FORNICATION, UNCLEANNESS, COVETOUSNESS
Friday – February 3, 2017
Suddenly it seems that Friday is upon us. Greetings from Eastern Gate Ministries International and The Three Minute Word publications. God is so good. It is time to pray for the Church of Jesus Christ, pray for our focus to remain on the building of the Kingdom of God, to remain on our stewardship of this Covenant nation with the Lord God Almighty. We are individually a light to the world but this nation is God’s instrument of salvation to the world. Now back to our Bible Study.
Ephesians 5:1-5 (KJV)
1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
5 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.
I spoke briefly yesterday about fornication which we are to absolutely avoid physically and spiritually (thoughts in the mind). Equally and perhaps more important is to not allow high places to be built in our thinking. High places are ideas we place above God’s ideas. Sometimes you will get a clue to this when a Scripture is mentioned and then you hear the “yeah but” response. A high place is built and well ensconced. The word ensconced generally means to be hidden however other synonyms are; entrenched, hid, concealed, screened, shielded, or hide away. The evil forces that are assaulting us 24/7 are subtle, cunning, and crafty like their leader, the serpent.
Genesis 3:1 (KJV)
1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
The point I am making is that often we as the target do not even realize that a high place is being erected, this is a deception. The best place to prevent the building of a high place is when the idea is first presented. See what Eve said after the serpent got her to build a high place, placing the serpents ideas above those of God.
Genesis 3:13 (KJV)
13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
The Hebrew word translated ‘beguiled’ in the preceding verse can also be translated as to lead astray, (mentally) to delude, or (morally) to seduce, beguile, or deceive (Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary). What if ‘the woman’ had refused to enter into conversation with the serpent and expelled him immediately from Eden? Who knows, but the Bible would be different. The woman entered into fornication or adultery with the serpent (not a physical act) but by choosing another god, another husband. Today we can chose Jesus as our husband or we can choose the serpent. Which one have we chosen? Hopefully we all get the idea about fornication, don’t have physical or mental sex with anyone that is not your husband or wife, and do not place any idea above the ideas of God.
Ephesians 5:3 (KJV)
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
Well what about uncleanness and covetousness? First let’s take a look at uncleanness. The following edited material is taken from The Complete Word Study Dictionary – New Testament which is a wonderful study tool, you can obtain in physical book form or electronic, I have it as part of an electronic library with WORDsearch 11. Uncleanness or filth in a natural or physical sense; moral uncleanness, lewdness, incontinence in general, avarice; any kind of uncleanness different from whoredom; any unnatural pollution, whether acted out by oneself, or with another. Synonyms: defilement; filth; obscenity, impurity; moral defilement; a soiling, defilement; lasciviousness, wantonness; contamination, uncleanness; foulness, pollution; stain, blemish defect, spot; stigma, mark scar. Antonyms: pureness, purity; cleanliness, purity; a cleansing; cleanness, purification. Uncleanness includes homosexuality and all that would be contained in the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) designation.
Romans 1:24-27 (KJV)
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
As we finish today, what about covetousness? Covetousness is an unrelenting (lust) desire for a certain thing. Covetousness is greediness, a love of money, causes hoarding, is avarice (materialism), and can lead to fraud and extortion (The Complete Word Study Dictionary – New Testament). It is so important, as I hope we all can see, to avoid covetousness. Anything upon which we focus and put time and resources which is not the will of God for us but we persist in obtaining it or attempting to obtain it apart from Him is the exercise of covetousness. If it was good for us He would bring us to it or it to us. That does not mean that just because you can see it or know about it that God brought it to you, let’s get real.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
