But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality,
Summary: People argue about all sorts of things, including morality and what it means to be “moral.” Paul tells us to avoid “even a hint” of immorality. Unpacking that concept in Christian terms opens the door to important insights about God.
Do you know what “immorality” means? (If your answer is, “The opposite of ‘moral,’” you only get half a point.) The dictionary defines “moral” as having to do with right or wrong, but it doesn’t say who gets to define right and wrong.
As Christians, we accept that God is the one who gets to decide. In fairness, he has been very clear about what he says is right and wrong behavior. When it comes to anything to do with sexual behavior, the Bible is exceptionally clear. God is not confused about what is right or wrong regarding sex.
When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20: 1-17), he included “Do not commit adultery” as the seventh commandment. The tenth commandment takes this further and says it is wrong to covet a neighbor’s wife or female servant. Job provides us with a description of how he complied. He says:
“I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.” (Job 31:1)
This fits with what Jesus said many centuries later:
“But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5: 28)
Why do we care what God thinks? Does he really care if a guy looks lustfully at a young woman?
When God created mankind, he had very specific expectations for how men and women would behave. Adam and Eve were created with the ability to meet those godly expectations. Of course, that was before sin entered the picture. When Adam and Eve rebelled and disobeyed God, the result was being spiritually separated from God and having their spiritual eyesight altered.
“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5)
Knowing good and evil didn’t mean that they could tell the difference. Nor does it mean they can “know” evil and still resist temptation. The result of this weakness has been an endlessly long string of abuses of our human sexuality for personal gratification stretching from their time to ours.
So here we are, thousands of years after Adam and Eve’s first sin living in the moral wreckage that followed. Satan continues to make the argument that we shouldn’t listen to God but instead should indulge our human impulses. And Paul has the audacity to tell us that among us, there must not even be a “hint of sexual immorality.” How is that even possible?
The answer is Jesus.
Jesus makes it possible because he gives us a clean slate (1 John 1:9). Then he gives us his Holy Spirit, which the Bible also calls our Advocate (John 15:26). By the power of God’s Word and his Holy Spirit, we are tasked with living as God intended all mankind to live from the very beginning.
Application: Be like Job and make a covenant with your eyes not to look at anything that God would consider immoral.
Food for Thought: Why is Paul so serious about this topic?
Why is Paul so serious about this topic?
Because God is serious about it. If your Creator, Redeemer, and Judge thinks something is important you should too.
Angela,
I totally agree!! And yes, our God does think this is important.
A wiser man than me once told me “speculation is not devotion.” He gave me that pearl in reference to folks trying to map out Revelations with charts and history to try and lay out a timeline. One can get lost in the speculation, and in the end, understanding what you think is a timeline might lend itself to relying on that instead of their faith in Christ. However, applying God’s Word to your life, your thinking, your motivations, and understanding how your own nature can work against your relationship with Christ, does build build your faith in Christ. So on that note, I have often wondered what Adam was thinking when Eve took from the tree and ate. What I have wondered is: did Adam stay silent because he “went along to get along?” Perhaps because he was afraid to “lose her favor.” It would speak to motivations, and that motivation would be choosing self-interest over God’s Will. That’s where today’s topic comes in, to me. Immortality is at it’s very basic premise, choosing self-interest over God’s Will. But immorality seems to be one of those fast growing vines for mankind. Once the seed sprouts it quickly grows and twists itself into so many areas of the human mind and heart, infecting how we feel about ourselves and others, and can separate us from the Spirit because we harbor desires, and shame, and jealousy, and resentment, and anger. Better to take captive your thoughts, and not even harbor a hint of immorality.
2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
Chris,
Excellent thoughts today! Your basic premise is very solid: self interest over God’s will. Your description of self interest as a seed/vine/infection is powerful because it is true. Thanks!
Our culture is so messed up sexually. Sin in this area destroys marriages and families. God knows that He created us as sexual beings and sexual health is critically important. It appears that the demonic knows this too and attacks us and tempts us to take away the purity and beauty that God intended.
When we give in we are robbed of the intimacy God intended in marriage. Indeed, God’s goal for marriage is oneness or intimacy (Genesis 2: 24) and sex bonds is with the object we have sexual relations with. Science has shown that a bonding chemical reaction happens during sexual intimacy that binds us to the focus of our sexual desire. Prostitution, adultery, fornication, pornography and the like bond us to something or someone other than our spouse – and weakens the current or eventual relationship with our spouse. Thus, sexual sin is “sin against our own body” and can have devastating results (1 Corinthians 6: 16 – 18).
That is why resisting Satan, fleeing sexual sin, and trusting God in this area for healing and for health is the right decision.
08-02-2023, Why is Paul so serious about this topic?
As much as we may want to, determining right and wrong is beyond our abilities. Our Creator, the source of all truth, has revealed what we need to know of right and wrong in His Word, and for our good, calls for all mankind to live in humility to His will. Micah 6:8
In the Bible we see a common theme with Christ as the bridegroom and the church is His bride, called to be faithful as we wait for His return. Matthew 9:14-15, 25:1-10, Ephesians 5:22-33
We are called to 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. “ 1 Corinthians 6:18-20
What begins as a thought within a culture can’t keep up with the endless, expanding sexual definitions. LGBTQ is now just shorthand for LGBTTQQIAAPPK (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, pansexual, polygamous, kinkiness). And this is likely obsolete already. It’s getting tragically ridiculous as our society rush’s into Sodom and Gomorrah.
Ron,
Your peek ahead at Ephesians 5:25+ touches on a key concept for today’s passage:
“… just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ”
Thank you!
A radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. No time for participating in the contaminating things of this world.
Thanks for the verse!
Ron
Thanks, Ron!
It is interesting how a life in Christ transports us from a world where “things” are all important to a world where the “things of life” are all important. 🙂