A Call to Sexual Purity

1 Corinthians 6:12-13; 18-20 (NIV) -

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body... Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

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I know there are going to be people who read this and massively disagree with me on this, but I have felt a burning in my spirit and I cannot stay silent when what I have seen and read is so appalling. I have just started seeing the countless posts on the Roe v. Wade debate, and all I have to say on it is that the reaction to it has been one of the clearest, most visual demonstrations I have ever seen of how far humanity has turned from God. However, on the topic itself I will refrain from saying anything - for now, at least.

What I would like to touch on today is the thought which has continually spun around my head as I've been reading the plethora of opinions on the topic floating around the internet: "We probably wouldn't be having this argument in the first place is sexual purity hadn't gone out the window long ago - if we had actually taught men and women alike to control their sexual desires instead of simply giving into them. If that had happened, there wouldn't be any minutia to debate over!"

If we as a culture, as a race, held in higher regard sexual purity (not merely sex within marriage - there is a difference, and purity is the higher of the two), then we wouldn't have the majority of issues such as rape, accidental pregnancy, teenage pregnancy, and countless others to argue about. The minority reports which have become the basis for all argument, the case-by-case instances that apparently somehow make the exception into the rule, wouldn't exist. The only gray areas would then be accidental pregnancies within marriage (a far simpler situation to deal with, though still with complexities) and the extremely rare cases in which the pregnancy puts the life of the mother at risk. Then we can have a discussion about how to move forward in a way that best preserves both mother and child as far as is humanly, even supernaturally, possible. God will make a way when we trust Him. It's in His nature.

All these arguments over debate are, realistically, only a symptom of the far deeper issue - the entirety of humanity turning away from God and towards idols of self-indulgence, carelessness, disregard of consequence, lack of restraint and wisdom. We have turned from our loving Father to idols of self, which are really no idols at all. We have no power, and we're only going to hurt ourselves and those around us by pretending that we do. We have no control, for all authority in heaven and earth belongs to their Creator, and ours. He rules over all, and it is only by returning to His way that we can find true peace and contentment.