August 13
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; and that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8)
There are actually many verses that have to do with avoiding immorality and immoral persons. Note that in the verse above Paul says, “This is the will of God….that you abstain from sexual immorality.” You will not find very many verses in the Bible that specifically tell you what God’s will is, but we can be certain that it is His will for us to abstain from immorality. And as we said yesterday, it is essential that we get our definitions of what immorality is from the scripture and not from our culture or even what our churches are saying; the stakes are just too high to not get this right.
This issue of immoral behavior has serious consequences not just for individuals but also for churches, as Paul commands churches to remove immoral persons from their midst and to not associate with those who call themselves Christians and who are immoral.
“It is actually reported that there is immorality among you… And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst.” (1 Corinthians 5:1, 2)
“But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler – not even to eat with such a one…Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.” (1 Corinthians 5:11, 13)
Paul also teaches us that sexual relations with a person is the equivalent of becoming one flesh with that person, something that is reserved for a husband and wife.
“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For He says, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ (1 Corinthians 6:15-16)
He reminds us that when the Israelites behaved immorally, many were killed on the spot.
“Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.” (1 Corinthians 10:8)
Tomorrow we will look at the person in scripture who most impresses me in this area of overcoming sexual temptation.