S61P1 – From these shall we run: sexual sin

1 Cor. 6:18-20

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.

As a follower of Jesus Christ and a professed child of God he should not have grown comfortable with any sin.  He would not shy away from lying or gossiping for anyone to hear.  Deception and offense had become tools of his trade.  He openly walked in the doctrine of free grace claiming that it all would be covered over and okay.  He flaunted his imperfection like a badge, thinking that there was some virtue in being willing to fall and fail.  There was one sin, however, that he always kept hidden in the dark place.  There was something about his sexual sin that convicted him differently.  It was all wrong, and he knew that, but this sin was wrong on another level.  Each time he crossed that line he found it more and more difficult to face even himself.

There are many instances in which scripture tells us to flee from a certain sin, circumstance or person.  This instruction is not about fear but about protection.  When scripture instructs us to flee from sexual sin there are many reasons for this.  God has designed a good and holy way for the body to experience physical pleasure, and any other way defies him.  More than that, our bodies are no longer ours once we become saved.  We are now vessels which hold the presence of the living God, possessing the indwelling of his Holy Spirit.  The warning against sexual immorality is not just about defiling ourselves but about defiling him.  It is an extreme act of defiance that we would sin against not only ourselves or our brothers and sisters but against the temple of the living God himself.

The enemy always tries to convince us that things are different than they actually are.  The sin that lives inside of us does the same.  That is how we are deceived to believe that these bodies are ours, and we can do as we please with them.  God’s truth tells us otherwise.  We belong to him, and He resides within us.  The seriousness of sexual sin cannot be underscored enough.  It is not a fire that we can afford to touch.  Our Father in heaven deserves much better than that, and we have an obligation to take this faith seriously.  Father, make your children a people who desire to keep themselves pure, to keep your holy temple undefiled and worthy of being your dwelling place.