You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
5 For[gar] this[touto] ye know[este],[ginosko] that[hoti] no[ou][pas] whoremonger,[pornos] nor[e] unclean person,[akathartos] nor[e] covetous man,[pleonektes] who[hos] is[esti] an idolater,[eidololatres]
hath[echo] any inheritance[kleronomia] in[en] the kingdom[basileia] of Christ[Christos] and[kai] of God.[theos] KJV-Interlinear
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. NASB
While seemingly simple from a cursory reading, this verse is really quite complicated and yet thorough.
The one point here that you need to be aware of is that, this verse mentions inheritance, not salvation, and that is extremely important.
Many a family member has been cut out of a will, receiving no inheritance, even though they are still a member of a family. Once a member of a family, your membership cannot be cancelled. You cannot unborn yourself out of a family, regardless of what you think, or do, or even want or believe.
But, you can move yourself out of an inheritance, by your bad behavior.
And that bad behavior is what we have been studying throughout this book of Ephesians. The overall subject of Ephesians is the Church. The Church consists of all believers in Christ from Adam to the last person who will ever believe in Christ at the end of the Millennium.
The Church is also a term that refers to believers in our current dispensation. Our dispensation emphasizes all peoples and is not restricted to the terms and concepts of Jews and Gentiles as was used in the Old Testament.
But unbelievers are never a part of the Church, unless they believe in Christ and then they enter into Gods family, Gods nation, and Gods church as it were.
Once saved, always saved. Eternal security is a fundamental principle of Christianity. There is nothing that you can do to lose your salvation. Being saved you are born again, which simply means that when you believed in Christ, God created a human spirit in you and imputed eternal life into your human spirit. That spirit becomes an integral and permanent part of your essence, and you cannot break off any aspect of your own essence, from yourself.
Our subject and context is your behavior, and more specifically your treatment of the Holy Spirit as to whether you will allow God to run your life or the sin nature.
Grieving the Holy Spirit is when you pursue non-spiritual activities in your daily thoughts and activities. Only believers can grieve the Holy Spirit. Unbelievers do not have the Holy Spirit in them, and therefore this concept does not apply to them.
When you have lived your life, die, and then move on to heaven, then there you will remain until the resurrection.
Our resurrection is the Rapture. And after our resurrection, we will all stand before the Lord, and be evaluated.
The content of our life is the subject of that evaluation.
If, you have pursued the spiritual life as it is supposed to have been pursued, then you will have some spiritual growth and spiritual production to show for your spiritual efforts. If you have pursued the carnal life, then you will have no spiritual growth or production to show for your life.
Your evaluation before Christ, reveals your spiritual activity and that determines your spiritual blessings for eternity. Much spiritual growth and production means much blessing. Little or no spiritual growth or production means little or no blessing.
In either case, you will still be in heaven with your resurrection body. It is just the extra perks and benefits that are in question. And since those blessings will be there forever, they are potentially infinite in value, and that is a lot to give up, by merely ignoring your spiritual responsibilities now in this life.
And so, the terms whoremonger, unclean, covetous, idolater, and such, all refer to the believer who lives the carnal life rather than the spiritual life.
The spiritual life is defined by God, not you. The spiritual life demands your residence in fellowship, your daily study of doctrine, your learning and growth and use of Gods truth in your life.
What is at stake, is your eternal inheritance. You reap what you sow. So, plant sin and human good and such and you'll get nothing at harvest time. However, plant doctrine and live the spiritual life as God defines it, and your harvest will be phenomenal for all of eternity. Any and all pretense and attempts to do things your own way, are not the spiritual life. The spiritual life must be pursued in accordance with God terms, not yours.
The Bible defines eternal blessings as being beyond your imagination, and that makes them huge, and far beyond huge.
