Why God Despises Impurity and Why You Should as Well

Today we are looking at Paul’s last reference to the dark life in Ephesians four, greedy to practice impurity. The following illustration speaks to the idea of greed. One day a man called the church. He got the secretary and said, “I would like to speak to the head hog at the trough.” The secretary said, “What did you say?” The man gladly repeated himself, “I would like to speak with the head hog at the trough!” If you mean the pastor, it would be more appropriate if you would say, ‘I want to speak to the pastor.’” The man, a bit taken aback, said, “Well, I had $25,000 that I wanted to give to the church.” The secretary quickly replied, “Hold the line. I think the big pig is coming in right now.” Money changes people.¹ Now, normally people would laugh when they hear a story like this, but laughing is not always the right response. There’s a sobering element to unrighteousness. And, while we may be laughing, the Father God may not be. We need to see things as He sees them. Why God Despises Impurity and Why You Should as Well, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 41 years, emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

Ephesians 4:17–22 (ESV) — 17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,

So, in this passage, Paul describes a life that should not be named among a Jesus follower.
There’s a different life you can choose to live.
Per Paul, we must not keep living our past life, the life we used to live when we were estranged from God.
Followers of Jesus must live the High life.
There are different kinds of life.

Matthew 10:38–39 (AMP) — 38 And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conforming wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also] is not worthy of Me. 39 Whoever finds his [lower] life will lose it [the higher life], and whoever loses his [lower] life on My account will find it [the higher life].

Again, this is the Amplified translation.
It vividly sets out the comparison between two kinds of life: there is the higher life and the lower life.
The lower life is the life we are instructed not to live.
It is the anti-abundant life Jesus does not want us to engage.
People who choose to live this life have the following at work in them.
- They walk in the futility of the mind.
  - We have covered that in a previous podcast.
- They have their understanding darkened and are alienated from the life of God because of inward ignorance.
  - We have also covered this in a second podcast on this subject.
- They are hardhearted.
  - We covered this in a third podcast.
- Callous and Sensuality
  - Is what we talked about in the last podcast.
- Today, we focus on the last element of anti-abundant life, greedy to practice impurity.

Why Greed Is Not Part of the Abundant Life of Jesus

Notice what the scripture said, people who live apart from God, practice impurity in a greedy fashion.
Now yes, Paul’s focus is impurity, but he uses an adjective to describe its extent.
That adjective is the word greedy.
So then, there is impurity, and there is an impurity motivated by greediness.
In other words, greediness is the manner in which these lost souls go about pursuing impurity.
So impurity is bad, but greedy to be impure is horrendous.
The adjective here is vital to note.
Some lost people strive to live an impure life to such a high degree that they go at with a spirit of greed.
So, we are talking about those who pursue impurity at any cost.

Greedy Impurity: the Definition of the Day

With that groundwork, it’s vital for us to know what the Greek word greediness means and with that thought here is the Definition of the Day.
The Greek word greediness means the state of desiring to have more than one’s due, greediness, insatiableness, avarice, covetousness²
Synonyms for this word include graspingness, avarice, insatiableness, predatoriness, extreme gluttony, ravenousness, voraciousness, wolfishness, and usury.
We’re talking about an excessive desire to acquire or possess more than one needs or deserves.
Here are some more descriptors.
How about acquiring in a reprehensible manner?
What about an insatiable desire for money?
We’re talking the Bible definition of greed, now.

1 Timothy 6:9–10 (ESV) — 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Did you hear the word craving here?
I’m trying to build you a word picture.
All of this is the adjective qualifying the word impurity.
The word craving means intense striving.
It means to stretch oneself out in order to touch or grasp something, to reach after or desire something.³

2 Peter 2:14–15 (ESV) — 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing,

Insatiable for sin – that’s this greed for impurity.
This is the only place in the New Testament the word insatiable is found.
The word means unceasing restlessness.
We’re talking eyes so full of adultery, so full of lust for the wrong kind of sex, that there is an unceasing restlessness.
We’re still talking about greed here and with that thought, here’s the Illustration of the Day.

Andrew Carnegie, the multimillionaire, left $1 million for one of his relatives, who in return cursed Carnegie thoroughly because he had left $365 million to public charities and had cut him off with just one measly million.⁴

He had a million dollars, but he wanted more – that’s greed.
That’s an insatiable desire to have more than what is due.
Here is another example of greed.
This one took place in the Roman city of Pompeii.

