Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. – Ephesians 5:6-7
According to my count, on eight occasions, the New Testament specifically admonishes us not to be deceived:
Take heed that no one deceives you… -Matthew 24:4, Mark 13:5, Luke 21:8
Do not be deceived… – 1 Corinthians 6:9
Do not be deceived… – 1 Corinthians 15:33
Do not be deceived… – Galatians 6:7
Let no one deceive you… – Ephesians 5:6
Let no one deceive you by any means… – 2 Thessalonians 2:3
Do not be deceived… – James 1:16
Let no one deceive you… – 1 John 3:7
It seems reasonable that whenever the Holy Spirit inspired these apostolic writers to warn against deception, it meant that these were particular areas in which we might be more prone to deception. Or, it means that the consequences of being deceived in these ways are particularly dire. Or both. This being so, it would do us well to consider these texts very carefully.
Of these eight admonitions, two have to do with the end of days; the other six have to do with sin. The two regarding the end times is another subject for another day. But the other six have one message: Beware of any teaching that suggests that a person can live in sin and still be saved.
In Ephesians Five, the apostle Paul lists sins that were pervasive in the city of Ephesus and a source of temptation to the new believers there. Ephesus was a great Roman city, and just like all big cities, there were many opportunities to indulge the baser desires. Paul’s preaching to the Ephesians was to bring them out of that darkness into the light of the gospel. He preached that they should put off that old man with his deeds and put on the new man, created in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 4:22-24). But, being aware of Satan’s devices (2 Corinthians 2:11), he knew that certain teachers would creep in to teach damnable heresies (2 Peter 2:11), turning the grace of the Lord Jesus into lewdness(Jude 1:4). And how tempting any religion is that grants us some kind of indulgence of the flesh! If Satan can trap you in sin and comfort your conscience with religious overtures, he has both a soul won and an ambassador made. It is for this reason that Paul felt the urging of the Spirit to write: “Let no one deceive you with empty words…”
It is worth examining the sins that Paul addresses in these passages. He says:
But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints. – Ephesians 5:3
By ‘fornication,’ Paul is referring to any kind of sexual behavior outside of marriage. This includes adultery, prostitution, casual sex, and cohabitation. ‘Uncleanness’ is a broad term referring to sexual deviance; it is often used to condemn sexual behavior that may not fit under the category of adultery or fornication. Anything that seeks to indulge in sexual lust would fall under this category.
‘Covetousness’ means to be greedy for things, money or otherwise. Anyone whose heart is set on the things of this world is a covetous and idolatrous person. It is the worship and love of created things over the Creator; it is looking to the world for fulfillment. It is idolatry. Are you a covetous person? Examine what your heart truly loves and longs for. If it is anything other than God and His kingdom, you are a covetous person.
Paul speaks strongly against these sins. They are so antithetical to the gospel that he says, “Let it not even be named among you.” In other words, these behaviors you indulged in before Christ should be so far from your hearts and lives that they aren’t even mentioned. We should be so clean and holy as a people that we don’t mention these things because no one is doing them. People outside of Christ are doing them, but not those in Christ. Christ desires His church to be “a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25-27).
This is why Paul was so strict regarding this topic. He preached a gospel of grace and forgiveness. All could come and be cleansed and brought into the fold, even those with the vilest of backgrounds. Indeed, speaking to the Corinthians, he gives a long list of vile sins and says, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified , but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). But he didn’t stammer when addressing the issue of those who embrace those practices while still claiming to be a Christian:
I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolator, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner–not even to eat with such a person. – 1 Corinthians 5:9-11
Being a Christian meant leaving those vices behind, being freed from them by Christ. Those caught up in them again are like a “dog returning to its vomit or a pig to its wallowing in the mire.” The Bible says, “it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them” (2 Peter 2:20-22).
I ache for the modern church. I believe we have good intentions, but we are far from being the church that is holy and without spot. Both my experiences and intuition tell me that the church is not where it needs to be regarding sexual ethics. I used to be shocked to hear various reports of those in the church who regularly engaged in behaviors condemned in the scripture. I’m not shocked anymore.
And our culture, especially in the South, is one in which most people will call themselves Christian. Yet, at the same time, most will engage in fornication and cohabit without any reservation. They would acknowledge Christ and call themselves ‘saved,’ but they are ignorant or deceived regarding this subject, a subject that the Bible specifically warns us not to be deceived about.
I met a nice young man once on the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD, while doing evangelism. He was probably in his mid-twenties. He came over to me with a big smile on his face, thanking me for being out sharing the word. I asked him, “Are you a Christian?” He said, “Oh yes.” I asked if he was going to church on a regular basis. He said that he was. We conversed back and forth for quite a while. He was very familiar with the Bible. I asked if I could pray with him about anything, and he mentioned that he and his girlfriend were having some issues and would appreciate prayer for that. So I asked him, “Are you sleeping with your girlfriend?” He paused and said, “Yes.”
