Ephesians 5:4

“nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting: but rather giving of thanks”

“Nor”: “Goes beyond immorality to vulgarity” (Stott p. 192). These are to be included in those things that are unfit for Christians and which are not even to be named among us. “Filthiness”: Shamefulness, obscenity. “Nastiness” (Lenski p. 596). “Dirty, indecent, and obscene language” (Boles p. 298). God knows that such. thing as "obscenity" exists. Some people try to confuse the issue and they attempt to argue that "obscenity" is in the eye of the beholder. Such is the language of ignorance. If "obscenity" is such. vague category that defies all attempts to nail down what really is obscene, then why does everyone use the same basic words when they desire to "cuss” and “swear"?. mean, why is the language of obscenity so easy to find and identify? And why it is so easy to point out the person who is using it? The same point applies to obscenity in print or pictures. How is it that people who want obscenity know exactly where to buy it and the people dealing in this "vague” and supposedly “undefinable” realm, know exactly what to stock? “Foolish talking”: “Impious, silly, godless speech without forethought and wisdom” (Caldwell p. 232). “Is the talk of. fool, the man who does not know God (Psalms 14:1)” (Boles p. 298). “Jesting”: “Suggestive jesting” (Wms). “Coarse jokes” (Tay). “Witty talk that is corrupted by. smutty intention,. nasty insinuation which raises. laugh at the expense of someone's good name” (Boles p. 298). Someone has said that the cheapest form of "wit" is that which depends upon. four-letter word or dirty joke to get. laugh. God is not against laughter (Ecclesiastes 2:4), and in fact God has. very good sense of humor, see Matthew 7:1. But God is against the "humor of this world", where getting the laugh or the admiration of men, has become more important than moral purity and truth. Thus we need to avoid “bathroom humor” and see that we keep private things private.

“Which are not befitting”: “Which things are beneath you” (Rhm). “They are wholly out of place among you” (TCNT). Compare with Ephesians 5:3. “But rather”: God always gives us something better to do. God always gives the Christian. better alternative than the world can offer. God always offers. superior product. “Giving of thanks”: “But. sense of all that we owe to God” (Phi). “Whereas sexual impurity and covetousness express self-centered acquisitiveness, thanksgiving is the exact opposite, and so the antidote required; it is the recognition of God's generosity. All God's gifts, including sex, are subjects for thanksgiving, rather than for joking. To joke about them is bound to degrade them; to thank God for them is the way to preserve their worth as the blessings of. loving Creator” (Stott pp. 192-193). “Believers have received so many blessings from God, in grace as well as in nature, that thanksgiving should be. dominant note in their speech as well as in their thought” (Bruce p. 371). The necessary inference is when people are engaged in using obscenity, that such is proof that they are ungrateful. It is easy to lose sight of how bad sin is and to make light of it when one forgets all that God has done.