. Paul wants us to be ruthless, and we need to take a long hard look at ourselves. Where do you draw the line in what you think it’s okay to watch, write, listen to, or do? Paul doesn’t say ‘some of this is okay’ or ‘it’s not hurting anyone’. He says there’s no place for it here – not even a hint of it.

We all fall short of God’s standard. We’d be hypocrites if we suggested otherwise. We know we’ve messed up, but we trust in God’s provision to deal with our sin once and for all – Jesus’ perfect life credited to us, and his death on the cross in our place.