Comparable to a child who refuses to get down from a tree after being cautioned of a fall, children of God rarely refrain from things they know too well will lead them into temptation and sin. Somehow, we think we can handle fire.
Sexual immorality is just one of those nasty vices that Christians easily linger around even when they know its subtlety. As innocent and harmless as it may appear when beckoning, once it has drawn you in its arms it stings like a thousand wasps. And yet we are so fooled to think that we can dance around it, and remain convinced that we wouldn’t enter its domain.
Did you know that sexual immorality does not constitute only the very physical act of the sex-sin? It includes all forms of sexual impurities like pornography, movies, books, and sexual innuendos in our relationships with people who are not our marital spouses. In this light, it’s interesting to observe that 1 Cor 6:19 mentions three kinds of sexual sinners: the sexually immoral, adulterer and the homosexual. Suggesting that sexual immorality is more than just the very physical act.
Therefore, the command “flee from sexual immorality…” (1 Cor 6:18a) encompasses not only the very act of sex-sin but also all other related forms; the mind and conversations included. Moreover, the command is not about how far we can go without actually committing the act of sex-sin, rather it is about fleeing any form of its appearance altogether. One has said “Safe, is one who stands far from the edge of a cliff than the one who walks at the very edge while convinced that he can’t fall, for when a slippage acts at the edge, there remains no slightest of chances to escape the fall.”
Thus, 1 Cor 6:18- 20 contains five reasons that should encourage us to flee sexual immorality:
1. Because it is sin against my own body: Sexual immorality leaves a man sick to the bone - spiritual, mentally, socially and physically.
2. Because my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit: Sexual immorality desires to defile the house of God, which I am.
3. Because it offends God the Holy Spirit: Sexual immorality is one of the filth that the Holy Spirit cleanses a man from in sanctification.
4. Because I was bought at a price: Sexual immorality undermines the priceless work of Christ in Redemption.
5. Because I am to glorify God in my body: Sexual immorality makes a man robe God of his glory.
Dear beloved, be diligent, avoiding all macho thoughts like Samson, rather like Joseph of old, flee sexual immorality!
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