More Love

We have a problem in our culture. It's not sex, exactly. It's the extreme embrace of sexual immorality. Few things in Scripture are repeated more often as sins as that particular one. And, as if in response, American culture has wholly embraced sexual immorality. When I was young, sex was a secret sin. Sure, there was Playboy and such, but those who indulged did so in private. Now they discuss it in public. I had a coworker the other day tell me out of the blue, "I found a cool new porn game." Like I wanted to hear that? But he thought it was something to share and be proud of. Because, in general, America has embraced sexual immorality.

To be fair, humans are sinners, so the fact that humans are sinning shouldn't be a big surprise. And, following the normal course of human sin, generally we go from bad to worse unless something interrupts that flow. Nothing has of late, so that's where we've gone. Since the grand kickoff of the "free love" generation of the '60's, we've been on a crash course to perversion ... and loving it. So it's not about them. I'm thinking about us. Scripture repeatedly warns young men, for instance, to guard their way (e.g., Psa 119:9), to flee immorality (e.g., 1 Cor 6:18; 1 Tim 6:11; 2 Tim 2:22), to keep themselves pure. I'd be pretty impressed if the casual Christian could stand in the face of the forces of this world and just hold still. No, simply saying, "Be pure" isn't going to cut it. What do we need?

The truth is we're not very successful at "don't." Just think "Don't look!" What do you get? Everyone looks. "Just don't" normally doesn't work. That's because it's only half the issue. If "don't" is the correct non-direction, we will need the correct direction. So "Don't commit sexual immorality" is all well and good ... but what do you recommend we do? And it will have to be something counter to "sexual immorality." That is, "Go bake a cake" isn't the kind of thing that will help.

So what is it that leads us into sexual temptation? I would guess it's a little complicated. There are hormones at the most basic level and then, moving up the chain, there are emotional desires and endorphines and ... oh, it is complicated, isn't it? The truth is that sex is enjoyable, primarily because God made it that way, but when it controls us, it's not good; it's slavery (1 Cor 6:12; Rom 6:13-14). God designed sex for His purposes, and when we hijack it for our purposes, it's a problem. It is my suspicion that most (all?) of our sin comes from lies we tell ourselves about God (Rom 1:18-19). In that case, our sin temptations are ultimately based on the premise that "God is not giving me what I need" (or "what is best for me") and we will seek to correct His error.

If this is accurate, the correction, then isn't just "don't." The correction is "Love God." If "sexual immmorality" is the wrong direction, "a passion for God" is the right direction. If we find ourselves tempted beyond our ability to withstand in the area of sexual immmorality (or, frankly, any other), I would think that more love for God would be a good remedy. Finding my highest pleasure in His presence. If we can arrive at "Your steadfast love is better than life" (Psa 63:3), I think the pleasures of this world will dim and so would our temptations.