Sex is an excellent source of pleasure and one of our—if not the—strongest motivations.
“But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” (Mt 5:28-29)
For a long time, I didn't truly understand why God always had a problem with fornication—even though a large part of my work has been about this for a long time; it could have clicked sooner.
The Bible repeatedly uses the word marriage as an image of the relationship with God—a symbol of the closeness between God and His people. We can read about it most expressively in the Book of Ezekiel:
“Then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, when I crush their adulterous heart which has departed from me, and their eyes which played the harlot after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have committed in all their abominations.” (Ez 6:9)
Many people get stuck at the purely "below the waist" part of fornication, which—let’s face it—is a very simple interpretation. Others are offended by the word itself—in my experience, those who omit sexual pleasures from their own lives.
And although we live in a time of the supreme idolization of the body, sex is not merely body-on-body friction. (Though even this level is so joyful that it motivates millions on its own.)
A large part of the work in child protection consists of the "fornications" committed over the centuries—adulteries, acts of violence—due to which unwanted children have been born by the millions.
Tracing back the causes, alcohol almost always appears, as this product of rot greatly helps in dissolving inhibitions. Yet, getting drunk—lying down with alcohol—is also fornication. Of course, alcohol itself is not the cause; drinking is also a consequence.
And here it is very much understandable why Jesus Christ called on us to “tear it out and throw it away”: in reality, fornication is any dalliance with a spirit that hinders the growth of faith and love within us.
Before a person heads toward straying, before they commit adultery, they have usually already fattened the chance of it within themselves.
They have let their thoughts wander, they have already lingered in their imagination, and by the time they stumble, they are already ready for the act—and for being cast out. If they truly tore out their eyes, as Jesus says, many would be walking around with one eye. I, too, would find writing more difficult...
The main cause of fornication is a loss of focus. The moment we take our eyes off the Word of God, off the teachings of Jesus—written in worldly language as "loving one another"—the chance increases that we will fornicate with someone or something.
We will use someone or something for our own gratification.
However, it is incredible prudery to think that this can be pushed down purely below the waist! A much more serious degree of fornication takes place on a spiritual level:
Our true adultery is always when we step out of God's will (which is love!—Love one another!), which is the communion of love with Him that sustains us.
We step out of the relationship He intended for us from eternity. We "lie down" with ideologies, sciences, and boastful spirits that are contrary to God's will and which build themselves into our minds against the knowledge of God and His love: they stir up doubt, anxiety, and distrust, and indeed, we revel in pleasure with them inside.
Then we say with great bravado that we are clean below the waist...
But is it the same in our spirit?
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Cor 10:3-5)
“But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” (Mt 5:28-29)
For a long time, I didn't truly understand why God always had a problem with fornication—even though a large part of my work has been about this for a long time; it could have clicked sooner.
The Bible repeatedly uses the word marriage as an image of the relationship with God—a symbol of the closeness between God and His people. We can read about it most expressively in the Book of Ezekiel:
“Then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, when I crush their adulterous heart which has departed from me, and their eyes which played the harlot after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have committed in all their abominations.” (Ez 6:9)
Many people get stuck at the purely "below the waist" part of fornication, which—let’s face it—is a very simple interpretation. Others are offended by the word itself—in my experience, those who omit sexual pleasures from their own lives.
And although we live in a time of the supreme idolization of the body, sex is not merely body-on-body friction. (Though even this level is so joyful that it motivates millions on its own.)
A large part of the work in child protection consists of the "fornications" committed over the centuries—adulteries, acts of violence—due to which unwanted children have been born by the millions.
Tracing back the causes, alcohol almost always appears, as this product of rot greatly helps in dissolving inhibitions. Yet, getting drunk—lying down with alcohol—is also fornication. Of course, alcohol itself is not the cause; drinking is also a consequence.
