SFJ Bible Reading Plan

Going Deeper

Sexual Immorality (2-14-15)

Grab your Bible and let’s go deeper into 1 Corinthians 6

 1 Corinthians 6:13-20: “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. ¹⁵Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” ¹⁷But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. ¹⁸Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. ¹⁹Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

Last night, “50 shades of Grey” opened in movie theatres across the globe. This movie, based on the best-selling book, is filled with sexual abuse and bondage and misleading propaganda for the wonders of extra marital sex. Many are thinking it will be one of this year’s biggest movies in the box office. If this is not a sign of the times we are in I don’t know what is. There is nothing gray about whether a follower of Christ should see 50 Shades of Grey. This is a black and white issue.  Don’t watch it. Don’t read it. Don’t rent it.

Sexual intimacy is a great gift of God for a husband and wife to enjoy with each other behind closed doors. It is not what disciples of Jesus Christ pay money to enjoy by watching with a crowd of people on a screen the size of your house. Now, it might be easy for you to think, “Of course I am not going to go see that movie.”  But, the question is, how else are you making sexual immorality a grey issue in your life?

Genesis 2:24-25: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.  And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

Here we see God’s definition for marriage and our first insight into the wonderful gift of sexual intimacy that he gives to a husband and a wife.  This is a joining of two lives to become one that is unlike any other in creation.   This is what Paul is getting to in 1 Corinthians 6.  He is saying there is a wonderful Christ-centered reason why God made marriage for a husband and wife.  He is also saying there are terrible repercussions for our lives when we look for sexual intimacy outside of marriage.

There is an ever-increasing temptation for the bride of Christ to compromise her testimony by looking to sinful worldly entertainment or sexual engagement outside of marriage for her satisfaction and joy instead of in Christ or in the one place God gave us to exercise our sexual intimacy, in committed marriage.

God designed sexual intimacy for marriage alone.  When it is enjoyed in this context, it is like a raging fire that is enjoyed as it burns safely in the hearth of your home’s fireplace. Outside of God’s ordained context of marriage, sexual immorality will reap great destruction in your life, like a raging fire burning anywhere else in your house but the fireplace.

The problem is: sin and society have really stolen God’s intention for marital intimacy. What this has meant for the church is we have removed talking about and celebrating this wonderful gift from our lives.   It has become a taboo subject! Rarely do we talk about martial intimacy within the church family and rarely do we talk about it at home.

We have essentially left this topic to be learned, discovered and celebrated on the world’s terms.

If the church is not talking about it, and married couples are not talking about it, who is? Movies, TV, music, Internet, Books, magazines, co-workers, news media.   Enter in 50 Shades of Grey and all the other garbage that is constantly out there.

The problem is: when we remain removed from rightly talking about, acting on and celebrating God’s design for marital intimacy, the world continues to teach us the wrong thing.  In the vacuum left by the silence of our church family and in the home, our kids and even our own spouses are shaped with a view of sex and intimacy that is not at all what God intended.

How does this apply to you and your brothers in the club?  Do you love each other enough to bring up this topic so that you can be an encouragement to each other?  To help each other when struggling with temptations to lust or unhealthy engagement outside of marriage or an unhealthy absence of sexual intimacy within your marriage?  Are you willing to go so far as to even get professional counseling if needed to address this area of unhealthiness in your life?  If we hear the severity of the consequences that Paul is speaking of in our passage that comes from sexual immorality, then we will be willing to take it this seriously.

We must talk about it because, if we don’t, we will be left to the endless flood of godless ideals to convince us to partake of—or engage in—outside of God’s perfect plan for this area of life.

Understand: The world’s agenda when it comes to sex is to “profane” it.  Profane = to make it common!   To treat something sacred with irreverence. So, profanity comes from the word profane.

So, when we say “Oh, God” in just a flippant common way, instead of exalting his name, and worshipping the true God, we use it as a casual response to life and make it common. Or we use it as a swear word to illustration the emotion of disgust. Like saying “Jesus Christ”.

Like this, our cultures agenda is to profane sex removing all mystery and holiness and sacredness and selflessness and make it common and casual.  This only causes the mind to think about it as something that is simply for personal selfish pleasure, or status, or adventure.

Our culture wants to make sex simply about physiology and biology. And so, when we teach it to our kids in SEX ED, it is all about mechanics. Put this here and that there until you get a result. And, oh yeah, and if you do not want babies or diseases, then wrap this on this first.

We have been convinced by our culture that they get it and we don’t. This is why far too many people are captured by the world’s casual, mechanical, free market idea of sex.

This is why so many struggle with pornography.  Many have come to believe that it is purely mechanical, and therefore, ok.  Or that “THEY” (the world out there), understand sex more than we, the church, or God, does and so we go investigating on the web, or in movies, or with other people to get a taste of what is perceived to be the good life, sexually.

This will only continue to happen until we take back sexual intimacy for marriage alone and truly begin to enjoy intimacy the way the creator designed it to be enjoyed.

As our scripture today states, the consequences are major when it comes to sexual immorality. The emotional and spiritual scars that lust and sexual intimacy outside of your marriage brings are as deep as it gets, according to the Bible.  And in my 15 years of counseling, I have never seen anything to be more true.

Stop and meditate on a few other exhortations from God’s word regarding this area of our life:  “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!” Psalm 119:9-10

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”

1 Peter 2:11

“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”  Hebrews 13:4

“But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”  Matthew 5:28

Let me ask you, what are you exposing yourself to lately?   Are you engaging in a relationship that is crossing sexual boundaries outside of marriage?  Remember sexual intimacy of any kind is for marriage alone. It is not for love, commitment, fun, or whatever other reason one can think of to justify it.

Do you struggle with pornography? Do you have accountability on your phone or computer?  Do you have access to unhealthy cable TV or Netflix?  Many of these should be considered when fighting this fight.  Access is a huge part of our ongoing temptation.

http://xxxchurch.com  is a great resource for accountability software that doesn’t limit your access it just brings others alongside to see what you are seeing. Maybe it is time to get rid of the Smart Phone and go back to a flip phone.

Consider Proverbs 5 and replace the “immoral women” with “pornography” and read it again.

Proverbs 5 1-14:  “My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen carefully to my wise counsel. ²Then you will learn to be discreet and will store up knowledge.  ³The lips of Pornography are as sweet as honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil. ⁴But the result is as bitter as poison, sharp as a double-edged sword. ⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave. ⁶For she does not care about the path to life. She staggers down a crooked trail and doesn’t even realize where it leads. ⁷So now, my sons, listen to me. Never stray from what I am about to say: ⁸Run from her!  Don’t go near the door of her house! ⁹If you do, you will lose your honor and hand over to merciless people everything you have achieved in life. ¹⁰Strangers will obtain your wealth, and someone else will enjoy the fruit of your labor. ¹¹Afterward you will groan in anguish when disease consumes your body, ¹² and you will say, “How I hated discipline! If only I had not demanded my own way! ¹³Oh, why didn’t I listen to my teachers? Why didn’t I pay attention to those who gave me instruction? ¹⁴I have come to the brink of utter ruin, and now I must face public disgrace.”

Brothers:  there is too much to lose to not fight this fight. Are you letting brothers into your life to fight this fight with you? We must confess, repent and grow from any ungodly practices of sexual immorality.

Read it again:  “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

I am praying for you. I am praying that you look to honor God with this area of your life.  I am praying that you risk and ask your brothers how they are doing in this area.  That you work together to seek God and put up measures of real accountability and fight together to honor God in this way.

I leave you with the words of Paul in Romans 12:1-2: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

By His grace and for His glory,

Joshua “Shepherd” Kirstine

Soldiers for Jesus MC

National Chaplain

1 Corinthians 10

Warning Against Idolatry

10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,¹ that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown² in the wilderness.

6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ³ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 15 I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Consider the people of Israel:⁴ are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? 19 What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

Do All to the Glory of God

23 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. 24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. 25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. 26 For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” 27 If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—29 I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, 33 just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

Footnotes

[1] 10:1 Or brothers and sisters

[2] 10:5 Or were laid low

[3] 10:9 Some manuscripts the Lord

[4] 10:18 Greek Consider Israel according to the flesh

(ESV)

1 Corinthians 9

Paul Surrenders His Rights

9:1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? 2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

3 This is my defense to those who would examine me. 4 Do we not have the right to eat and drink? 5 Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife,¹ as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? 6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? 7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

8 Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? 10 Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. 11 If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12 If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?

Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. 13 Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? 14 In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

15 But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. 16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control,² lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Footnotes

[1] 9:5 Greek a sister as wife

[2] 9:27 Greek I pummel my body and make it a slave

(ESV)

1 Corinthians 8

Food Offered to Idols

8:1 Now concerning¹ food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.²

4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

7 However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating³ in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged,⁴ if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers⁵ and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

Footnotes

[1] 8:1 The expression Now concerning introduces a reply to a question in the Corinthians’ letter; see 7:1

[2] 8:3 Greek him

[3] 8:10 Greek reclining at table

[4] 8:10 Or fortified; Greek built up

[5] 8:12 Or brothers and sisters

(ESV)

1 Corinthians 7

Principles for Marriage

7:1 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. 3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

6 Now as a concession, not a command, I say this.¹ 7 I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

8 To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. 9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

10 To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband 11 (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.

12 To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you² to peace. 16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

Live as You Are Called

17 Only let each person lead the life³ that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. 18 Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. 19 For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. 20 Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. 21 Were you a bondservant⁴ when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) 22 For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. 23 You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. 24 So, brothers,⁵ in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

The Unmarried and the Widowed

25 Now concerning⁶ the betrothed,⁷ I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. 26 I think that in view of the present⁸ distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. 27 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. 28 But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman⁹ marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. 29 This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, 30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, 31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

32 I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. 33 But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, 34 and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. 35 I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

36 If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed,¹⁰ if his¹¹ passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry—it is no sin. 37 But whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well. 38 So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.

39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. 40 Yet in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

Footnotes

[1] 7:6 Or I say this:

[2] 7:15 Some manuscripts us

[3] 7:17 Or each person walk in the way

[4] 7:21 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface; also verses 22 (twice), 23

[5] 7:24 Or brothers and sisters; also verse 29

[6] 7:25 The expression Now concerning introduces a reply to a question in the Corinthians’ letter; see 7:1

[7] 7:25 Greek virgins

[8] 7:26 Or impending

[9] 7:28 Greek virgin; also verse 34

[10] 7:36 Greek virgin; also verses 37, 38

[11] 7:36 Or her

(ESV)