HYMN
Take My Life and Let It Be (393)
STUDY & DISCUSSION
We began by reciting 1 Peter 2:11-12 together.
We need to manifest our moral excellence before the outside world.
What we abstain from should be evident to the world around us, and as the world observes this, they may glorify God.
7 Facets of Purity
We covered the first four of seven facets of purity drawn from 1 Peter 2:11-12.
Strangers
We are all “aliens and strangers” in this world.
We have been born again, and we love and believe in Christ.
We obey the truth.
We have left the former life and and maintain a separation from it, picking up our cross daily and denying ourselves to follow Him.
We love the brethren.
We are not the same as the rest of the world.
If we think that there is no difference between us and the world, we’ve already effectively surrendered ourselves to the enemy.
We must not learn about the issue of human sexuality from the world as if it has authority. It does not. Authority and truth come from God, who created the world. Thus, we inform our minds by God’s truth, not by the lies of the world.
Desires
We must deal with sexual purity at the roots - our desires.
We must abstain (stay away) from fleshly lusts. By fleshly, Peter is referring to bodily desires of the flesh that are sinful. These desires wage war against our souls.
God is the author of sex, and there are clear contexts and boundaries within which God has allowed sexual desires to be fulfilled rightly - marriage. In the sight of God, sexual appetite within the boundaries of marriage between one man and one woman is good and right. But those who reject God also reject these boundaries, and give themselves over to their own sexual desires (Romans 1:18-32).
One reason why God has created sex is for procreation. When men pervert God’s design and standard of human sexuality, they cause harm upon themselves and others. Their own souls become corrupted, and bring destruction upon others. If unrepentant, these men will suffer the judgment and eternal wrath of God.
Sexual desires in and of themselves are not wrong within God’s defined boundaries, but those that are carried out outside of the will of God are sinful. God created sex for good, but anything that perverts His design are reckless and destructive.
Some manifestations of perverted sexual desire
Pornography
Pornography has been around for a long time. It is not a recent invention.
Even in ancient times, pornography could not easily be consumed in private. But in our day and age, access to pornography can be free and easy, and easily kept private from others.
Hookup culture
Using Tinder or other dating apps to enable fornication
Prostitution
Portrayals in popular media (movies, music, TV, books)
Casual conversations
War
We must embrace a wartime mentality against sexual lusts.
Sexual lusts fight against us not only on a physical, biological basis. Perhaps even more notably, sexual lusts attack our souls as well.
1 Corinthians 6:15-20. There is more than just a physical act of sin, but also a spiritual aspect.
Our minds and hearts are under attack by sinful sexual desires. If we do not fight against these attacks, they lead to sin, which results in hell for those who are unrepentant.
The war is doesn’t let up; it is continually waging. Attacks can come from any direction at any time. We must maintain a wartime mentality and keep our distance from sexual lusts. There is no relief from the battle because as long as we live, the war against our sinful desires wages on!
Surely, we have spiritual enemies who wants to kill us. But we must be wise and realize that sometimes the greatest enemies we face are our own selves. Even if the enemy did nothing, we would still naturally want to carry out the desire of sexual lust. Why? Because as fallen men, we are inherently sinful by nature. We must always remain on guard against sin; our very souls are at stake.
1 Peter 1:13. Prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, and fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Distance
Keep a distance from the things that tempt us to sin. Cut out every opportunity that might cause us to stumble (Matthew 5:27-30).
Examples of things that might tempt us to sin:
Consumption of media. Movies, television, etc.
The internet and internet-connected devices.
Friends who don’t share the same mindset or convictions.
Opportunities that prevent us from staying sober-minded, such as idleness, tiredness, or being stressed.
We can fool ourselves into thinking that we don't need to keep distance, or that we can "relax". Perhaps we have had some moments of victory that lead us to feel self-confident in the battle against sexual lusts. This can be a dangerous and foolish attitude, because our flesh is weak, and we can easily succumb to temptation. It is wiser to put distance between ourselves and those things that might tempt us. Better yet, it is better to cut them out of our lives completely!
Cutting out temptations in our lives might make us seem prude, weird, or extreme to the world, but Christians obey Christ, and removing sources of temptation is the right things to do. We must be more concerned with what God wants, not the pressures or judgments of the world.
Putting temptations at distance does not mean keeping them only at arm's length, so that they can easily be returned to. We must be extreme and absolute. We must commit to cut off the sources of temptation and simply get rid of them!
We must be serious about removing stumbling blocks in our lives. Keeping them around only cause us to remain vulnerable to sin. We must terminate all things that can plant or feed our sinful desires.
If you don’t listen to Christ and tear these things out of our lives, you have to really consider: are you truly His disciple? (John 8:31-32) If you are not, then you must not expect that He will know you on the day of judgment (Matthew 7:21-27).
Learn to be someone who prays to God often in a habitual manner and rely upon God to give you strength and wisdom to obey Him instead of succumbing to temptation. We have a wonderful gift of free access to God in prayer, which was won for us through Christ’s death on the cross. Don’t squander this gift!
Be honest with yourself and surround yourself with people who know you and care for your soul.