"All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything. "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"--and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh." But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1Cor. 6:12-20
Part One: You know who you are
You might be reading this blog right now because you are interested to read what I might have to say about the subject of sexual sins and their affect on the church and the Christian. Others of you might be reading because you know of someone who has confided in you a confession of sexual sin that they are scared of confessing and you do not know how to approach the subject. Some of you might be reading because you fear that someone you know is secretly struggling with sexual sins and you do not know how to broach the subject with them. Finally, others of you might be reading because you recognize the sinful habit of sexual immorality in your own life and you desire (some fervently, some reservedly) to mortify your sin and cling more and more upon Christ and the grace of God that has been showered upon you in Him. With such a wide and broad audience of readers with different reasons for reading further, who do I speak to now?
I am speaking to you, dear brother or sister, and to no other. You might have had another purpose or design behind reading this note today, but rest assured that I am going to speak to you personally. I am truly convinced that there is not a single Christian in the U.S. that does not struggle with sexual immorality in one form or another. You might have been reading initially in order to address another person's sin, but know now that I am now addressing you personally and your problem with sexual sins. This is not a subject that many of us fall innocent to. Sadly, in this culture (much like the Corinthians), the church finds itself in the middle of a fest of debauchery and sex. Sex is all around us all of the time. There is nowhere you can run from it or hide from it. You might be thinking to yourself, "We do not have a television or the internet, so I do not have this problem." You are only kidding yourself if you think that you can escape our culture's complete inebriation of sex.
Some of us are more immersed in the popular culture than others, but no one is completely alienated from it. Much like the Corinthian church that Paul addresses in 1 Cor. 6:12-20, the American church has a very real and very dangerous problem: we exist within a very tempting and alluring licentious culture. By the grace of God, we have been saved from our bondage to sin by the finished work of Christ Jesus, nevertheless, "the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. 25:41). We are now Christ's, and you should never forget, "that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Pet. 1:18-19). Our call, therefore, as Christians is to be obedient to the Word of God, not to, "be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy'" (1 Pet. 1:14-16).
We are all called to be holy in all of our conduct. We are all called to glorify God in our bodies. Therefore, each of us can profit from pointing the finger at ourselves (as it certainly properly points) and wrestling with these sexual sins that arguably all of us struggle with. We all struggle in different degrees, and we only lie to ourselves and deceive ourselves if we think that this subject does not apply to us.
Sexual sinners, you know who you are.
You are a young man or a young woman with a curious passion and desire for all things sexual because it is a great mystery to you. Perhaps you are curious about the opposite sex and you must admit that you have gone a little too far at times in your pursuit of extinguishing your curiosity. You speak about sexual subjects that are not edifying with your friends and you do not hesitate to tell or hear a sexual joke. You might not go out of your way to find a picture of a scantly clad woman or man, but when you happen upon one in an advertisement or magazine at the grocery check-out, you do not hesitate to take a moment or two to let you imagination go wild. If this is you, and you know who you are, then you are guilty of sexual sins.
Maybe you are more "innocent" when it comes to sexual sins as a teen. You are content without knowing about sex and giving into your sexual curiosity.The Lord has blessed you with a contentment to keep sex a mystery until you are married. You do have a great desire to get married, though. Searching for that special someone that you hope to spend the rest of your life with, you have gone on a few dates or "outings" with someone that seems to peak your interest. Your intentions are innocent enough as the night begins, but as the night progresses you find yourself being tempted to think of your date in other ways. Perhaps you hold hands. Perhaps you even kiss. You never thought that you would have to admit this, but sexual thoughts about your date did cross your mind at several points throughout the night. If this is you, and you know who you are, then you are guilty of sexual sins.
Perhaps you are a young man or a young woman and your interest in the sexual realm is not as "innocent." You are a hypocrite through and through. You profess faith in Christ and you believe that all sexual sins are abominable in public, but your private life tells a much different story. You play the role of a pious Christian very well around your friends at school and at church, but when nobody is watching, you indulge in the most vile and putrid habits: sexual sin! You find yourself enjoying movies with nudity, indulging in pornographic material on the internet, and you have no desire to stop any time soon. You feel like you are addicted, and part of you wants to stop but the other part desires to see just how deep the rabbit hole goes. In public your profess Christ but in private you are the devil's. Perhaps you feel like you are fighting a battle or perhaps you feel like you have already surrendered to the enemy. You wish you felt more torn about your sexual and sinful problem, but sadly, you have grown quite accustomed to it. If this is you, and you know who you are, then you are guilty of sexual sins.
