“…and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.” (1Thess 4:6NIV)
In what matters are we not to wrong or take advantage of our neighbours? In matters relating to sex! Paul starts his admonition in the passage from which our opening text is taken by telling his readers that the will of God for them is to abstain from sexual immorality. And how are we to do that, seeing that we are living a world that is saturated with all kinds of immoral acts? According to him, it is by learning to control of bodies in ways that are holy and honourable, as those who know and fear God. (Cf. 1Thess 4:3-5)
But then, we have to deal with the fact that there may be times in which we have to relate to people who are weak in controlling their sexual appetites or who are ignorant of what could lead them into sexual sins or who are going through situations that could expose them to sexual sins. And what are we to do at such times? Are we to see in them opportunities for free or cheap sexual relations? No! Instead, we are to show that we fear God by refusing to take advantage of them.
For example, as we see in the bible, Potiphar’s wife was an emotionally weak woman. Otherwise, she would not stoop as low as to want to have sexual relations with her husband’s slave. But did Joseph take advantage of her? No! Did he see her weakness as an opportunity to have some cheap sex? No! Instead, he did all he could to make sure that they were never alone together. And even when the woman attempted to rape him, he lost no time to make good his escape. Why? He feared God. Therefore, he was eventually honoured and elevated by Him, even though he had to suffer unjustly for a while. (Cf. Gen 39)
In like manner, if you are dealing with someone of the opposite sex that is emotionally weak, always wanting your sympathy or wanting to hold, touch, embrace or be with you for no legitimate reason, don’t get carried away and take advantage of the situation. You can already see that they are weak. So, if you cannot help them, then, don’t abuse or take advantage of them. Otherwise, God, as Paul shows us in our opening text, will not fail to punish you accordingly.
Also, don’t use people’s desperation, loss or low position in life to take advantage of them. You know that they need your help, healing or comfort or that they cannot move to another level of success without you. So, instead of truly helping, healing or comforting them or instead of making their trip to higher grounds easy for them, you begin to seek how to take advantage of them sexually. You are wrong and are sinning against God. And that will surely come with grave consequences.
Mind you, it is not only in sex matters that we can take advantage of others. Even in matters concerning material things, we can take advantage of them. If, for instance, we know that someone is weak in saying ‘No’ to us, whether out of respect for us or out of deep affection for us, we can take advantage of that and be taking from them things we have no right to take from them or be pressuring them to do things their hearts don’t want to do. That is evil, a sort of witchcraft. And God will judge sooner or later, if repentance is delayed.
Also, we can take advantage of people’s miseries to receive from them what we don’t deserve to have. Our Lord Jesus, for example, rebuked the Jewish religious leaders of His time for devouring widows’ houses. How were they devouring their houses? By playing on their emotions! We all know that widows are bound to have moments of loneliness, moments in which they may want someone, anyone, to comfort them. And that is what those Jewish religious leaders often capitalised on. They would go to widows’ houses in the name of bringing them comfort and have long prayer sessions there. But they weren’t really there to comfort them, as our Lord points out, but to devour their wealth or inheritance. (Cf. Matt 23:14; Mark 12:40; Luke 20:47)
Think about it yourself. Would you allow a man of God, who had spent two or three hours praying with you in your house, to go empty-handed? No! Instead, you would want to find something for him. And if you happened to be rich, you would do your best to load him money and other things. That, of course, was what those Jewish religious leaders were looking forward to by visiting the widows of their time. They were simply looking for ways to take advantage of their emotional situations to extort them or to even sleep with them. And our Lord Jesus says that people who do such things will receive greater condemnation.
Well, the point I am making is that we should watch ourselves in our dealings with those who are weak emotionally or in character and those who are desperate, so that we don’t take advantage of them for any reason. Otherwise, the condemnation that will follow may ruin everything good in our lives.
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