Using the Scriptures as a guide, our culture is rapidly growing in decadence, and gaining momentum in 
outdoing itself in its decadence. Lust, of any variety, will never have enough, and will always be demanding “give, give†(Pro. 30:15). Thus, in order to live godly in an age where the gravitation pull of the black hole of sexual dalliance we are going to need a stiff drink of what scripture calls self-control/temperance (Gal. 5:23).
Christians must be prepared to take a stand, even when the allure of the “world’s wares†seem reasonable, normal, common. It is a dire thing when a culture comes to view sins as respectable. William Perkins once said “The special danger of the magistrate’s and minister’s calling [is] that generally the sins of their people are theirs too.†Like Isaiah, we live in the midst of an unclean people (Isa. 6), and thus we must cry, “Woe is me!†Not just “woe is them†but “woe is meâ€.Â
In this midst of a culture aflame with lust for sex, money, blood, and fame, a cold shower of truth will do a world of good for the Christian man or woman. Our cultural obsession with using sex in all the wrong ways, its fiscal irresponsibility and entitlement mentality, the murder of the unborn and unjust wars, and the narcissistic inanity of most of what happens on Social Media can cloud the Christian’s judgement. It is like the enchantment of the witch in Silver Chair, slowly lulling our resistance to the lie of self-worship (which is the idolatry at the heart of all this decadence).
So let’s do some clear thinking shall we?
Sex is a gift and can be used rightly or wrongly. Oftentimes we want to point at all the garbage out there as that which is making us so wicked; but Scripture would teach us that God made man good, man’s rebellion corrupted the goodness of the created order and enslaved us to sin (Rom. 6:13). Without regeneration, the members of our body will only ever be used as “instruments of unrighteousnessâ€. After we are born again, we are given a new nature, Christ’s, and that means our body (sexuality included) is renewed to be used for God’s glory alone; thus, we are to present our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness, and this can only be the result of the Spirit’s regenerating work.
Further, our mind is sanctified as well, which ought to tell us that we are given grace to think about the cultural garbage clearly. When we walk in the Spirit, by the Word, the first thing we notice is the crystal clarity of the nature of sin. Temptation, by nature, is sneaky, and thus we must be steeped in the light of the Word of God, which alone will arm us to see sin and fight it vehemently.
For instance, the rampant problem of porn in the church indicates the desperate need for clear biblical teaching and obedience. We all know that sexual relations outside of the context of a one man, one woman marriage is unlawful. Furthermore, we all might recognize the “ick†factor of Scripture’s prohibition against bestiality (Lev. 18:23), we see that sex between man and beast is a degradation of man and an abuse of God’s intended use for the beast (labor & food).
However, if we swap out beast for machine, or a donkey for a computer with a high speed internet connection, do we see the incongruity of man, made in God’s image, lowering himself to the level of beast or machine.
Mankind’s sexuality was intended to raise us in dignity; the union of a man with a woman is a clear parable of the great union of Christ with His bride and the union of Heaven and Earth through God’s redemption in Christ. True sex brings a man and a woman into a likeness to divine matters. If a man lowers himself to sexual gratification with a machine (i.e. porn), he is trading in his manhood and settling for being machine-like. Every deviation that our culture imagines up is simply a degradation of man.
Only God’s Word provides the pattern for our whole bodies to be glorified, everything else is a descent from the divine into the diabolical.
————————————————
More Articles You May Enjoy:
You must be logged in to post a comment.