Now, I want to consider this story. The young man called himself a Christian. He went to church. He knew a lot about the Bible. Yet he wasn’t at all concerned about his illicit relationship with his girlfriend. He was so unconcerned about it that he even asked me to pray for their relationship.
I think this is common in many churches today. This is for two reasons:
1- Many don’t teach this subject because people don’t like hearing about it.
2- Many churches teach that salvation is by faith alone and secure no matter what we do.
In my adult life, I can’t remember any instance of any church I’ve been to preaching on this subject in a meaningful way. This doesn’t mean they haven’t, it just means it is not a subject that is spoken about enough. This is out of step with the practice of the apostles, who mentioned it in almost all their letters. The apostles wrote about it because it was common in their societies in those days. It was a subject that needed to be addressed. Why don’t we ever talk about it? Is it not a subject that needs to be addressed in our society? We are dangerously close to being a people who “do not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
And what about this heretical teaching that is so pervasive in the church today, that a person can be living in unrepentant sin yet still enter into heaven? Are people teaching this? Yes.
Allan Parr, a popular Christian YouTuber, who I regard as a Christian brother, teaches this exact thing. In his video entitled, “How is SECRET Sin Dangerous and Can I Still Be Saved if I’m Struggling with it?” he defines secret sin as: “a sin that you have essentially made up in your mind that you are going to continue to entertain because it brings you temporary pleasure.” He specifically refers to sexual sins. Then, he proceeds to speak about the consequences of secret sins. The first consequence he mentions is that those who continue in their sin will either pay for it now with some earthly consequence or pay for it later by losing rewards in heaven:
“It’s either going to be a pay now or pay later situation; you’re either going to pay for it now in this life in some way, shape, or form at some point, or you’re going to pay later whenever we stand before the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ, and we see certain rewards that we could have gotten, but we are not going to be able to get because we will have forfeited those rewards through sin. We won’t lose our salvation, but we will have forfeited things that God wants to bestow upon us.”
Allan Parr has over a million followers on YouTube, and he is far from the only preacher who teaches this, whether online or in the pulpit.
Another brother that I know personally and have preached with on the college campuses teaches this same thing. I was astonished to hear this from him, for I regard him as a good brother, a faithful preacher of the Word of God. As we conversed one day, we stumbled upon this very topic and began to disagree. He asserted that a person who puts his faith in Jesus is saved no matter what he does, period. So I asked him plainly:
“If a man came to you and said, ‘I believe in Jesus and want to be saved, but I am living in an adulterous affair, and I am unwilling to give it up,’ would you say he could be saved without giving it up?”
Without hesitation, he said, “Yes.”
These are only two of many encounters of this kind.
Yet, who am I to disagree? I don’t have one million followers on YouTube. Nor do I have a big church or large following. How can I say that I am right and they are wrong?
It’s true that I am nothing, and I know my status won’t persuade anyone. But I would simply desire that everyone would read for themselves and see what the Bible plainly says. Can it mean anything other than what it says? Is it hard to interpret these verses? Is the meaning obscure? Judge for yourself:
For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. – Ephesians 5:5-7
Those who deny the plain reading of this text will say that it refers to unbelievers, that it is the unbelievers who commit these things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Really? This is what Paul is so concerned about when he warns these Christians with the words, “Let no one deceive you”? He’s concerned that the church might think that unbelieving sinners will inherit the kingdom of God? They know they won’t! The deception is that those who confess Christ, yet persist in sin, will inherit the kingdom of God. They will not.
Jesus also spoke about this very subject:
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall inherit the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!” – Jesus (Matthew 7:21-23)
Conclusion
The warnings of Scripture are clear and unambiguous: we must not be deceived into thinking that we can live in unrepentant sin and still inherit the kingdom of God. The message of Ephesians 5:5-7, along with the repeated admonitions throughout the New Testament, is a call to holiness and transformation—a life where we leave behind the darkness of sin and walk as children of light.
This is not a message of condemnation but one of urgency and love. The gospel is the good news that through Christ, we are offered forgiveness, redemption, and the power to live a new life. But it is also a call to forsake the old ways of sin and embrace a life that reflects the righteousness of God.
In a world and even a church culture where sin is often minimized or excused, we must hold fast to the truth of Scripture. We must lovingly, but firmly, remind one another that salvation is not a license to sin but a call to freedom from it. As the church, we are to be a holy people, not blending in with the world but standing apart as lights in the darkness.
Let no one deceive you with empty words. Instead, let us heed the warnings of God’s Word, repent of our sins, and pursue the holiness to which Christ has called us. May we strive to be a church without spot or wrinkle, ready to meet our Savior with joy and confidence on the day of His return.
Hal Chaffee Ministries 