Sexual Purity in a Sex-Crazed World

I Thessalonians 4:3- “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality…”

While I look forward to the warm weather, I don’t look forward to individuals who will “indecently expose” themselves in public! This time of year, many places that we patronize—from restaurants to Wal-Mart (and sometimes even the church)—have individuals “showing off their goods” in rated R and even borderline X-rated attire. While sexual temptation isn’t a struggle for all God’s children, it is one of the premier battles in the lives of many believers. Christians are not “of the world;” however, we still live in a society that emphasizes sex, sex, sex and more sex.



In the Apostle Paul’s day, things were just as bad and perhaps even worse in regards to sexual purity. One of the philosophers of his day made this comment: “We have prostitutes for pleasure, we have concubines so that we can have regular sex, and lastly we have wives for the purpose of having children legitimately and for looking after our household affairs.” It was a culture of wild and erotic perversions—fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and transvestism—all done with a seared conscience and no accompanying shame, embarrassment or guilt. Unlike our culture, the Thessalonians grew up with no Christian tradition to support laws and standards of immorality.



It is from this backdrop that Paul reminds the church at Thessalonica of the Will of God—“your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality…” (I Thessalonians 4:3) The word sexual immorality (pornea) is an all-encompassing term that includes adultery, premarital and extramarital intercourse, homosexuality, and other perversions, to include pornography. Because God never asks us to do anything that we cannot do, the church at Thessalonica could live sanctified lives in a world laced with lust and lasciviousness (with the Aid of the Holy Spirit). And if this were the expectation in their day without Christian traditions and moral standards, how much more victoriously should we walk in this area in our day?



Because of the Indwelling Power of The Holy Spirit, we can live holy in a sex-crazed society.



Let’s Pray: “Father, I pray that You’ll keep Your people from falling into the vices of sexual immorality. Let our thoughts be filled with the things of the Spirit and not the flesh, in Jesus’ Name, amen.”



Daily Prayer: “Oh, that You would bless me indeed,

and enlarge my territory,

that Your hand would be with me,

and that You would keep me from evil,

that I may not cause pain!”

The Prayer of Jabez, I Chronicles 4:10