This message from Ephesians 5:1-20 calls us to the purity “Unleaded Spirituality”!
In the 1950’s you would have found Clair Patterson in a sterile laboratory counting lead isotopes in ancient rocks. It’s an unusual way to spend time. And it’s not how Patterson intended to do his work. Patterson was working on a major project to calculate an age for the earth using a dating system that required him to accurately measure the amount of lead in rocks. He took his first samples from the field but his samples were contaminated with elevated levels of lead, around 200 times the natural amount. Patterson was forced into a sterile lab because he couldn’t find any uncontaminated sample.
Eventually he completed his project of calculating an age of the earth to his satisfaction. But he had some questions. Where was all that lead coming from? And he found answers. His efforts led to the Clean Air Act of 1970, literally impacting every breath we take. Patterson was one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century but many of us are not familiar with who he is. And there is a reason for that. Clair Patterson spoke up about where all that lead was coming from and there were powerful people who were determined to silence his voice because it threatened the industry that made them rich.
In 1921, a year before Patterson was born, there was another scientist in another lab who made another discovery involving lead. Thomas Midgley found that when tetra-ethyl lead was used as an additive to gasoline it reduced knocking in engines. It was easy to produce and there was a huge market for it. By February 1, 1923, just after Thomas Midgley took time off to recover from lead poisoning, the Ethyl Gas Company made leaded gasoline additives available to the public.
The general public had some idea of the dangers of lead. Yet it was still used in many consumer products. It was the base for the paint on walls, it was used to seal canned foods, it lined the inside of water tanks, it was in the pesticides sprayed on fruit. I first heard this story from Bill Bryson’s book, a Short History of Nearly Everything. Bryson explains, “among the many symptoms associated with over exposure [to lead] are blindness, insomnia, kidney failure, hearing loss, cancer, palsies and convulsions. In its most acute form it produces abrupt and terrifying hallucinations, disturbing to victim and onlookers alike. Which generally then give way to coma and death. You really don’t want to get too much lead into your system.” Lead is a neurotoxin and, after 1923, it was puffing out of exhaust pipes around the world.
People started taking notice when they heard about some disturbing symptoms among those who worked for the Ethyl Gas company. Workers were dying, becoming dangerously ill and suffering irreversible neurological damage. Naturally, the gas company wanted to keep all this quiet. Labeling a product as poisonous is bad for business. Thomas Midgley even held public demonstrations in which he poured tetra-ethyl lead over his hands and held a beaker of it under his nose for 60 seconds attempting to convince journalists that it was harmless. He knew better. The stuff had nearly killed him. But it also had made him a lot of money. Meanwhile the burning of leaded gasoline continued to contaminate our planet.
Clair Patterson knew it. To show that the elevated levels of lead in our atmosphere were due to the burning of leaded gas Patterson sampled ice cores. He worked through annual layers of ice to see how the current lead levels related to those in the past. He found that prior to 1923, the year leaded gas additives went on the market, there was nearly no lead in earth’s atmosphere. It was this kind of study that gained Patterson some powerful enemies who wanted him to be silenced.
In 1986 the US took leaded gas off the market. The lead levels in the blood of Americans fell by 80% leaving us with only around 600 times the lead in our bodies as people had before 1923.
For over 60 years leaded gases made some people quite rich. And for over 60 years leaded gases puffed irreversible toxins into our atmosphere.
Before we condemn people who have benefited from the sale of leaded fuel additives, we should examine ourselves. If we love the payoff enough, we too will allow deadly toxins into our lives. A desire for the benefits of sin will silence the voice of the Holy Spirit that exposes its danger.
FILL YOUR SPIRITUAL TANK WITH UNLEADED FUEL!
Ephesians chapter 5 invites us into the purity of unleaded spirituality with commands like, “be imitators of God” (v1), “walk in love” (v2), “walk as children of light” (v8), “take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” (v10), “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise” (v15), and “be filled with the Spirit” (v18).
This is not a call to fill our lives with reduced lead fuel but with unleaded fuel. The exhaust pipes of our spiritual life should burn clean. If we are fueled with toxins it will contaminate the atmosphere of our lives. Sin is not one of those things that is good when done in moderation. It is sugar-coated death. Fill your spiritual tank with unleaded fuel!
LET’S EXPOSE SOME OF THE TOXIC ADDITIVES ON THE MARKET!
We are surrounded by impurities that are common but not safe, socially acceptable but destructive. We don’t have a sterile lab to protect from contamination. We live in this sin sick world. A few of these common toxins are listed in Ephesians chapter 5.
