Avoid Sexual immorality

Scripture:

1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 (TM) God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity. (4) Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, (5) not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God. (6) Don't run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters. Their concerns are God's concerns, and he will take care of them. We've warned you about this before. (7) God hasn't invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful--as beautiful on the inside as the outside.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 (NIV) It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;

Observation:

Sexual standards were very low in the Roman Empire, and in many societies today, they are not any higher. The temptation to engage in sexual intercourse outside the marriage relationship has always been powerful. Giving in to that temptation can have disastrous results. Sexual sins always hurt someone: individuals, families, businesses, churches. Sexual desires and activities must be placed under Christ's control. God created sex for procreation and pleasure and as an expression of love between a husband and wife. Therefore, the sexual experience must be limited to the marriage. Besides the physical consequences of sexual sin, there are also spiritual consequences.

Christians are free to be all they can be for God, but they are not free from God. God created sex to be a beautiful and essential ingredient of marriage, but sexual sin-sex outside the marriage relationship-always hurts someone. It hurts God because it shows that we prefer following our own desires instead of the leading of the Holy Spirit. It hurts others because it violates the commitment so necessary to a relationship. It often brings disease to our bodies. And it deeply affects our personality, which responds in anguish when we harm ourselves physically and spiritually.

It is God's will for you to be holy, but how can you go about doing that? The Bible teaches that holiness is not a state of being that you must manufacture on your own with hard work and good deeds and constant fear of failure. Instead, being made holy occurs in the process of living the Christian life. If you have accepted Christ's sacrifice on your behalf, then you are considered holy and complete in God's eyes. Yet you must continue to learn and grow during your time on earth. The Holy Spirit works in you, conforming you to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

Application:

Be grateful that God made you a sexual being. Sex wasn't a mistake He made when He ran out of ideas. When Adam first saw Eve he didn't say "I'll bet she's got a wonderful personality!" No, he said, "This is… flesh of my flesh" (Genesis 2:23). But when we don't understand God's original intent for sex, bad stuff happens. God doesn't want to destroy our ability to experience our sexuality. No, He wants to teach us how to enjoy it.

Saying "I'm reserving sex for marriage" may raise eyebrows and may get you excluded from the guest list of some parties. So be it! When there's physical intimacy without true commitment, count on it; somebody's going to get hurt. You need to resolve in your heart to read God's Word and follow His directives on the subject. And you need to do it now, before you get into situations where you're tempted to compromise your character, because then you've waited too late.

We all struggle at times with our sexuality, particularly in today's culture. Sex is such a deep part of us. And guilt about sex has a way of making us feel separated from God like nothing else. So in order to determine your values and set some ground rules, you need to vow before God, "I'm not going to allow my impulses to dictate to me, or sin to separate me from You. I choose to keep Your standards, to rely on Your Spirit to give me strength day by day. And if I do sin, to seek Your forgiveness, get back up and move closer to You." Count on it - that's a prayer God will answer!

Prayer:

"Lord, I thank you for Your Word that stands the criticism and test of time and an ungodly culture. I am so thankful that Your Word will always help us, not hurt us. Help me to always strive to live a pure, godly life, keeping myself free from sexual promiscuity even though we live in such an ungodly world. In Jesus' name, amen!"