Important Lessons for a Very Peculiar ChurchSample

Flee immorality

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Sexual immorality is pervasive in our culture. It is pervasive not only outside the church but also inside. How we need to hear and obey the simple yet urgent command: “Flee immorality.”

Flee it! Don’t mess with it. Don’t tolerate it. Don’t play with it. Don’t flirt with it. Flee it! Run from it. In fact, the verb “flee” is a present imperative, as if God had said, “Keep running from sexual immorality.” Run and keep running.

Our example is Joseph. When Potiphar’s wife approached Joseph for sex, Joseph ran and kept running. “But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, she caught him by his garment, saying, ‘Lie with me.’ But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house” (Gen. 39:11–12).

What can you do to obey Christ’s call for sexual purity? Adhere to nine principles:

1. Pursue the Lord. Passionately pursue a love relationship with Jesus. Guard your daily time alone with Jesus. If Jesus is your deep well, then you won’t go looking for broken cisterns.

2. Pursue your spouse. If you are married, cherish your spouse. Give your marriage priority, attention, and energy. Never take your spouse for granted. If you are single, have clear boundaries and guidelines for dating and relationships.

3. See people as God does. In 1 Timothy 5, God tells us to treat younger women as sisters and younger men as brothers. Treat all people as if they belonged to your biological family. Treat them with love, dignity, and respect.

4. Live in community. If you are isolated from people, you are so much more vulnerable to sin of all kinds. Get in a small group—a healthy small group—and get real.

5. Have healthy boundaries. Don’t have private meetings with members of the opposite sex. Dress appropriately, despite what our culture may say. Avoid all flirting. Don’t be foolish—if you are a man, don’t talk to another woman about your marriage problems.

6. Understand consequences. Do not be naïve and minimize the painful and life-wrecking consequences of sexual sin. Sin always hurts us, and often it also hurts the people we love most. Think in advance about all the pain sexual sin can bring. 

7. Fight the battle. We are not ignorant of the devil’s schemes. We know he is a deceiver and a liar who promises pleasure but gives pain, misery, and disaster. Do not listen. Resist the enemy by claiming Scripture and obeying it.

8. Never think you are immune. If you think, “It could never happen to me,” then you are vulnerable to sexual sin. “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).

9. Remember that God will hold you accountable. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Gal. 6:7).