Sexual Purity

Purity starts in our mind then trickles down to the rest of us: body, soul, and spirit.

“Go with the flow!” An iconic saying when I was a teen. Going with the flow, not fighting against the tide of popular trends, but going along with prevailing opinions.

The sexual flow in our culture promotes a philosophy of personal choice and doing whatever feels good. Whoa! What-ever is the undercurrent of impurity carrying us away from God’s standards about sex.

Philosophies trickle from the flood gates in our mind through small, steady streams of messages. Cultural attitudes on sex ebb and flow through several mediums. We aimlessly listen to song lyrics, watch visual entertainment, and read writings penned with impurity’s voice cheering us on in sex—with no boundaries. Allowing sexual impurity to defile our mind as we go with the flow.

Jesus said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality . . . . All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Mark 7:20-23 ESV

Men and women’s minds are being defiled by sexual impurity. Every impure idea starts in our mental imaging center. This is why pornography and the adult entertainment world are so enticing. Nude bodies portrayed as perfect and sexual acts performed by people we do not know, falsely define what looks sexually pleasing. Minds are captured—hook, line, and sinker—lured into the world of impure thoughts.

In this world, women are seen as sex objects, which in turn, triggers unhealthy notions in females that our bodies are not desirable. We may indulge our imagination in heart-felt fantasies of a sexual romance novel or movie where it becomes safe to have a real and flawed body. Christ spoke about sexual lust within human hearts as immoral and adulterous (Matthew 5:28). Even if the physical body is not involved, sexual thoughts can occur in the heart and mind.

These sexual mindsets block the flow of purity as a single adult and in the marriage relationship through damaging expectations of our spouse and their sexual role. Whether in mind or body, as a married or single person, impurity is marked as sin (unholy actions) in God’s book. Wrongdoing against our body, our spouse or future spouse, and ultimately sinning against our creator who created us for his glory. A glory reflected in holiness and in purity.

Our fight for purity is between these contenders: Holy Wisdom versus Human Opinion. God’s flow of sexual purity comes from his reservoir of holiness in The Word. Culture’s feel-good message and advice about good sex is based solely on man’s opinion.

Scriptural truths confine human sexuality to singleness with sexual purity or sex relations within the marriage union between one man and one woman (and godly purity in our mind). Psalm 19:7-11, portrays the key to spiritually healthy minds and bodies: meditate on the pure, clean, perfect, reviving, wise, right, enlightening, rejoicing, enduring, and sweet precepts of the Lord.

Go with God’s flow! Purity in mind, body, soul, and spirit.

© 2015 by Karen Friday