In his book Feminine Faces, Clovis Chappel wrote that when the Roman city of Pompeii was being excavated, the body of a woman was found mummified by the volcanic ashes of Mount Vesuvius. Her position told a tragic story. Her feet pointed toward the city gate, but her outstretched arms and fingers were straining for something that lay behind her. The treasure for which she was grasping was a bag of pearls. Chappel said, “Though death was hard at her heels, and life was beckoning to her beyond the city gates, she could not shake off their spell…But it was not the eruption of Vesuvius that made her love pearls more than life. It only froze her in this attitude of greed.”⁵

This mindset and attitude still parade around our world today; people frozen in an attitude of greed.
Reaching for pearls like this woman was, but reaching for so much more.
They are reaching for all kinds of ungodly stuff, trying to wrap their fingers around every kind of impurity.

There was a child who was raising a frightful cry because he had shoved his hand into the opening of an expensive Chinese vase and then couldn’t pull it out again. Parents and neighbors tugged with might and main on the child’s arm, with the poor creature howling out loud all the while. Finally, there was nothing left to do but to break the beautiful, expensive vase. And then as the mournful heap of shards lay there, it became clear why the child had been so hopelessly stuck. His little fist grasped a paltry penny which he spied in the bottom of the vase and which he, in his childish ignorance, would not let go. Helmut Thielicke⁶

Got to have that impurity – greedy for it – won’t let go of it – but you have not learned Jesus this way.
Now, how many of you when it comes to the subject of greed only thought about money?
Most people, when they think of greed, associate it with dollar signs.
Money is one huge part of greed.
The challenge is to have money without money having us.
As the Word of God says, be content with what you have.
We’ve already read about the love of money being the root of all evil.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Notice the word ‘craving.’
The love of money is called a craving.
An abundant craving for money is not part of the abundant life of Jesus.

There is enough in the world for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.⁷

1 Timothy 6:6–8 (ESV) — 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

Godliness with contentment is integral to a great God life.
But what does contentment mean?
Well, here’s what it doesn’t mean.
It doesn’t mean, ‘I’m sick, and I am okay with it.’
It doesn’t mean my life is broken because of wrong habits and I’m okay with it.
It surely doesn’t mean I’m bound in my thought life, hung up, hungover and I’m okay with it.
You shouldn’t be okay with any form of evil from the old life.
Impurity is of the enemy.
Why would anyone be okay with the devil all in their business?
He’s a thief and a liar.
Who wants to have all that mess in their life?

What Contentment Means

The Greek word contentment means adequacy especially that results in satisfaction with one’s situation in life.

Psalm 91:15–16 (ESV) — 15 When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

BDAG has it as ‘self-sufficiency’ in the sense of ‘independence’, or an external, state of having what is adequate, sufficiency, a competence⁸
What kind of adequacy, what type of self-sufficiency is Paul talking about?
Keep reading.

But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

This word content here means to be satisfied or showing satisfaction with things as they are.
We’re focusing on abundant life here – but, what does it look like?
Jesus weighs in on the ‘big two’ — food and clothing — also.

Having A Good Eye

Matthew 6:19–23 (ESV) — 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Healthy eye — bad eye? What’s Jesus talking about?
He is talking about giving.
A bad eye is a Hebrew expression for stinginess.
An individual who has a bad eye is a stingy person.
A person who is a giver has a good eye.

Matthew 6:24 (ESV) — 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

So, you can see Jesus is talking about money here.
He spoke more about money than any other subject.

Matthew 6:25 (ESV) — 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Jesus then illustrates God’s care for you by asking you to look at the birds.
I look at the birds all the time.
I photograph the birds every chance I get.

Matthew 6:26–33 (ESV) — 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

So can you see how having a good eye balances you off and protects you from greed.
But, here in Ephesians four Paul is not just talking about naked greed.
The kind of greed here is greed for impurity – not greed for possessions.
Greed for sex not greed for stuff.
Let’s focus now on the impurity part.

Impurity: Things God Despises

When we talk about the subject of impurity, we must look at it the way God looks at it.
To walk with God, you must agree with Him.
Two cannot walk together unless they agree; that’s Amos chapter three.
Agreeing with Him, means loving what He loves and despising what He despises.

Proverbs 6:16 (ESV) — 16 There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:

The word hates is a powerfully strong word.
The Hebrew word hate means just that — to hate — in one place it’s translated as hate with intensity.
The word abomination in Hebrew adds fuel to the fire.
An abomination is a detestable act.
The word means something which causes horror and disgust in others.
An abomination is something that offends your sensibilities.
In the case of the Lord, it’s something that offends His sensibilities.
Ask yourself, what is an abomination to you?
What offends your sensibilities?

One writer says that abomination is the turning of oneself away from on account of the stench; to feel nausea or loathing for food; anything that produces moral loathing or disgust; an abomination.⁹

Proverbs 6:17–19 (ESV) — 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, 19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

Lying is a detestable act to God.
It’s an abomination that He hates.
With all the lying and deception that we are seeing in our world today on all levels, is it fair to say that we have some greedy liars on planet earth?

