I Thessalonians 4:3-5 “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 not in passionate lusts like the heathen who don’t know God.”
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Some of the verses that we look at for Top Verses For Sexual Purity are principle verses. They don’t directly speak to sexual immorality, our bodies, adultery or lust. They will be principle verses. Not this one. This speaks very directly about your sexuality and about God’s expectations. It’s aimed at us who are trying to be sexually pure.
GOD’S WILL IS SEXUAL PURITY
I like how direct Paul is in telling us He doesn’t like sexual immorality. Sometimes we need to soak in the truth of God’s Word. We need to be taught or reminded that God does want us to have anything to do with sexual immorality. It’s not that God is anti-sex – He’s very much pro-sex. But He calls us to His high and holy standard for our sexuality.
Sometimes I realize I’ve lost sight of His holy standards. I start thinking my behaviors are OK. I start thinking that it’s Ok to start hanging out in a sexually immoral environment. I start crossing boundaries and lines and I start acting out sexually. I know I’m deep back into the struggle/ bondage when these things happen. A place I don’t want to be.
Let’s break the verse down a little bit.
SANCTIFIED
Sanctified is a big word. It means “set aside”. It’s God’s will that I should be set aside. Set aside to holiness, not to wickedness like the world.
NOT LIKE THE HEATHEN
God wants us above sexual immorality. Our culture is very sexually immoral. We’re to stay as far away from that as possible.
THE IMPORTANCE OF AVOIDING
My sexual purity’s not going to happen on its own. It’s not an automatic thing. Sinning and doing my own will is automatic. I have to be engaged and take steps to avoid sexual immorality. I need to take action when it comes to people, places, influences, media and TV. I have to identify the things around me and in my life that are sexually immoral and go the opposite direction. That means I need to have a good plan. I need to develop a strategy for avoiding.
CONTROL YOUR OWN BODY
This is my struggle right here – learning to control my body. I don’t easily want to give up. It means that I have to surrender.
A friend of mine told me that anytime I am struggling with a verse or struggling to be obedient or wrestling with a concept, it means there’s a part of me that I don’t want to give up. There’s a part of me that still needs to surrender to God, and He still has to work on that area. Learning to control my body is a process. It takes time. I’ve got to set up boundaries. I’ve got to set up roadblocks. The temptations are going to come.
I can avoid a lot of sexual situations, but I can very easily be sexual with myself privately. There are things I have to stay away from, but then privately I have to “learn to control my own body”.
CONTROLLING MY BODY IS POSSIBLE! YEAH!
One thing I almost missed in this verse is that God said it is possible for me to learn to control my body. He wouldn’t say in the Scripture that it was His will if it wasn’t possible. Again, it’s not possible through my power but by God’s. Isn’t it great to know that I can learn to control my body. I might need the help of others, and I might need some mentorship and discipleship, but what a cool thing. I can actually get there. It’s a process, and it might take a long time, but we can get there.
DON’T LIVE LIKE ANIMALS
Verse 5 underscores the call to sexual purity. “Don’t be caught up in “passionate lusts like the heathen who do not know God. Those guys live like animals. They live on animal instinct. They’re under its control. But we are not to live like animals. We’re not to live on our own whims and instincts. We can be under God’s control. It’s really good to know that we don’t have to be slaves to our bodies and its urges. We can get to a point in our sexual purity journey where we can control them. We may be out of whack right now and not healthy. We may need some serious discipline and some serious sobriety from a behavior, but we can get there.
RECOVERY PRINCIPLES
1. We have to be intentional about avoiding things. We have to have a blacklist of people, places and things that we avoid.
2. We can control our bodies. It’s possible and God can help us to get there.
3. Controlling our bodies is a learned process. We need other people in the process to help us get there.
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Jeff Fisher lives in Raleigh, NC. He and his wife run the site www.porntopurity.com, a site designed to offer hope, encouragement and resources to those who are affected by sexual sin. Checkout Jeff’s podcasts on I-Tunes: Top Tips For Sexual Purity, Top Verses For Sexual Purity, and For Ministers Who Struggle.
