Bible Strands
Ephesians 5:3
But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Ephesian church immediately after commanding them to walk in Christ’s sacrificial love and just before contrasting forbidden speech with thanksgiving.
The words — πορνεία (porneia) denotes sexual immorality, while πλεονεξία (pleonexia) denotes covetousness.
The thread — The text links these terms to Colossians 3:5, Ephesians 5:5, and Galatians 5:19, where similar lists of fleshly acts appear.
Why it lands — The verse commands believers to eliminate even hints of these behaviors from their community life, treating them as incompatible with the identity of saints.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
Cross-references
- Colossians 3:5 Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
- Ephesians 5:5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
- Galatians 5:19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;
- 1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:3 For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;
- 1 Thessalonians 4:7 For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.
- 1 Corinthians 6:13 “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will destroy them both. The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
- Ephesians 5:12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.
- Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.
- 1 Corinthians 10:8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.