Teachable Moment Tuesday
This started as a personal reflection. I began thinking about the benefits and/or freedoms one has due to walking in sexual purity. Sexual purity is living a life free of sexual sin; this includes the full shebang of intercourse all the way to one’s thought life. Remember Jesus said in Matthew 5:27-28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman [man] lustfully has already committed adultery with her [him] in his heart.”
Nevertheless, I was able to identify physical, emotional, mental, and financial benefits for walking in sexual purity.
Physical: An individual’s physical health is free of sickness and disease related to the contraction of sexually transmitted infections (AIDS, HIV, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Herpes, HPV, this list could go on and on).
Emotional: An individual is free from unhealthy emotional soul ties. Soul ties develop due to the nature of the emotional bond developed during the sexual act. Emotional soul ties can develop in relationships free of sex due to unhealthy boundaries. However, the knitted/glue-like bond of sexual soul ties, developed outside of the covenant of marriage, can be damaging. An individual can be left feeling shame, guilt, anger, anxiety, depression, and loneliness after the encounter and/or the relationship dissolving.
Mental: Related to the emotional impact, many experience mental anguish and confusion. An individual’s judgment can become clouded which can impact one’s decision making and lead to confusion. Additionally, many develop mental disgust for their former sexual partner due to the tearing apart/ripping of the soul ties that can lead to various wounds to the soul.
Financial: There are the costs of physical exams, treatments, and vaccinations to determine, treat/cure, and/or “ward off” one’s STI status due to the repercussion of one’s deed. Additionally, there are the costs to support the children conceived in these situations. For the payer and/or the recipient it is either a financial sacrifice or an ill-sufficient financial mean to meet the cost of raising children.
These factors appear more so as things an individual will avoid by walking in sexual purity. However, avoiding these factors can be a benefit. As well, this is in noway a judgment to make one feel condemned. According to Romans 8:1 NKJV “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit". So, GET UP, dust yourself off, and keep it moving. More so, confess your sins, repent, and receive God’s forgiveness (1 John 1:9). Also, prayerfully seek out godly counsel for accountability (James 5:16).
These concepts of sexual purity are foreign to this culture. It's difficult for many to understand because we live in a sex-saturated world. Yet, Romans 12:2 suggest:
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. NKJV
Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. MSG
In all, this is the will of God that we walk in sexual purity.
For this is the will of God, that you should be consecrated (separated and set apart for pure and holy living): that you should abstain and shrink from all sexual vice, that each one of you should know how to possess (control, manage) his own body in consecration (purity, separated from things profane) and honor, not [to be used] in the passion of lust like the heathen, who are ignorant of the true God and have no knowledge of His will.
I Thessalonians 4:3-5 AMP
