Instead Let There Be Thanksgiving
Ephesians 5:4 – Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving, Part 2
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time – November 8th, 2026 (am)
I have a dirty mind and there just doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about it. Those are the words I heard from a young man who was sitting in my study on a beautiful summer afternoon several years ago. He was a tough, athletic, nice-looking guy whose eyes were filled with tears due to the weight of his sin. He said that his thought-life was like a runaway stallion: he was never sure where it would go, or whether there was any limit to its strength. He was just hanging on for dear life trying not to be thrown off at full gallop. He wanted to talk was because he was supposed to play in a beach volleyball outing a few days later, but he just didn’t want to feed the stallion anymore.
What a desperate picture this is. But I’m certain it describes many others who’ve just not learned how to be so honest in their confessions, or so vivid in their descriptions. There’s nothing quite so unsettling as the realization that the source of our problem is internal, not external—I’ve met the enemy, and it is I! What are we supposed to do at such times? How do we survive? How do we overcome?
Bottom line, I do believe we can win the battle for purity of mind and heart and mouth. Even though there are whole stages of life during which we can feel entirely outmatched, victory is possible. And some of the best help comes from what I believe is an entirely surprising direction.
Enter, today’s text, Ephesians 5:4. Let’s listen to it in context: 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no 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. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
Let’s remind ourselves of what Paul is doing in this letter toward appreciating more fully what we just read.
Following the Flow of Ephesians
This city of Ephesus was a pretty interesting place. The ancient geographer Strabo called it the greatest [marketplace and trading center] in the province of Asia (Baugh). It was located on the coast of the Aegean Sea in what today is western Turkey. It was the location of the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. But that also made Ephesus an occult center, as we can read with some clarity in Acts 19. Paul first visited the city in Acts 18:19-21, at the end of his second missionary journey. That was just a short visit, but he promised to come back (Act.18:21).
Acts 19 is where we read that, when he returned on his third journey, 8 … he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. In total, he spent about three years in Ephesus (Act.20:31), his longest stay in any one city.
But this wasn’t the only challenging experience he had there. Ephesus was also the city where 11 … God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Whenever God purposes to work this conspicuously, we can be sure that the enemy has claimed a lot of ground. 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists, think about that, undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were also doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, saying, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man [who had] the evil spirit leaped on them, [and overpowered all of them], so that they fled out of [the] house naked and wounded.
Luke then records that 17 … this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. Many came to faith in Christ in Ephesus. 18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. If a piece of silver was roughly a day’s wage for a laborer, as we believe (Marshall 331, Polhill 406), this total represents the yearly earnings of nearly 160 people.
But that’s still not all. All of that led to a riot in Ephesus. It broke out when a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, organized the craftsmen (24) and 25 … [those] in similar trades, and said to them, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. 26 And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. 27 And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.” 28 When they heard this they were enraged and [began] crying out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” This turned into a loud and widespread disturbance that continued on for about two hours (Act.19:34). Suffice it to say that Ephesus was an established urban center with its own civic identity and religious practices. And those were being disrupted, even discredited, by Paul’s ministry.
Even so, as people embraced the gospel, much basic instruction needed to be given to help them know how to live under the Lordship of Christ (Eph.1:9-10) and walk in a manner worthy of [their] calling (4:1), all to the praise of God’s glory (1:6, 12, 14). And Paul was in the middle of giving that instruction in the passage we just read. He began a lengthy section filled with imperative in the middle of c.4. In short, Eph.4:17 … 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. So, they needed to 22 to put off [their] old self, which belongs to [their] former manner of life and is corrupt…, 23 and they needed to be renewed in the spirit of [their] minds. They needed 24 … to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. They needed to 29 [l]et no corrupting talk come out of [their] mouths, but only such as is good for building up…, so that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And [they must] not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom [they] were sealed for the day of redemption. Bottom line, they needed to be sanctified!
That’s enough background to appreciate where we are here as c.5 opens. In essence, they needed to 5:1 … be imitators of God, as beloved children. They needed to 2 … walk in love, as Christ loved [them] and gave himself up for [them], a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. So, what does this look like? Where do they begin? They begin by no longer living like the Gentiles do… (4:17), greedy to practice every kind of impurity (4:19). They must flee 3 … sexual immorality, and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among [them] …. And there must be 4 … no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
We could take a while to dig into all the detail here of what qualifies as sexual immorality, impurity, and covetousness—idolatry (Col.3:5; cf. Eph.5:5). But, first, the niv rendering of v.3 gives us a pretty good idea: But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for the Lord’s people. Paul is picking up again here on his opening instruction: no living like the Gentiles (4:17), no impurity (4:19); no corrupting talk (4:29), no hint of sexual immorality or impurity or greed, of any kind. All of these are improper for the Lord’s people (3), and not so that we can boast in our pristine purity, but because all these are traps in which we can far too easily be ensnared while we’re still in our flesh. And we’ve been freed from them by the fragrant offering and sacrifice to God which was made on our behalf through the love of Christ (1). This is what that young man in my study need to experience.
