Summary: God cares a great deal about sexual purity, but in the last decade or two, the standards for sexual purity have eroded in the American church. This post reviews what the Bible says on the topic, then urges people to change. The call goes out to those who love God and are in sexually impure relationships and to those who are leaders and influencers in the church and who have been tacitly approving of those practices by not lovingly teaching and mentoring in this area.
I want to begin by simply letting the Word of God speak to
us about sexual purity. At the end, I will add some thoughts.
“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality… and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21, NIV).
“Sexual immorality… must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints… For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure… has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them” (Ephesians 5:3,5-7, ESV).
Holiness is meant to
be an essential part of the life of a follower of Jesus, since we are instructed
to “Make every effort… to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord”
(Hebrews 12:14, NIV). Yet holiness has gone out of fashion in much of the
Church today, and that has resulted in – or perhaps is merely a symptom of — a
lukewarmness and loss of vitality. There are many reasons for the decline in
the emphasis on holiness, which include past abuse of the idea of holiness,
making it into a type of legalism, which expects conformity and maintaining a
righteous outward image; and a wrong teaching on grace, making grace into a
license to sin rather than a means of restoration and reconciliation with God
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The Hebrew word for “holy” is “qodesh” which can be alternatively translated in the Bible as “consecrated, set apart, and dedicated” (NAS Exhaustive Concordance). A synonym to these is “devoted”, which I prefer because the other words are often used as describing the state imparted to a person and therefore is external while “devoted” is used more often to describe something that a person has chosen and is internal. Jesus made fun of the external holiness of religious leaders, calling them “whitewashed tombs” (Matthew 23:27) and he extended what the law taught on murder and adultery to internal attitudes that could eventually produce the prohibited behaviors – anger and lust (Matthew 5:21-30).
Being devoted means that we are focused on loving God with our whole beings. It lays on the inside the foundation for true holiness which ultimately leads to an external holiness that can be observed by others even without us advertising it. It is not a difficult way of life, but it is different than many are taught. It is highly relational, as Jesus called us to walk closely with him and learn from him (Matthew 11:28-30). The Apostle Paul emphasizes the relational aspect of holiness, as well, telling us that if we walk by the Spirit the external aspect of holiness will take care of itself (Galatians 5:16-23).
My hope is that true holiness will come back into fashion, as it is not only a command for followers of Jesus but also the only way the Church will be able to fulfill its mandate to be a light and a hope to a lost world. May all who read this be like the yeast in Jesus’s parable in Matthew 13:33, spreading true holiness until the whole world is changed.
