July 30, 2006

Cawson St. Church of Christ

Hopewell, Virginia

Mural Worthey

 

Traits That Distinguish Christians--#2

(Subtopic: Ten Reasons Why Porneia Is Wrong)

Introduction

 

Recently, we discussed four traits that distinguish Christians.  These traits set disciples apart from followers of other religious leaders and non-believers.  We named: 1) Jesus Christ as the principal way in which we are distinguished and known, 2) Our participation in the Kingdom of God, 3) Our love for one another, and 4) Our love for our enemies.  There are other traits that distinguish and identify us as followers of Jesus Christ.  I want to name another important trait that all Christians should have.

 

Christians Depart from Iniquity 

 

But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: The Lord knows those who are his, and, Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.  Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable.  Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.  (2 Tim. 2:19-21.)  Notice the description of those whom the Lord knows as his and those who have named the name of Christ—they are those who depart from iniquity.  They are honorable vessels in God’s great house.

 

Peter wrote these words: “Beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.”  (1 Pet. 2:11.)  Paul added: “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication; that everyone of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the lust of evil desire, even as the Gentiles which know not God.”  (1 Thess. 4:3-5.)

 

The New Testament writers often warned the Christians not to live like the corrupt world and culture around them.  He chided believers for living like the Gentiles who know not God.  The knowledge of God and love for God ought to lift believers to a higher plane of living, morally and spiritually.  All Christians sin sometimes.  John wrote that if we deny that we have sin, we are deceived and the truth is not in us.  (1 John 1:8.)  But having acknowledged this, our lives ought not to be characterized by sin.  In fact, Paul wrote to the Ephesians that some sins ought not to be named among them once!  “But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh saints.”  (Eph. 5:3.)  If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, you ought not to commit some overt sins.  You can live your lives without ever committing some sins.

 

I want to emphasize a deadly sin that can destroy the individual believer, the home and the church.  This sin is fornication (Gr. porneia).  Did you notice in the above passages how often this sin is named in Scripture?  The sinful world minimizes it and even glorifies this sin.  Modern believers fall often even as the early church because of the corrupt culture in which they live.  Adults and young people alike need to be convinced that fornication is actually sinful and immoral.

 

What is porneia?  This is the broad word that covers all sexual immorality.  Adultery is fornication, but is more specific.  Adultery refers to making impure of that which is pure.  It is the pollution of the marriage bond by committing fornication.  We get our English word, pornography, from this New Testament biblical word, porneia.  Pornography refers to writings and images that portray those committing fornication.  Fornication includes all that leads up to sexual immorality.  Jesus said, “But I say unto you that whosoever lusts after a woman (or man) has committed adultery with her already in his heart.  If your right eye offends thee, pluck it out.  It is better that one member perish than. . . .”  (Matt. 5:27-30.)  As hate leads to murder, so lust leads to fornication.  Lewd, suggestive speech and thoughts are wrong because fornication has already been committed in the heart!  Our society is saturated with sexual immorality and sensual thoughts. 

 

I want to give you several reasons why fornication is sinful and harmful to you spiritually.  And I want to encourage you to learn how to keep your body in sanctification and honor and not in the lust of evil desire.

 

1)     Fornication is sinful because your body is a member of Christ. The body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body.  (1 Cor. 6:13-15.)  Paul argued that if you join yourself to a harlot, you become one with that harlot.  (verse 16)  You are misusing yourself, your body, as a Christian by causing one of Christ’s members to be joined to a harlot in fornication. It is ironic that some of the early Jewish Christians were very careful to abstain from certain meats like pork, but they were not so careful about abstaining from fornication.  Paul wrote, Meats are for the belly and the belly for meats.  But the body is not for fornication!

