Purify Your Mind Series (Part 2) by Joe KirbySample

Sex in the City

I used to think that people in Bible times had it easier than we do. After all, they weren’t bombarded with every lewd image that the Internet pushes in our faces; they didn’t have smartphones and televisions, all promoting sensuality. But I was wrong.

They didn’t have the media we have, but the people of Corinth were one of the most sexualized cultures in history. Greco-Roman culture worshipped Aphrodite, the goddess of “love” (i.e., sex). Sexual liberty was rife, even compared to our modern-day culture. The apostle Paul was concerned about the church and some of the perverse sins being committed in it (see 1 Cor. 5), so he warned those living in the sexual city of Corinth to “flee sexual immorality” (6:18).

Just as Joseph had to physically escape Potiphar’s wife when she begged him to sleep with her, so we, like Joseph, have to run from temptation. You may need to get out of the house to remove yourself from a situation. Joseph didn’t even have time to get his coat back; he knew that staying in the place for even a fraction of a second would lead to a different ending. We, too, must have that same urgency to get away. Run, because the moment you linger you begin to rationalize the sin, and once that happens, you’re dead in the water.

When a man steals, he sins with his hands; when a man gossips, he sins with his lips; but when a man commits sexual immorality, he sins with his whole body. The mind is engaged, the eyes gaze, the hands touch, the feet walk to the sin location, the loins burn, and the heart lusts. The whole body is betrothed to the work of impurity and that’s why the whole body must run when sexual sin beckons its finger to you today.