Perhaps you are not young anymore. You are a grown man or woman. Maybe you are even married. Sex is no longer a mystery to you and all curiosity has been abated. You are happily married and you are very thankful for the man or woman that God has blessed you to spend the rest of your life with in holy matrimony. You are sitting there, watching your favorite TV show and a commercial comes on for Victoria's Secret. Or maybe you are checking your email and an annoying pop-up shows up on your screen. Maybe you are walking around the mall and a group of teenagers dressed less than modestly catches your eye. Perhaps you went to see a movie that your friend suggested and one scene was more provocative than you were expecting. You hate to admit it, but lust filled your heart. Perhaps it was for a nano-second, but for that nano-second your heart was filled with lust for another woman besides your wife. For that brief moment, you had eyes for another man that is not your husband. If this is you, and you know who you are, then you are guilty of sexual sins.
The list can go on and on. We can all guard ourselves from sexual sins, but we all have a tendency to fall. This series is not going to be as nit-picky as these examples seem to be. I merely want everyone to see that we are all not as "innocent" as we think when it comes to sexual sins. There is no such thing as a trivial sin. If all Adam did in the Garden of Eden was think for a brief second about what it would have been like if he was married to Trudy instead of Eve, then man would be just as fallen as we are today. There is no sin so small or so insignificant that God would have let is slide and spared His only begotten Son for our redemption. We need to take all sin seriously. Every sin is an abomination in God's eyes. If Adam's heart had been filled with lust for less than a second for another woman, then Christ's death upon the cross would be necessary for our salvation. If we lived a perfect life and all we did was take a second glance at a Victoria's Secret ad in the newspaper, the most precious blood of Christ would be required to redeem us from sin and God's wrath toward sinners. Take it seriously because it is serious. Never think that you are off the hook, because more than likely, you are not. This applies to you, and the repercussions of your sinful actions are terrible, personally and corporately.
If this subject applies to you, and you know who you are, then take some time to read 1 Cor. 6:12-20 and think about how this passage applies to you and your union with Christ. Consider the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and what state the temple of your body is in and how you are furnishing your heart for the Lord. This subject applies to all of us. We are all guilty of sexual immorality. Some of us more than others. Read this passage, meditate upon in, and pray about it.
We will look more closely at this passage in the next part, but I thought it was necessary and appropriate to first include everyone in the "guilty" category for two reasons. First, none of us should find pride in thinking that we are above this problem and that we are not tempted to sin in a sexual manner. Secondly, those who are suffering with sexual sins in a worse degree than others should certainly not find excuse knowing that they are not the only ones struggling but they hopefully will find it encouraging that they are not alone. Sexual sins are sin, and there is no certain degree of severity to them. The Word of God does not rate sins on a scale from one to ten, making some more heinous and less forgivable than others. The examples I have provided should suffice enough to include everyone in the category of fallen sinners in need of the grace of God. You may think that your sexual sins are so much worse than others, that they require a special wrath of God, and render your salvation and forgiveness more difficult to obtain. Rest assured, there is no sexual immorality that is beyond the saving power of Christ and Him crucified. Salvation and forgiveness is not for us to obtain but to receive. It is a gift from God. No man is worthy of the gift. Paul tells us that while we were still sinners and completely putrid filth in the sight of our holy Father, devoid of all loveliness, Christ died for us and atoned for all of our wickedness by bearing our iniquities on the cross (Rom. 5:8).
In part two, recognizing that 1 Cor. 6:12-20 applies to each and every one of us as Christians, we will look at how sexual immorality is portrayed as spiritual infidelity. Why is unrepented and unmortified sexual sin in the church so destructive? Does sexual immorality differ from other sins of the flesh, and how? Is adultery in a Christian marriage more destructive than adultery in a non-believing household? Does someone have to been married in order to be guilty of adultery? What does all of this mean for our Christian walks? What does all this mean for the Christian church? If this sin is not mortified either personally or corporately, then what is the effect on the church? Is sexual immorality tantamount to idolatry? Hopefully, part two will answer all or at least most of these questions.
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