Purity
Lord, I want to be pure
to honor you with my life.
Lord, help me to control my desire
until I am someone’s wife.
Lord, your love is greater
than any I’ll ever know.
Help me to honor that one true love
whatever I do and wherever I go.
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified:
that you should avoid sexual immorality…
…For God did not call us to be impure,
but to live a holy
life.
Therefore, he who rejects this instruction
does not reject
man but God,
who gives you his Holy Spirit.”
I Thessalonians 4:3, 7-8 (NIV)
hagiasmŏs38 – purification, i.e. (the state)
purity; concr. (by Hebr.) a purifier: - holiness, sanctification.
pŏrnĕia4202 – harlotry (include. adultery and incest);
fig. idolatry: fornication
Sexual
imagery assails my senses numerous times each day. Billboards with scantily
clad models touting the “good life” through alcohol or tobacco. Fitness ads with the most muscular men and
perfectly toned women you would ever hope to meet, and the promise that you can
look just like them by working out three times a week. Television shows and movies where singles
meet, share dinner, and wake up in bed the next morning having shared the most
incredible evening in their lives. Radio advertisements telling me I can join a
singles’ organization, show up at a few meetings (meat markets), and mate for
life. Everything in the world tries to tell me that if I’m not involved in a
sexual relationship, I’m missing out on life.
How am I to
keep my life pure? The simple answer is “by keeping it according to God’s word”
(Psalm 119:9). But what does that look like in practical, day to day living?
First, I study what God’s word has to say about sex. It was intended to be
within marriage only. Period. Paul says it is good to remain unmarried , “But
if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better marry
than to burn with passion” (I Corinthians 7:9). Sexual immorality is a sin
against my own body, as well as against Christ who uses my body as his temple (I
Corinthians 6:18-20) Many times, as in the passage above, the Bible admonishes
us to avoid sexual immorality.
I’ve found
the best way to avoid something is to not place myself in its path. If I am not
alone with a man, it is much easier to resist the temptation to be too intimate
with him. Adult singles should be as cautious about dating as teenagers. We
should get to know each other in group settings and double dates. We should
refrain from spending a great deal of time alone with someone until we are
certain we are ready to marry. Even then, especially then, we should know our
boundaries and abide within them.
Lord, thank you for guarding my purity. I
know that without your power, I would succumb to many temptations. Continue to
live through me and sanctify me in preparation for the day that your church
will be your bride.
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