5 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. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Many Christians have stumbled on this verse (and others like it). The warning is severe. Paul cautioned against any specious argument that renders the warning ineffective. A common teaching imposed on this passage is that if Christians sin badly enough in the area of sexual immorality or greed, they could lose their salvation. I don’t think that is what the apostle had in mind.
It is true that eternal destiny is in view, for “inheritance” is often used biblically in connection with eternal life. “His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope … to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3–4). Paul previously wrote, “[the Holy Spirit] is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession … ” (Eph 1:14). However, Paul, in our passage today, refers to the future status of those who are not genuine believers. Earlier, he warned the Ephesians to “walk no longer just as the Gentiles walk” (4:17). Make no mistake about it, “Gentile walking” was the way they used to live when they were under the condemnation of God. And that life renders non-believing Gentiles without any hope for future inheritance in God’s eternal kingdom. Unbelieving people given over completely to immorality and greed (which are forms of idolatry – see other translations which capture this better than NASB) will not be saved.
Christians, on the other hand, are already forgiven (Eph 4:32). Paul has written that the Holy Spirit is our guarantee (1:13-14) and also, “by [the Holy Spirit] you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph 4:30). Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (Rom 8:38-39). We are secure.
Paul is not trying to motivate the Ephesians by hanging their eternal destiny over their heads. Fear is a rather poor motivator. Rather he is saying this: now that Christians have an inheritance that is secure, they should not go on living like Gentiles who will not receive a spiritual inheritance! Why live as though you did not know Christ? This is a re-emphasis of what he wrote earlier, that “you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph 4:23–24)
Lord, I don’t want to live like I used to live. Your word motivates me now, not by fear, but by the security of the inheritance that is already mine.
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