 

2)     Fornication is sinful because you have been washed, sanctified and justified.  (1 Cor. 6:11.)  The Corinthians had been fornicators, adulterers, idolaters, homosexuals, swindlers, drunkards, thieves, and covetous people.  That was their past.  If you are now a Christian, you have been washed in the blood of Christ and cleansed of all those sins.  Why would you go back and live the way you were before obeying the Gospel?  What was the purpose of being washed if you are going to go back and wallow in the mire like a pig?  (2 Pet. 2:22)

 

3)     Fornication is sinful because fornication is sin against your own body.  (1 Cor. 6:18.)  Paul wrote that all other sins are outside the body, but this sin is different from all other sins that one might commit.  In some pagan religions, fornication at the pagan temples was practiced.  The old priest of Israel, Eli, had sons who committed fornication with some women of Israel near the tabernacle of God.  (1 Sam. 2:22-25.)  Eli sinned in that he did not restrain them.  (3:13.)  God punished Eli’s house because of their sinfulness.  A Christian’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  It is perhaps in this sense that Paul said that fornication is a special sin against one’s body; that is, because it is a part of the temple of God.  The pagans sinned in the temple; Christians when they commit fornication, they sin using the temple of God.  That is worse than what the pagans and sons of Eli did.

 

4)     Fornication is sinful because the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.  (1 Cor. 6:9.)  Fornication is named among the sins of those in Corinth before they were washed from their sins.  The Corinthian and modern American culture laughs at the notion that fornication is sinful.  We even defend the woman’s right to kill the unborn child because it is her body, and she has the right to do with her body whatever she desires.  No one has the right to do whatever they desire with their body.  We have already noted the body is the Lord’s if you belong to him.  Fornication must be sinful indeed for Paul to write that such sinners will not enter into the Kingdom of God.

 

5)     Fornication is sinful because you have been bought with a price.  The price for your redemption is the death of God’s Son!  (1 Cor. 6:19-20.)  If you have been bought, you are not your own.  You do not own yourself anymore; you belong to Christ.  This description comes from the practice of buying human beings as slaves.  The Bible no where condones or sanctions such a practice, but it has a long history.  The Bible uses this analogy often because of the universal understanding of the master-slave relationship.  We are called slaves or bondservants of Christ and God.  We have been bought with a price.  We belong to Him.  Therefore, we should honor him by not committing sins against the temple of God.

 

6)     Fornication is sinful because we told to flee fornication.  (1 Cor. 6:18, 2 Tim. 2:22.)  If you are told to run fast away from something, it must be dangerous and harmful to you.  Think about other things that you might be told to flee.  The Jews were told to flee to the mountains of Judea when they saw the Roman army coming against Israel.  (Luke 21:21.)  Lot was told to flee to the little city of Zoar, just outside Sodom.  (Gen. 19:20.)  Get out of Sodom and Gomorrah because God is going to destroy them.

 

7)     Fornication is sinful because it destroys the home and family.  There are many other wise reasons why everyone, the young and the old, should avoid fornication.  One good reason is that it destroys the home.  Those committing fornication have illegitimate children without a father in the home.  A single mother will find it almost impossible to survive financially without a father to support the family.  The burden of that support will be shifted to grandparents and society.  If you want to fail financially, then disregard the Biblical instruction concerning marriage.  It is a challenge even when you have husband and wife working together to keep the family afloat. 

 

8)     Fornication is sinful because it means that you are a dishonorable vessel in the house of God.  This is what we read at the beginning in 2 Timothy 2:19-21.  I heard a sermon years ago titled, “Water pots to Garbage Cans,” based on this text to Timothy.  In any great house, there are two kinds of vessels: honorable and dishonorable ones.  Some vessels you drink water from; others you throw trash in.  If one lives sinfully, one is a dishonorable vessel not fitted for the Master’s use.  God cannot use you if you are living in sin.  Paul wrote that you must purge yourself from what is dishonorable in order to become useful to God.

 

9)     Fornication is sinful because one’s sanctification depends upon avoiding it.  (1 Thess. 4:3-5.)  You are not set apart for God’s use if living like those in the world.  There is really no difference between those who belong to God and those who belong to the world if we live like they do.  A believer does not need to become celibate to be sanctified before God, but one must abstain from fornication.  “Marriage is honorable, but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.”  (Heb. 13:4.)

 

10)  Fornication is sinful because abstaining from it is one of our traits

       as disciples or followers of Jesus Christ.  (2 Tim. 2:19.) Jesus

       Christ did not commit fornication, even though some writers do

       not hesitate to accuse the Son of God of such sins.  Some people

       desire to bring the Lord down to man’s sinful level.  We should

       not commit fornication because Jesus our Lord did not.