And here it is very much understandable why Jesus Christ called on us to “tear it out and throw it away”: in reality, fornication is any dalliance with a spirit that hinders the growth of faith and love within us.
Before a person heads toward straying, before they commit adultery, they have usually already fattened the chance of it within themselves.
They have let their thoughts wander, they have already lingered in their imagination, and by the time they stumble, they are already ready for the act—and for being cast out. If they truly tore out their eyes, as Jesus says, many would be walking around with one eye. I, too, would find writing more difficult...
The main cause of fornication is a loss of focus. The moment we take our eyes off the Word of God, off the teachings of Jesus—written in worldly language as "loving one another"—the chance increases that we will fornicate with someone or something.
We will use someone or something for our own gratification.
However, it is incredible prudery to think that this can be pushed down purely below the waist! A much more serious degree of fornication takes place on a spiritual level:
Our true adultery is always when we step out of God's will (which is love!—Love one another!), which is the communion of love with Him that sustains us.
We step out of the relationship He intended for us from eternity. We "lie down" with ideologies, sciences, and boastful spirits that are contrary to God's will and which build themselves into our minds against the knowledge of God and His love: they stir up doubt, anxiety, and distrust, and indeed, we revel in pleasure with them inside.
Then we say with great bravado that we are clean below the waist...
But is it the same in our spirit?
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Cor 10:3-5)
Sex is an excellent source of pleasure and one of our—if not the—strongest motivations.
“But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” (Mt 5:28-29)
For a long time, I didn't truly understand why God always had a problem with fornication—even though a large part of my work has been about this for a long time; it could have clicked sooner.
The Bible repeatedly uses the word marriage as an image of the relationship with God—a symbol of the closeness between God and His people. We can read about it most expressively in the Book of Ezekiel:
“Then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, when I crush their adulterous heart which has departed from me, and their eyes which played the harlot after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have committed in all their abominations.” (Ez 6:9)
Many people get stuck at the purely "below the waist" part of fornication, which—let’s face it—is a very simple interpretation. Others are offended by the word itself—in my experience, those who omit sexual pleasures from their own lives.
And although we live in a time of the supreme idolization of the body, sex is not merely body-on-body friction. (Though even this level is so joyful that it motivates millions on its own.)
A large part of the work in child protection consists of the "fornications" committed over the centuries—adulteries, acts of violence—due to which unwanted children have been born by the millions.
Tracing back the causes, alcohol almost always appears, as this product of rot greatly helps in dissolving inhibitions. Yet, getting drunk—lying down with alcohol—is also fornication. Of course, alcohol itself is not the cause; drinking is also a consequence.
And here it is very much understandable why Jesus Christ called on us to “tear it out and throw it away”: in reality, fornication is any dalliance with a spirit that hinders the growth of faith and love within us.
Before a person heads toward straying, before they commit adultery, they have usually already fattened the chance of it within themselves.
They have let their thoughts wander, they have already lingered in their imagination, and by the time they stumble, they are already ready for the act—and for being cast out. If they truly tore out their eyes, as Jesus says, many would be walking around with one eye. I, too, would find writing more difficult...
The main cause of fornication is a loss of focus. The moment we take our eyes off the Word of God, off the teachings of Jesus—written in worldly language as "loving one another"—the chance increases that we will fornicate with someone or something.
We will use someone or something for our own gratification.
However, it is incredible prudery to think that this can be pushed down purely below the waist! A much more serious degree of fornication takes place on a spiritual level:
Our true adultery is always when we step out of God's will (which is love!—Love one another!), which is the communion of love with Him that sustains us.
We step out of the relationship He intended for us from eternity. We "lie down" with ideologies, sciences, and boastful spirits that are contrary to God's will and which build themselves into our minds against the knowledge of God and His love: they stir up doubt, anxiety, and distrust, and indeed, we revel in pleasure with them inside.
Then we say with great bravado that we are clean below the waist...
But is it the same in our spirit?
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Cor 10:3-5)
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