Date: August 01, 2021
Series: From Pastor’s Desk
Number: Vol. 10, No. 13
Beloved: Grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am pleased to welcome you to the eighth month of the year, the month of August. I pray that your life will be organised to experience the fullness of the blessings of God in the month, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
As we begin this new month, let me remind you of the words of Apostle Paul that say, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” (1Cor 6:18-20NIV) What is our charge here? It is that we are to flee from sexual immorality. And what does it mean to flee from something? It means to run away from it.
So, when Paul tells us to flee from sexual immorality, he means that we are to run away from it. For example, when Potiphar’s wife began to make sexual advances towards Joseph, he started avoiding her. The bible says, “And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.” (Gen 39:10NIV) Did you see that? Though that woman made it her business to seduce Joseph everyday, he would not listen to her or even spend time with her. I am sure if he were not a slave but just an employee of Potiphar, he may have totally resigned from work. But because he could not resign and had to deal with that woman everyday, he also made it his business to avoid her.
Finally, a day came when all the other household servants were not in. And that day the woman grabbed his coat and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his coat in her hand and ran out of the house. Why did he run? It was because he would have fallen into the sin of sexual immorality, if he had not done so. See, sexual sins are sins of emotions. So, you cannot tell at what point you will give in, if you keep hanging around someone that is continually tempting you with them. That is why we are commanded to run away from it. Otherwise, we would have fallen into it before we know what is happening.
But why are we commanded to run away from sexual sins? Why are we commanded to stay away from something that feels good and seems good? It is because it defiles and destroys our bodies, which are God’s temple. As Paul points out in that text, our bodies do not belong to us but to God who paid the price for our redemption. And it is because they belong to Him that He now lives in them by His Holy Spirit. So, we are not the only ones occupying these bodies; the Spirit of God is also living in them with us. This is why we must not defile or abuse them in any way. Otherwise, we may end up being destroyed, for Paul further tells us that if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person (1Cor 3:16-17).
Now we must understand that it is not sex we are told to run away from but sexual immorality. So, sex is not the problem; its abuse or misuse is the problem. Sexual passions, just like hunger and thirst, were given to us by God Himself as a gift for expressing love. But we are only allowed to express these things in a marriage relationship. So, if you are not married, you are wrong to be involved in any form of sexual activity, whether between man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, man and animal or woman and animal. It is even wrong for you to be involved in sex with yourself, which is popularly referred to as masturbation.
Look, you will be polluting your body, if you are involved in any of these things. And as I already pointed out to you, your body does not belong to you but to God. So, any time you pollute it, you expose yourself to destruction. What form this destruction will take or when it will come is what I cannot tell you. It may be the destruction of your future home or the destruction of God’s plan to exalt you or the destruction of your body by some deadly disease. But it will certainly come, if you fail to repent when you have the chance to do so.
So, run away from anyone or anything that could drag you into sexual sin. And don’t allow any of the lies that ungodly people, especially our film makers, are propagating about sex to lead you to self-destruction. The will of God is for you to control yourself and stay away from sexual immorality (1Thess 4:3-6). So, nothing is wrong with you, if you abstain from sexual immorality and stay pure. And may the Lord continue to strengthen your heart to do so, irrespective of how immoral those around are, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Do have a fabulous August 2021.
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