Fornication and Holiness Don't Mix

Passage:  1 Thessalonians 4:3-6  For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:  4  That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;  5  Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:  6  That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.

Main Point:  Illicit, immoral, and illegitimate sexual behavior destroys lives, testimonies, and relationships.  Abstain from it and be spared.  Embrace God's design and be blessed. 

·         Lesson  Let's start today with some word studies - for the sake of our souls, lest we let some crafty word-twister convince us that this does NOT mean what God has truly intended it to mean in order to justify some illicit and immoral behavior.

Sanctification:  development into the image of Christ; it is the process and the product of our salvation

Fornication:  all kinds of sexual behaviors  outside of marriage.  There is no sexual behavior outside of marriage NOT included.  This is  an umbrella term.

Concupiscence:  Strong desire, yearning; especially for that which God does not desire.

Defraud:  to take advantage or overreach. 

     Our loving Lord, Jesus Christ and God our Father have given everything up for our benefit, including that we should understand sexual relationships as they were perfectly designed, not in the partial, destructive way of the rest of the world.  Sexual sins are not new to the church today.  They have been issues throughout the ages, even back in Paul's day.  They affected the church then, as they do now; believers knowingly or unknowingly practicing defilement of the body-temple/home of the indwelling Holy Spirit through fleshly desires which destroy relationships on the premise that it builds them up.  By that I mean, we get the idea that sex = love; only to find out that sex does not equal love  when  it is only lust.  Only sex inside the marriage relationship is genuinely fulfilling, open, and real.  It has always been that way.

     The counsel Paul offers the believers of Thessalonica leads me to believe there may have been some who were guilty of adultery or some form of fornication.  They were believers, and they may have mistaken what true love is.  But the point is that we ALL who call ourselves believers should understand that misplaced sexual desire (outside marriage between a man and woman) is something we MUST abstain from.  This is not like food preferences.  There IS a spiritual connection to this issue which must not be overlooked.  We must possess our bodies honorably, not like animals.  We are God's children, and should behave as such.  Failing to do so wrongly unites us with those we should not be united; it breaks the foundation of relationships built on trust; and destroys the testimony of our faith and efforts to follow Christ.  Jesus never did these things.  He gave His body to the Father, not to someone to whom He was not united/married.  It is  unbecoming because it is unholy.  Our consciences testify to the core of this. 

·         Blessing  God would like to not only spare us the pain such a behavior will bring our lives, but He wants to bless us with the goodness of holy, sanctified behavior, for it is one more evidence of that abundant life Christ came to give.  God really wants to give us the best, not withhold it. 

·         Command  Abstain from fornication. 

·         Sin  Fornication and defrauding our brothers (taking advantage of our brothers by taking their wives, daughters or any other way).

·         Thoughts about the devil  Sometimes the devil is in the flesh.  We have these desires, but the devil has little trouble convincing us to use these God-given desires in ungodly ways.  It is evidence that we are still in the presence of  sin; though as regenerated, believing people we are no longer under the penalty or power of sin.  Christ gives us victory over the flesh and the devil who seeks to use that against us.  We ought not let the enemy even a foothold, lest he creep in and destroy us from within.

 

Devotional:  There are far too many believers who have learned their lesson on this topic by experience rather than by instruction only.  Families are destroyed, marriages disintegrated, children misled, and intimacy permanently interrupted.  The destruction of illicit, immoral, and indecent sexual behavior  is rampant, leaving a path wider  than a tornado's destruction through society, churches, and communities.  Christ offers us healing, but only through abstinence.  Through that, we can learn to forgive again, and hopefully, in time, to trust again.  Dear friend, if you are contemplating some form of fornication, for the glory of Christ and the good life He wants you to have, put that  thought away.  Dear brother, if you have already gone down that path, turn around now.  Seek the Lord's forgiveness, and go to those you have hurt and  seek theirs.  Make  it a life-long point to never do that again, in hopes that you might also gain trust back.  Dear sister, if someone has done this to you, then do not think it to be your weakness; rather  it is their sin.  The Lord  can help you heal from the pain you have experienced because of what this has done to you.  God loves  you - and He knows how much this hurts.  Let the blood of Christ, which flows from a heart of unending and undying love for you, be the balm to your wounded soul today!

Holler for Jesus,

Greg Yount

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Just-a-Thot - Devotional thoughts - http://justa-thot.blogspot.com  

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