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2019-02-17

How Believers Should Respond to the Sexual Sin in Our Culture

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(Ephesians 4:15a, NLT)

“We will speak the truth in love.”

I.  Introduction

     In order to understand “How Believers Should Respond to the Sexual Sin in Our Culture,” we must first examine the Bible’s foundational teaching on human sexuality: “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27, NIV).

     Immediately after He created them, God commanded Adam and Eve: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28b, NIV).  They obeyed this command by sexual reproduction: “Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain” (Genesis 4:1a, NIV).

     This sexual union between Adam and Eve took place within the context of the lifetime commitment called marriage:  “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him’…So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh.  Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.  The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.’  That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Genesis 2:18…21-24, NIV).  When God “brought her to the man,” He officiated at the first wedding ceremony!  We don’t know exactly what that ceremony looked like, but we do know that as a result of it they were married—because by the time they had their first sexual union, Eve was Adam’s “wife”—not his fiancé or his girlfriend or his significant other.  She was his “wife!”  Moses wrote, “Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain” (Genesis 4:1a, NIV).

     These passages from Genesis form the Bible’s foundational teaching for any discussion about sexual morality, and they clearly outline the Biblical parameters of sexual activity:  Appropriate sexual activity involves one man and one woman within the context of the lifetime commitment of marriage!

     Any alteration of this foundational pattern—sexual activity limited to one man and one woman within the context of the lifetime commitment of marriage—is a distortion of God’s original plan.  It is a violation of God’s will and is, therefore, sin!  So if sexual activity occurs between a man and a woman without the lifetime commitment of marriage—it is either fornication (pre-marital sex) or adultery (extra-marital sex)—and it is sin!  Or if sexual activity occurs between two men or two women, even if there is a lifelong commitment, which our Supreme Court has legalized as “same-sex marriage”, it is still sin…and the US Supreme Court can’t change that fact!

II.  How to Respond to Sin

     Fornication, adultery, and homosexual activity are sins that are common in today’s American culture.  So the question that believers must ponder is: “How should we respond to the sexual sin in our culture?”  Paul gave a practical answer to this question when he wrote, “We will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church” (Ephesians 4:15, NLT).

     Believers must “speak the truth” regarding sexual sin!  We must unapologetically declare that fornication (pre-marital sex) is sin.  Paul wrote, “This is the will of God…that ye should abstain from fornication” (I Thessalonians 4:3a…3c, KJV).  If it is “the will of God” that believers “abstain from fornication,” then fornication is obviously sin.

     We must passionately proclaim that adultery (extra-marital sex) is sin!  Since Jesus said to the woman caught in the very act of adultery, “Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11b, NIV).  Jesus identified a life characterized by adultery as a “life of sin!”

     We must also clearly explain that any kind of homosexual behavior is sin!  Paul wrote, “They traded the truth about God for a lie…That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.  And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved” (Romans 1:25a…26-27, NLT).  Whether among males or females, God labeled homosexual activity as “this sin.”

     Let’s go back again to Paul’s statement in Ephesians: “We will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church” (Ephesians 4:15, NLT).  It is not enough to “speak the truth.”  We must “speak the truth in love.”

     Speaking the truth “in love” means that we speak the right words at the right time and in the right tone.  King Solomon wrote, “A word fitly [properly] spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver” (Proverbs 25:11, KJV).  Truth spoken “in love” is a thing of beauty, just like “apples of gold in pictures of silver.”

     King Solomon indicated how important the right tone is when speaking truth.  He wrote, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1, NIV). 

     Speaking the truth “in love” means that our motive is to “build up” those to whom we are speaking, not to tear them down.  Paul wrote, “Knowledge puffs up while love builds up” (I Corinthians 8:1, NIV).  Our desire should always be to help others become better people.

     Speaking the truth “in love” means that our goal is to help the people to whom we are speaking experience the best life possible.  After all, that is the example Jesus set.  He said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10b, NKJV).

III.  Conclusion

     The bottom line is this: God loves people who are guilty of sexual sin, and so should we!  The most well-known verse in the entire Bible says, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NIV).

     Let’s look at that verse again—“God so loved the world…including people who are guilty of fornication…including people who are guilty of adultery…including people who are guilty of homosexual behavior…that he have his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

     If God loves people who are guilty of sexual sin, then we should love them too!  And if we love them, we will treat them with the same dignity and respect with which we would treat anyone else.  And if we truly love them, “We will speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15a, NLT), because they need to hear it.  Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32, NIV).    

 Next Steps:

• Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to receive the gift of eternal life.  He said, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NIV).
• Ask God to clearly teach you “How Believers Should Respond to the Sexual Sin in Our Culture.”  Paul wrote, “We will speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15, NLT).    

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