The list begins with sexual immorality, a toxin that is responsible for so much of our brokenness. If this is where you have been contaminated or tempted know that you are not alone and that God loves you. But run! It’s toxic! Sexual immorality will destroy our relationships, it will wound the people who trusted us, it will forfeit intimacy with God, and it will never satisfy. Maybe you are exposed to sexual immorality but it wasn’t your choice. You were hurt by the impurity of someone else or maybe you are still being hurt. You also are not alone and God loves you! Do all you can to get to a place where you are not exposed to these toxins. Continuing to keep it in the dark won’t help anyone.
Sexual immorality is so common that we have a hard time recognizing what sexual purity is. Scripture is diligent to show us what is pure. Without doing a full study we can summarize biblical sexual purity as a beautiful thing that God designed to be enjoyed between a husband and wife. When we stray from God’s intention for sexuality, we find sexual expressions that are impure and destructive.
The next on the list is “all impurity”. A bit of a general item. Anything that is impure is something that we should have zero tolerance for.
The next toxin is covetousness. So much of our wrong actions are motivated by covetousness. Coveting is an enemy of contentment, gratitude, and faith. Rather than trusting that God will supply all our needs, covetousness makes us feel as though God has withheld from us something that we want or deserve. The text makes it clear that covetousness is idolatry (v5).
The final toxin is foolish talk and crude joking. We try to deny the weight of our words by saying, “I was just joking”. But we are warned that impure speech is toxic.
Consider this list of toxins. How are they contaminating your life?
One way to see the extent to which our culture is infected is to consider what would happen to our economy if we took these toxins off the market. A pandemic is an economic crisis. But what do you suppose would happen if we couldn’t make a single dollar off of sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness or crude joking? The entertainment industry would crumble. And every product that is sold by a seductive photo or an appeal to covetousness would no longer make a profit. The few toxic sins listed in Ephesians chapter 5 drive sells for most industries and contaminate our culture. We are to have nothing to do with them.
If you have any doubts about the seriousness of impurities in our lives read verses 5 and 6. Sin does not inherit eternal life. We are not looking at a warning label that reads, “Side effect may include…”. Death is not a side effect of sin. It’s a direct effect! It would be deceptive to say it “may include” when the Scripture says, “you may be sure” (v5). Verse 6 says, “Let no one deceive you with empty words”. That is what Thomas Midgley was trying to do when he poured tetra-ethyl lead over his hands and assured the journalists that it was harmless. Satan is producing endless demonstrations of empty words to minimize the deadliness of sin and maximize the benefits.
If we love the payoff enough we will allow deadly toxins into our lives. A desire for the benefits of sin will silence the voice of the Holy Spirit that exposes its danger.
Messages that expose sin and call us to purity can easily beat us up. They can also do something much more helpful. They can wake us up. I don’t want this to be a beat-us-up message, I want it to be a wake-us-up message. This is the intention of the text when it cries out, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you”!
Let’s awake to the deadliness of sin and the beauty of purity.
As we hear these truths let’s also hear this crucial clarification. Purity is not about what we must do in order for God to love us or allow us into heaven. He loved us when we were filthy. And He cleanses us. Our desire for unleaded spirituality is not a legalistic effort to get ourselves clean but a dependence on God to deliver us from evil. A desperate desire to not be fueled with toxins but with the purity of Jesus.
I offer you an image that I hope can stay with you a long time and routinely call you to Jesus. From now on, whenever you go to the gas pump and you see the word UNLEADED, think PURITY. As you fill your gas tank think about what you are fueling your life with. And refuse to pump spiritual toxins into your tank. If you drive a diesel just go along with it. You can look at the unleaded sign too. Notice, you can choose your fuel grade but you can’t choose lead. When you stand before the fuel pump of Jesus Christ unleaded is the only option. Come to Jesus, lift the nozzle, select your grade and begin fueling. And when your tank is full the nozzle will click and you will be sent on your way with the message, “Thank you for coming! Please come again!”.
Fill your tank with unleaded fuel!
LET’S MAKE THIS A CONVERSATION!
What spiritual lessons do you find in the history of leaded gasoline additives? How do these things help to illustrate the teaching of Ephesians 5:1-21?
Discuss what it means to “fill your spiritual tank with unleaded fuel” based on Ephesians 5:1-2, 8-11, and 15-21.
Reflect on the “list of toxins” in Ephesians 5:3-5. In ways that are sensitive and appropriate, share how these impurities impact your life and how God has helped you to grow in purity.
When you read these words from Ephesians 5:14,”Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you”, what specific way is God calling you to awake? How do you feel He is calling the Church to awake?