Purity in God’s Temple
“For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter… Now then, my sons, listen to me; do not turn aside from what I say. Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house” (Prov 5:3-8)
You are warmly welcome!
Conforming to God’s truth for transformation demands that we subject ourselves to what God is telling us in all areas of our lives – in worship, in business and work, in our relationships, in moral life, in ministry – as the Word of God should permeate through and through. Now here comes a hot topic: Sexual Purity. Sometimes it sounds like young people need this encouragement more, but we see mistakes among our parents and uncles too; it is a topic that all should pay attention to and take heed. Sexual immorality is among the thigs that characterize the pattern of this world, where we even see a push to sanitize and normalize sin, and make those who stand for purity look like annoying and undesirable deviants and misfits!
The wise man in Prov 5 sternly warns his son against sexual immorality. He paints and describes the deceptive sweet taste, good looks and smooth feel of the relationship with the wicked partner-in-crime – that girl that is enjoying your money and company in exchange for sex; and then the wise man describes the shameful and painful consequences of falling to these temptations; regrets follow, yet the ugly scars are difficult to erase. Girls should take the warning too – against the many greedy hyenas who don’t care about your values or faith but are after their own satisfaction. The one who falls to these deceptions will lose everything, regret why they despised discipline, and eventually lose life! Unless you repent, you will perish!
The wise man then prescribes abstinence for singles and faithfulness in marriage as the best and only way of life that guarantees safety, true joy and public respect. Some careless people in Corinth had the saying: “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” In so saying, they lived in careless licentiousness, thinking that God does not care what you do with your body – even if you sleep with a prostitute! Paul preaches differently: “The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Flee from sexual immorality… Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit…?” (1Cor 6:13,18-19).
The purpose of this message is to remind and invite us all to observe and keep purity for God’s temple, and to invite those who have messed it up to repent, with assurance that God forgives and restores, and empowers and frees us to life in purity before Him. May the Lord God Almighty give you grace for this crucial discipline.
God bless you all!