Ephesians Chapter 5 verse 3 Holy Bible
But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints;
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But evil acts of the flesh and all unclean things, or desire for others' property, let it not even be named among you, as is right for saints;
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But fornication and all uncleanness or unbridled lust, let it not be even named among you, as it becomes saints;
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But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
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But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;
read chapter 5 in WEB
and whoredom, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints;
read chapter 5 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerses 3-21. - THE WALK SUITABLE TO THE CHILDREN OF LIGHT. Verse 3. - But. Another of the remarkable contrasts of this Epistle; the fumes of lust are doubly odious in contact with the sweet savor of Christ's offering. Fornication and all impurity, or covetousness. The combination of covetousness with sins of the flesh, occurring several times in the apostle's writings (1 Corinthians 5:11; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5), is rather unexpected. Πλεονεξία, covetousness, means the desire of having more, which is peculiarly true of sensual sins; but it is not coupled with them by a καὶ, but disjoined by an η}, indicating something of another class. In the mind of the apostle, sensuality was inseparable from greed, unnatural craving for more, dissatisfaction with what was enough; hence the neighborhood of the two vices. Let it not be even named among you, as becometh saints. The practice of such sins was out of the question; but even speaking of them, as matters of ordinary conversation, was unsuitable for saints; the very conversation of Christians must be pure. The exhortation bears on Christians in their social relations; had the apostle been treating of the duty of the individual, he would have urged that such sins should never be admitted even to the thoughts or the imagination.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(3b) Ephesians 5:3-14 warn, with even greater fulness and emphasis, against the sins of impurity and lust, as incompatible with membership of the kingdom of heaven, as works of darkness, impossible to those who are children of light.(3) But fornication, and all uncleanness, or Christian light covetousness.--"Fornication" is closely joined (as in 2Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Colossians 3:5) with "uncleanness," of which general sin it is a flagrant species. It is distinguished (as also in Colossians 3:5) from "covetousness," or greediness. "Uncleanness" is a sin against our own body and soul (see 1Corinthians 6:18); "covetousness" (literally, the insatiable desire for more) is a sin against our neighbour. At the same time, the constant connection of the two words suggests the truth which is conveyed by the union of the two kinds of "coveting" in the Tenth Commandment, viz., that the temper of selfish and unbridled concupiscence has a two-fold direction--to the covetousness of lust, and to the covetousness of avarice--the one perhaps especially a vice of youth, and the other of old age. . . .
