They will not give Satan that foothold. In fact, they will stay far from the path of destruction. We do have hope, however. A hope that there is always a way out of temptation.
And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
God reminds us that in every temptation, there is a way out. But even if they do, God is gracious enough to provide a way out, which will always involve turning back to Him. Grace is available to us, even on the other side of sin. When we reflect true repentance, mercy is extended. What are those warning signs to keep an eye out for? Trying to figure out how to justify an act you know isn't right, means you're already facing temptation.
Another warning sign is when you find yourself making compromises. A car ride with a married co-worker here. A little flirting there. Or watching questionable shows or movies with nudity.
Small compromises lead to big messes. This is hard because those temptations and the flirting with the boundary line can send a wave of excitement. Learn more In today's sexualized culture, we are constantly bombarded with media messages that define dating in terms of sexuality instead of interpersonal relationships.
As such, it has become increasingly more important to guard oneself from sexual immorality. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue. No account yet? Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great.
By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article Steps. Tips and Warnings. Related Articles. Author Info Last Updated: June 15, Figure out how you define "sexual immorality" for yourself. This may depend upon your own religion and philosophy and will be unique for each person.
For example, many branches of Christianity define sexual immorality as copulation before marriage, but there also may be many steps before that to think about. Some people consider kissing before marriage to be wrong and others consider undressing in front of each other before marriage okay as long as you don't have sex. What you define "sex" to be will differ from what others define it as. Maybe you feel that only certain types of sex are immoral.
You can't find specific guidelines through your religious text, although your religion and spiritual beliefs can guide you. Think about your ideal relationship and decide where you stand on the issues that are most important to you. Abstaining from immorality isn't just a religious idea either, and those without religious beliefs can feel that this is important as well. Talk to your partner if you have one about their personal beliefs about sexual immorality. Remember that what they think is okay might be slightly different than what you think is okay.
You also might find out that you have different sexual histories, but what matters most is what you believe and are willing to do or, rather, abstain from doing currently, not what happened in the past. Coition within the forbidden degrees of family relationships generally results in genetic complications when offspring are produced.
Recessive genes often become dominant and endow the fetus with various kinds of diseases or congenital malformations. This seems to have been the force of the Hebrew tebel [ l,b,T ], a word that occurs only in Leviticus and It comes from balal [ l;l'B ], meaning "to confuse, " and conveys aptly the genetic upheaval that occurs in many cases of inbreeding, since God's rules for procreation have been upset.
Only in a few instances does close inbreeding produce beneficial effects by removing recessive lethal genes from the genetic pool. This may have happened in the case of ancient Egyptian royalty. Nevertheless, even in such instances, inbreeding diminishes the energy and vigor of species that are normally outbred, and reinforces the wisdom and authority of the Mosaic legislation.
When God entered into a covenant relationship with the Israelites he furnished them with certain fundamental regulations engraved in stone to symbolize their permanence. These "Ten Commandments, " as they are styled, contain certain injunctions of a moral character dealing with adultery, theft, false witness, and covetous behavior Exod The last three offenses are social in character, involving the community of God to a greater or lesser degree.
But the commandment prohibiting adultery deals with an act of a highly personal nature, occurring between normally consenting adults, which violates the "one flesh" character of marriage. The fact that a commandment deals specifically with this form of behavior seems to indicate that adultery was common among the ancient Hebrews. At all events, adultery was understood as sexual intercourse between a man and another man's wife or betrothed woman.
Similarly, any act of coition between a married woman and a man who was not her husband was also regarded as adultery. Certain exceptions to these stringent rules were tolerated in Old Testament times, however. A man was not considered an adulterer if he engaged in sexual relations with a female slave Gen , a prostitute Gen , or his wife's hand maid with the spouse's permission Gen Nor was a man deemed to be in an adulterous relationship if he happened to be married to two wives.
The traditions banning adultery, made specific in the Decalog, were enshrined deeply in Israel's national life. The prophets warn that divine judgment will descend upon those who practice it Jer ; Ezek ; Mal The Book of Proverbs, however, takes more of a social than a specifically moral view of adultery, ridiculing it as a stupid pattern of behavior that leads a man to self-destruction The prophets use the term figuratively to describe the covenant people's lack of fidelity to the high ideals of Mount Sinai.
The prophets view the covenant as equivalent to a marriage relationship between God and Israel Isa Any breach of the covenant, therefore, is an act of spiritual adultery Jer ; Ezek In his teachings Jesus stands firmly in the traditions of the Mosaic law and prophecy by regarding adultery as sin. But he extends the definition to include any man who lust sin his mind after another woman, whether she is married or not. It is thus unnecessary for any physical contact to take place, since the intent is already present Matt By this teaching Jesus demonstrates that, under the new covenant, motivation is to be considered just as seriously as the mechanical act of breaking or keeping a particular law.
The motivation of a believer should always be of the purest kind, enabling obedience to God's will freely from the heart, and not just because the law makes certain demands. Whereas the female is cast in an inferior, passive role in the Old Testament sexual legislation, Jesus considers the woman as equal to the man in his teachings about divorce and remarriage.
In consequence the woman has to bear equal responsibility for adultery. Much discussion has taken place about Christ's return to the strict marriage ideals of Genesis Mr and the explanatory clause "except for marital unfaithfulness" Matt ; , which allows for remarriage after divorce and which does not occur in either Mark or Luke Before New Testament technical terms are discussed, it is important to realize that Christ was directing his teaching at the new age of grace, which in his death was to render Old Testament legal traditions ineffective.
The Mosaic law was specific about the conditions under which divorce could occur. The wife had fallen into disfavor because her husband had found something unclean or indecent about her, and therefore he was entitled to divorce her. Jesus teaches that this procedure was allowed by God as a concession to human obduracy Matt , even though the Creator hated divorce.
In New Testament times, only the man was able to institute divorce proceedings. It was in reality, however, a rare occurrence, and at that mostly the prerogative of the rich, since poor men could not afford another dowry or "bride price" for a subsequent marriage.
The accused woman was protected under the law to the extent that her husband's accusations had to be proved. Thus some scholars have seen the Matthean explanatory clause as indicating immorality as the sole ground for divorce, following the contemporary rabbinical school of Shammai, and not for some purely frivolous cause, as the school of Hillel taught. If this explanation is correct, Jesus was addressing a Jewish controversy that had no bearing on God's marriage ideals in the age of grace, and which Mark and Luke consequently ignored because the exception did not apply to their audiences of Christian believers.
The most common term in the New Testament for sexual immorality is porneia [ porneiva ], and its related forms pornos [ povrno" ] and porneuo [ porneuvw ]. An emphatic form of the verb, ekporneuo [ ejkporneuvw ]," indulging in sexual immorality, " occurs in Jude 7. These words have been translated variously into English, some renderings for an immoral person being"who remonger, " "fornicator, " "loose liver, " and" sexually immoral. The extended description of wanton immorality in Romans discusses women spurning natural sexual relationships for unnatural ones, that is, indulging in lesbian activities of the kind practiced at Lesbos in pagan Greek religious ceremonies.
The males are described as inflamed with lust for one another, and this leads to indecent and immoral behavior. In 1 Corinthians the sexually immoral are classified as adulterers, male prostitutes, and homosexual offenders.
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