Stop Making Excuses

Keven Newsome
Jun 5
3 min read

This Is Personal. Sometimes the truth hurts, but it heals too. In this week’s message from Thrive Together, we tackled a section of Ephesians that’s bold and uncomfortable. Paul doesn’t pull punches in Ephesians 5:1–5, and neither did we. It wasn't exactly a fun sermon to preach or to hear. But these kinds of things are sometimes necessary.

So let’s revisit the question we asked Sunda... Are you still making excuses?

The Family Resemblance

Before Paul gives the hard truth, he gives us something beautiful. “Be imitators of God, as dearly loved children…” It’s not about trying to earn God’s love, it’s about living out the love we already have. If you belong to Him, then act like Him. Imitate your Father. Walk in love not in checklist Christianity. Love. Because when you live like a loved child, you begin to look like your father. That’s your starting point. That’s your identity. So before we even get into the heavy parts, let’s remember... this begins with love and is about imitating God.

Kill the Impurity

Paul calls out hard things...sexual immorality, impurity. And he doesn't settle for excuses. He says this stuff shouldn’t even be heard among believers. The Ephesian culture was steeped in this stuff. Festivals, business deals, even religious life were soaked in immorality. And a lot of believers hadn’t fully left it behind.

Sound familiar?

Our culture says it’s harmless. Just a joke. Just entertainment. Just being yourself. But Paul says: Get rid of it. Don’t hide it. Don’t justify it. Kill it.

Because impurity, if left undealt with, will numb your heart, steal your joy, and ruin your intimacy with God. It’ll leak slowly like an air mattress with the faulty pump, barely noticeable until you wake up on the floor.

This isn’t about shame, it’s about freedom. God’s not trying to restrict you. He’s trying to set you free.

Starve the Greed

Paul includes greed in this list and not by accident. Because when you feed your impulses, your impulses grow. Greed isn’t just about money. It’s about a restless craving for more. More stuff, more status, more attention. Greed is the appetite that’s never full.

Paul says that kind of hunger turns into idolatry. And idolatry makes you think your needs and desires matter more than anything else, including people and including God. You can’t thrive spiritually when your soul is always hungry for everything but God.

The remedy? Gratitude. Learn to thank God for what you have instead of obsessing over what you don’t. Starve the greed by feeding your soul with worship.

Clean Up Your Mouth

Then Paul goes after our words, because words reveal our hearts. Crude jokes, degrading sarcasm, careless insults...these aren’t just verbal slip-ups. They show what’s really going on inside.

It’s not just about swearing. It’s about any speech that tears down instead of builds up. You can say “clean” words and still have a unclean heart if your words are passive-aggressive, gossipy, or disrespectful. What comes out of your mouth is a reflection of your heart.

You’re a child of God. Speak like it. Speak to others like they are, too.

No More Excuses

Paul ends this section with a warning that’s hard to swallow. People who persist in these sins and justify them, people who's lifestyles are defined by these things and there's never been any real transformation in their hearts, they have no inheritance in God’s kingdom.

He’s not saying people who struggle are out. He’s saying people who refuse to repent have hearts that don’t belong to God. And eventually, what’s in your heart will come out in your life.

Scandals don’t start on stage. They start in secret.

That’s why Paul starts with love but ends with urgency. Because this is personal. It’s not about your image. It’s not about pretending. It’s about whether your heart belongs to Jesus.

So don’t wait. Don’t justify. Don’t assume it’s “not a big deal.” Make it personal and deal with it.