Impurity: Abominable Sins

The word ‘abomination’ occurs 117 times in the Old Testament.
Here is the first place it occurs in the Bible.

Genesis 43:32 (ESV) — 32 They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.

The Egyptians would not eat with the descendants of Abraham because to do so was an abomination to them.

Impurity: An ‘Abominables’ List

So, in Genesis 43 we have the first occurrence of the word ‘abomination’ but, there are other ‘abominables’ in scripture.

Abominable Offerings

Isaiah 1:13 (ESV) — 13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

Vain offerings are an abomination to the Lord.
They are detestable to Him.
To walk together with God, you must love what He loves and hate what he hates.
I am not talking about people here — God doesn’t despise people — He loves people but He despises what they do.
What are vain offerings?
It is where one is knowingly continuing to sin while going through the motions of religious duties.
I’m talking about impurity here.
Israel knowingly continued to sin all the while they were snorting idols.
They were being certain to offer the seasonal sacrifices mentioned in the Torah, but all the while they were only keeping up appearances.
God considered their offerings useless.
‘Why do you even bother,’ the Lord said.

Micah 2:2 (ESV) — 2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.

They brought their gifts to the altar, knowing that they had just committed an atrocity against their neighbor.
Called all of this stuff vanity – uselessness.

Impurity: Murder Is An Abomination

Ezekiel 22:2 (ESV) — 2 “And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to her all her abominations.

Bloody city, did you hear that?
What is the Lord talking about? — He’s talking about murder — innocent blood being shed.
Premeditated murder is an abomination to the Lord.

Impurity: Dishonesty

Deuteronomy 25:15–16 (ESV) — 15 A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 16 For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the LORD your God.

Dishonest financial dealings are also an abomination to the Lord.

Proverbs 11:1 (ESV) — 1 A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is his delight.

Impurity: Wrong Sex

Wrong sex is an abomination to the Lord.
To walk with God, love what he loves, and hate what He hates.

Adultery

Ezekiel 33:26 (ESV) — 26 You rely on the sword, you commit abominations, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife; shall you then possess the land?

Incest

Ezekiel 22:11 (ESV) — 11 One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter.

Cross Dressing

Deuteronomy 22:5 (ESV) — 5 “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.

Prostitution

Deuteronomy 23:18 (ESV) — 18 You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the LORD your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.

The wages of a dog is God’s expression for a male prostitute.
Prostitution is both men and women.

Same-Sex Sins

Leviticus 18:22 (KJV) — 22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Homosexuality and lesbianism is an abomination unto the Lord.
It’s just as bad as lying.
These abominations are not ranked in terms of severity.
One abomination is not worse than another.
They are all unbecomingly bad in God’s sight, and no follower of God should have any part of any of them.
Repeating, the gay lifestyle is not the only abomination in God’s sight.
Don’t ‘overreact’ to one particular abominable at the expense of all the others.
Testimony of what the Lord said to Sharon about LBQ and all those other letters.

What Is God’s Response to the Gay Lifestyle?

__________
References:

Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 147. ↩
William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 824. ↩
Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 7 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 95. ↩
Source unknown Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002). ↩
Clovis Chappel, Feminine Faces. Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002). ↩
Source unknown Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002). ↩
Frank Buchman, Remaking the World Inc Merriam-Webster, The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Quotations (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1992), 179. ↩
William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 152. ↩
F. N. Peloubet, Suggestive Illustrations on the Gospel according to Matthew (New York: E. R. Herrick & Company, 1897), 386. ↩

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Why God Despises Impurity and Why You Should as Well

Podcast: Light on Life Season Nine Episode Thirty-Three

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in iTunes

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

The last time you followed your conscience, how did it turn out? Please share your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Subscribe to the Podcast

Podcast Notes

Why Greed Is Not Part of the Abundant Life of Jesus

Greedy Impurity: the Definition of the Day

What Contentment Means

Having A Good Eye

Impurity: Things God Despises

Impurity: Abominable Sins

Impurity: An ‘Abominables’ List

Abominable Offerings

Impurity: Murder Is An Abomination

Impurity: Dishonesty

Impurity: Wrong Sex

Adultery

Incest

Cross Dressing

Prostitution

Same-Sex Sins

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in iTunes

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

The last time you followed your conscience, how did it turn out? Please share your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Subscribe to the Podcast

Podcast Notes

Why Greed Is Not Part of the Abundant Life of Jesus

Greedy Impurity: the Definition of the Day

What Contentment Means

Having A Good Eye

Impurity: Things God Despises

Impurity: Abominable Sins

Impurity: An ‘Abominables’ List

Abominable Offerings

Impurity: Murder Is An Abomination

Impurity: Dishonesty

Impurity: Wrong Sex

Adultery

Incest

Cross Dressing

Prostitution

Same-Sex Sins

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