Pursuing Sexual Purity [Part 1]

Our society has become more permissive when it comes to moral behaviour, so much so that many young people today engage in premarital sex, adultery, homosexuality, and consumption of pornography without seeing anything wrong with it. The matter of sexual purity seems to be the ethic of the older generation or a specific group of people. According to Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary, Sexual Immorality is “interpersonal activity involving sex organs that does not conform to God’s revealed laws governing sexuality.” Apostle Paul did not beat about the bush on this subject, and he kept bringing up this topic because he knew the positive and negative realities of our human sexuality. Many people have stumbled into sexual immorality, with the result being catastrophic for their personal and professional lives.

God instructed His priests to wear underwear made of white linen whenever they approached Him. This was to be a statute forever to the priest and his descendants after him (Exodus 28:42). This statute applies to us as well. Apostle Peter recorded that “…we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1Peter 2:9). Underwear is what you wear under what people see. In our time, our underwear is purity. Thus, under our garment of prayer, praises and worship should be purity.

If we believe that we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), then why should we compromise who we are in Christ? As soldiers of the cross, the Bible tells us to put on the full armour of God in order to take our stand against the schemes of the world.

One of the schemes the devil is using today is sexual immorality. Many vibrant young men who started well have ended up in their early grave due to sexual immorality. What is the point of the Christian faith if we get to pick and choose what we want to believe? Do we think God is that small, insignificant, or somehow uninformed? Do we trifle with the very thing that God sent His Son to save us for? How can we say that we are His (God’s), yet misuse the power and the grace that He has gifted us through His death and resurrection?

As a redeemed and equipped church repositioning for maximum impact, sexual purity is a necessity. Apostle Paul admonished the church in Philippians that, they should allow God to work in them so that they may become blameless and pure, “…children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation” (Philippians 2:15).

Joseph was able to make a maximum impact in his generation because he understood the importance of being sexually pure. The world today is as a result of the decisions of our forefathers. We mostly make decisions based on our current circumstances ignoring the future consequences and implications. Dear youth, let me submit to you that, to possess your destiny and future, flee like Joseph did. Joseph considered the God He served and his family in his situation and did the right thing.

One young man once asked me, “Sir, in today’s modern world can one flee from sexual temptation like Joseph?” To which I responded that if Joseph, without the indwelling of Holy Spirit, was able to flee sexual temptation, how much more you and I, who have been bought by the blood of Jesus? What’s more, God has established His presence in us. Therefore, you cannot carry God and be overcome by sexual addiction. John spoke against this dangerous line of thought in 1 John: “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin — because anyone who has died has been set free from sin” (Romans 6:6-7).

So, shall we then continue in sin that grace may abound? Paul replies with a resounding “God forbid” (Romans 6:2). To desire to continue in sexual sin shows a misunderstanding of this abundant grace and contempt for Jesus’ sacrifice. Either we believe what God says is true or we don’t. Either we take Him at His word when He equates sin to death, or we do not believe Him at all (Ephesians 2:1). To be sexually pure is not just about being a virgin. Sexual purity is a lifetime journey. We guard and protect what’s precious. Purity is the practice of Christian life.

Paul commands, 1 Corinthians 6:18: “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” Paul tells young people to pursue purity. Purity is being in the world but not letting the world be in you.

However, a Christian who pursues sin despite claiming Christ as their Saviour is living outside the blessing and fullness of the relationship that comes with an obedient life. We cannot equate grace with the freedom to sin. Instead, we should be thankful that grace provides freedom from sin and its eternal consequences.

In conclusion, do you find yourself in a pool of fornication, pornography and all kinds of sexual sin? Know that, there is a ‘too late.’ This arrives when you can no longer genuinely repent. God is calling you now. You may not have this opportunity again …For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). This is the time! It is possible to make things right again. There is hope after that mess. All you must do is to reposition yourself to allow Jesus to reign in your heart and you will be able to overcome any form of sexual addiction.

Written by El-Kwofie