“Sexual Purity”
Ephesians 5:3-5
Deep Dive –
Sexual expression has become so accepted in our culture it has even influenced the Church. It is very common within many Christian circles to be highly involved in church activities, bible studies, men’s/women’s groups and to be sexually active or cohabit with someone else without any perceived contradiction to their faith in Christ. The first century culture had a name for this: Gnosticism, which teaches that the body and spirit are separated; what we do in the body has no effect on our faith. A person can live in ongoing, habitual sin thinking that it has nothing to do with their love of Jesus. The Church of today has been infected with a 21ast century form of Gnosticism in the area of sexual immorality.
1 Corinthians 6:18 (NIV)
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.
Flee – run from, escape, remove yourself from any situation of sexual temptation; Recovery has a term, “Clean up your environment.”
outside the body – outward damages, offenses, insults.
against their own body – something unique about sexual sins, against yourself; imprinting, becoming one with another person not your spouse. Sexual brokenness creates all kinds of physical and psychological scars, barriers to healthy relationships.
If you are struggling with sexual immorality there are two resources that can help:
BREAKING FREE, a book by Russel Willingham that helps us understand sexual addictions and discover the power of God’s word.
COVENANT EYES, a subscription-based program that helps us maintain accountability with our online usage: