“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable.”

1 Thessalonians 4:3-4
When it comes to our lusts, we tend to rationalize in our minds to get what we want in our hearts. We come up with reasons why such-and-such a thing is okay, or we pretend that the rules are too complicated to follow. Sometimes we act as though laws against sexual immorality are more man’s laws than God’s righteousness.

But Scripture passages like this one do not permit us to minimize God’s insistence on purity. God tells us very clearly that we must abstain from sexual immorality.

“Abstain” doesn’t mean to partake sometimes as long as you don’t get caught, or to choose for yourself when it’s okay or not. “Abstain” doesn’t mean give oneself over to and become a slave of. We are simply to “cease and desist” from sexual immorality.

Some wonder why the Bible is so bent on restricting us and squashing our fun. Our relationships of purity, gentleness, and uncorrupted love are a picture of God’s love for us. When we degrade those relationships with immoral behavior, we cheapen God’s deep, costly, perfect love for us.



Scripture Focus

1 Thessalonians 4:3-9

Insight

“Love… as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.” (Ephesians 5:25-26)

Bible In A Year

  • 2 Kings 3-4
  • Proverbs 12
  • James 2-3

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