PURITY IN HONOR AND SURVIVAL AND VICTORY IN LIFE WARNING - THIS IS A LONG AND INVOLVED CONVERSATION - BUT WORTH YOUR TIME! "I am in my early 70's. Much has changed in the realm of what is pure and what is impure during my lifetime. But then, of course, information has exploded (Daniel 12:4). We struggle like never before when it comes to our sexuality, our intimacy, and our oneness as a man and a woman. You know this. Those with open eyes understand. There are several anchors in God's Word which are able to help deliver us from being consumed by impurity and lust. This is tricky. But take the time to reason through this for your own welfare - and for those you love. While this can look different for a man or a woman, we are both offered the opportunity to honor God and one another through our purity choices. This has little to do with being religious and much more with being spiritually free. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 contains the most focused discussion of honor for God through purity - though the subject is woven throughout the God Story. From it we learn that: √ It is God's heart for us to be "set apart" in our purity (sanctified) √ Our purity is not merely an issue of body but involves our mind, conscience, heart, and soul. We are apparently "called to this." (intergenerational apology?) √ Sexual purity means we will "possess our vessels" in honor and choose to abstain from immorality. It is not difficult in the Biblical corpus to define purity vs immorality. (open any book of the Bible) √ Setting aside "lustful passions" we are to subject this part of us to honor - both to God and our choices not to "transgress or defraud others." We are "hijacked to this" √ The Holy Spirit given to us when we believe in Jesus allows us to "go over and above" what has become our most natural entrapment. This is neither a man problem or a woman problem. Let's take a look at the uphill challenge we face. #1 The Roots of Human Destruction "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." - Genesis 4:7 There are relatively very few people at this point in the world. Cain and Abel have much to reveal to us about the new trajectory of man and womankind. Several textual questions: - What is our countenance? - What does it mean for it to be lifted up? - What does it mean to "do well?" - What does crouching at the door imply/look like? - Why does sin desire me? - How do I "master" it? #2 The Reality of God's Plan for Purity So here is a mind blower. As you read do not make the mistake I have before where I have thought this is only directed toward a male. Not so. It is for us both. "Drink water from your own cistern and fresh water from your own well. Should your springs be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain (digging flow) be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth. As a loving life encounter and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; be exhilarated always with her love. For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a "calamitous one" not belonging to you? For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He watches all his paths. His own iniquities will capture the wicked, and he will be held with the cords of his sin. He will die for lack of instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray." Proverbs 5:15-23 Several textual questions: - What fountain is being discussed here? - What does exhilaration look like over a day? A year? A decade? Into your 70's and beyond? - What makes a man or woman invite the calamity of adultery into our lives, and what is the scope of this upon a heart, mind, and conscious? - How much importance/focus does God place upon our purity and why? What is His goal for us? #3 The Partnership of Intimacy Burnadette and I have been partners for over 50 years. We married selfish, but because we have mutually submitted to Jesus we have found oneness. It is a choice, according to Paul - the unmarried one - which belongs to us both. Here is one of the trickiest passages about intimacy. "The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." - 1 Corinthians 7:3 Some people see this as unenlightened - even neanderthal. Several textual questions: - What duty is described here? - How does this happen when men and women are so different? - Why the conversation about authority - and why here? - What is the ultimate goal within our hard work in our sexuality (pun intended)? #4 The Roots of Porn and Immorality - The sons of God and the daughters of men in Genesis 6:1-7. "Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." √ What was the impact upon the seed of Adam (our gene pool - our mind pool? our heart pool?) Is there any doubt that these are angels? √ What was God's response to the condition of those who were to bear His image? √ Why is Noah so key and where does he fit into our lives? The strategies of Satan in opposing God and His people: exploitation and spiritual death. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." John 10:10 "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8 Confuse. Consume. Divide. Conquer. Devour. Impurity has ancient roots of dishonor toward our Creator. Sexual sin consumes the God-life in us. We overcome personal impurity by overcoming satan's influence in our lives, and dismantling strongholds and lofty things (2 Corinthians 10:3-6). THIS IS AS OLD AS THE GARDEN STORY The spirit of Asherah is represented in a Phoenician goddess. One of three: Asherah, Astarte, and Anath - she is emblematic of the choice of any human to replace our Creator with a seductive idol. She is the phallic invitation - note her historic images highlighting her breasts and vagina. Sexual impurity is idolatry and brings many levels of bondage. "She" is destructive and holds people captive and harms and robs everyone who chooses her. She literally drains life from relationships. We are so desensitized to her work we have developed many takes on who she is and what harm and control she exerts when we give our hearts over to her. She must be overcome by God-strength and spiritual warfare (more later). The Spirit of Jezebel is clear from the Biblical character of the same name. Read about Elijah, Ahab, and Jezebel (1 Kings 16:31; 18-21; 2 Kings 9) and Revelation 2:20. She is manipulative, self-serving, wicked and seductive, and a flesh and blood example of how a person can be a linchpin for evil (prophets of Baal). That any one person can be this evil is telling. Jezebel goes way beyond seduction to slavery. When the spirit of Jezebel is ignored or embraced the descent is inevitable. Can you see her activity and presence in these last 50 years (and beyond)? Babylon the Whore is summarized in Revelation 17:1-7: "Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality." And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, "Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth." And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly. And the angel said to me, "Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns." In Jordan Peterson's book "We Who Wrestle With God" we ran across this quote and thought it was very insightful into the warfare where we find ourselves against the "whore of Babylon." It helps us with perspective on the roots - and the solution to our dilemma of impurity. "The key to understanding the nature of the
