Sexting Temptation VictorySample

VICTORY OVER TECHNO-SEX TEMPTATION: STEP ONE 

Are you into flirtatious conversation with a person of the opposite gender, not your spouse – through phone texts, WhatsApp messages or even via direct conversation? Do you use the occasion of a “business lunch” to indulge in idle talk with the other person? Do you send romantic messages to a colleague at work from the opposite sex and delete those messages on a regular basis – lest your spouse finds out? Marital fidelity is not just about “inter-course fidelity” but also about “internet-fidelity”; it is not just about “cot fidelity” but also about “cellphone fidelity”. Repent. Stop. Take a U-turn. Say “tata” (goodbye) to “technosex”!

What is the anti-dote for sexting? How can we overcome the sexting temptation? 

1. ARREST BAD THOUGHTS

Read Colossians 3:8 again. It goes this way: “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth”(ESV). Bible Scholar Douglas J. Moo’s explanation of this verse is helpful: “Paul’s concern is that Christians should avoid abusive speech. The first three sins in the list of Colossians 3:8 refer to those attitudes (‘anger, wrath, malice’) that give rise to such speech. Paul’s purpose is to use the three words together to connote the attitude of anger and ill will toward others that so often leads to hasty and nasty speech. Jesus reminds us that ‘the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart’ (Matt. 15:18), and it is this principle that undergirds v.8.”[Pillar New Testament Commentary: Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon]. Jesus’ words in Matt. 15:18 can be put in our context this way: ‘the things that get typed or sent via your phone comes from your heart’. So, going by the principles that Paul put forth as brilliantly explained by Moo, here is the way of escape from erotic texting: think clean thoughts and eschew unclean thoughts; do not allow garbage to settle in your mind! This can be done by our active cooperation with the enabling power of the Holy Spirit (‘by the Spirit put to death the misdeeds of the body’ – Romans 8:13).