This means we’re actually free not only of all the literal expressions of sexual immorality and impurity, but of the draw toward them, the temptation, the fantasy—free from the lure of all types of screens even when no one is around. V.3 speaks more of actions, v.4 of words—speech, whether serious or joking. We’re actually free of all this in Christ! A greater love has won us over once the eyes of [our] hearts have been enlightened to the hope to which [God] has called [us], the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and… the immeasurable greatness of his power [that is at work within we] who believe (1:18-19).
Some of you may think I’m over-promising in saying that even the traps of temptation, fantasy, lure, and draw have all been sprung for us in Christ. But I’ve chosen my words carefully. Our problem is that, in our flesh, when we’re really battling all these different kinds of impurity, we tend to dumb down what freedom will actually look like so that we might better be able to imagine it. But the net result is that we undersell the freedom we can know, truly, in Christ.
Recognizing the Role of Thanksgiving
So, what is the route toward this freedom? What are the wings on which we fly from the traps of filthiness, foolish talk, and crude joking? 4 … Instead let there be thanksgiving. The word is εὐχαριστία, grace (Calvin 306). Most simply put, gracious speech replaces corrupt speech (Foulkes 147). But thanks or thanksgiving is by far the favored translation; it’s just good to note that χάρις (grace) is its root. The best way to think about it, I believe, in the most practical of terms, is that when our hearts are clinging to the gospel of grace by faith—just holding on for dear life to the love of Christ expressed to us at the cross to the point where we’re deeply grateful for His saving work—thanksgiving will begin to flow freely from our mouths. Jesus said it best: Mat.12:34 … out of the [fullness] of the heart the mouth speaks.
We should note two things here: first, practically, when thanksgiving is flowing freely out of our hearts through our mouths, there’s simply no opportunity for filthiness, foolish talk, or crude joking (4) to express itself. But second, and perhaps even more central, when thanksgiving begins flowing freely out of our hearts through our mouths such that there’s no opportunity for filthiness, foolish talk, or crude joking (4), we begin to lose all appreciation for those things. We lose our admiration for the wittiness, the double meaning, the crass imagery. The intentional exercise of thanksgiving displacing filthiness, of gracious speech displacing corrupt speech, begins to change not just our speech but our thoughts, our mindset, our perspective. Sanctification is taking place! We’re being transformed by the renewal of [our] mind (Rom.12:2). We’re being renewed in knowledge in the image of [our] creator (Col.3:10). We’re being freed from the trap!
Conclusion
So, there’s our takeaway, today. We learned last week that thanksgiving should be our default disposition toward God. It blesses his name (Psa.100:4). Today we learn that thanksgiving also blesses us. It’s God’s appointed means to free us from the trap of sexual immorality and all impurity, of covetousness (3), of filthiness, foolish talk, and crude joking (4). I would say it’s one of the primary outcomes when we Rom.12:1 … present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice… to God… and begin to be 2 … transformed by the renewal of [our] mind…. Thanksgiving just begins to well up in our hearts to the extent that it starts flowing out of our mouths!
Men, from yesterday’s Retreat, thanksgiving blazes the trail toward contentment in godliness (cf. 1Ti.6:6). We might even say that thanksgiving is the expression, the voice, of contentment.
But here in our text today, thanksgiving springs the trap of all sorts of filthiness that can ensnare us so quickly in this world.
Let’s go now to the table of thanksgiving.
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Resources
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, gen. ed. 2002. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary. Vol. 3, Romans-Philemon. Ephesians, by Clinton E. Arnold, 300-340. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Beale, G. K., & D. A. Carson, eds. 2007. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Ephesians, by Frank S. Thielman, 813-833. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.
Bruce, F. F., Gordon D. Fee, & Ned B. Stonehouse., gen. eds. 1984. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, by F. F. Bruce. Ephesians, 227-442. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Calvin, John. 1854. Commentary on the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians, trans, by William Pringle. Ephesians, 189-344. Logos.
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, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham, eds. 1994. New Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition. Acts, by Conrad Gempf, 1066-1107. Ephesians, by Max Turner, 1222-1244. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.
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Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. 2003, third printing. Ephesians, eight volumes. Grand Rapids: Baker.
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, ed. 1989. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Vol. 10, Ephesians, by Francis Foulkes. Downers Grove: InterVarsity.
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Osborne, Grant R. 2017. Osborne New Testament Commentaries. Ephesians: Verse by Verse. Bellingham, WA: Lexham.
Sproul. R. C. 1994. The Purpose of God: An Exposition of Ephesians. Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus.
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NEXT SUNDAY: Enter His Gates with Thanksgiving: Part 3, By Prayer... with Thanksgiving, Philippians 4:6