A Changed Life Includes Pursuing Sexual Purity
One topic often raised in the New Testament is the issue of sexual purity. Consider the many times issues the apostles bring it up. It is no secret that a wide variety of sexual immorality permeated the early Roman and Greek cultures of the New Testament times. Their gods were immoral, and they imitated their immorality.
As people got saved, apostles communicated the need for sexual transformation. The gospel seeks to change a person’s life entirely, including their view and practice of sexuality. One of the hallmark issues mentioned in the NT is how the believer needs to think and act with regards to sexuality. Here is a brief listing of some passages along with simple thoughts about them that supports this notion.
Jesus, in Matthew 5:27-30, highlighted not only the physical act, but also the inward rehearsal of sexual immorality as sinful.
Romans 1:24-31 – God condemns sexual and homosexual sins, as well as those who give their approval of such sins (consider that in today’s society).
1 Corinthians 5:1-12 – God condemns sexual immorality within the church.
1 Corinthians 6:9-18 – Paul calls believers to live a life of moral and sexual purity, a transformed life, from what they were to what they are in Christ.
1 Corinthians 7 largely deals with morality and purity within a Christian marriage.
Galatians 5:16-26 highlights how various forms of sexual immorality are characteristic of the sinful flesh, while purity and holiness are manifestations of the Spirit of God, which we are to follow.
Ephesians 4:17-24 – Christians called to a new morality and sexuality, which is different from the morality and sexuality lived out by the unsaved.
Ephesians 5:1-16 – Christians called upon to imitate Christ, not the world, with regards to issues of sexuality and morality.
Colossians 3:5-7 – Christians are to put off sexual immorality that is characteristic of an unsaved life.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 – It is God’s will for Christians to be sexually pure. This is a sign of a changed life.
1 Timothy 4:12 – Believers are called upon to be an example of moral and sexual purity.
2 Timothy 2:22 – Believers are to flee sinful, youthful, sexual lusts.
Hebrews 13:4 – God honors sexually pure marriage.
1 Peter 4:1-6 – Because of the work of Christ, we are not to live our lives like lost people, including their lifestyle of sexual immorality.
Other passages may come to your mind, but these are clear enough. Sexual immorality is a devastating spiritual problem many of God’s people struggle with, to one degree or another.
While the temptations are real, and virtually everywhere, Christians — both men AND women – must strive for vigilant, diligent dependence upon the Spirit of God, and humble obedience to the will of God. The bent of our hearts, and the pattern of our lives, needs to direction and characterization by our love for God, holiness, and purity.
Nevertheless, we also must realize that even some of the “greatest” can stumble. King David, the man after God’s own heart, fell. Solomon, the wisest of all men, fell. Sampson, the strongest of men, fell. Abraham, the father of the Judeo-Christian faith, fell. Judah, the tribe from which our Messiah came, fell. The list goes on.
Christians cannot be numb to the sexual temptations that are all around. We cannot think we are beyond such temptations, or spiritually mature enough to overcome them ourselves. Nor can we adopt, even in small form, the sexual immorality that is characteristic of the unsaved world.
One of the key things that will distinguish us as Christians from unsaved people is our adherence to a biblical sexual ethic, governed by the holiness of God, the moral directives of the Scripture, and our faithful and diligent submission to the Spirit of God.
May God help us to live a moral and pure life for the glory of God!
Taigen Joos is the pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in Dover, NH. He blogs here, where this article first appeared. It is republished here by permission.