Today’s Daily Light:

Continued:   God’s Will   (Continuing the 4 point article by Pastor Steven Cole)

Thessalonians 4:3-8 “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified:  that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him.  The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.  For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.  Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.”

2. This type of Sin in God’s people always causes damage.
3. It hurts God’s name.

God is holy and He is identified with His people. When pro­fessing Christians engage in sexual immorality, it drags God’s holy name through the mud in the eyes of the watching world. This is especially true when Christian leaders are caught in sin. The world mocks and shrugs off the claims of the gospel as a joke. It gives occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme (2 Sam. 12:14).

1. Sexual sin hurts the sinner himself.

Contrary to what is often said, all sin is not the same. Paul says that the immoral man sins against his own body (1 Cor. 6:18). Those who engage in homosexual sin, whether men or women, dishonor their bodies and “receive in their own persons the due penalty of their error” (Rom. 1:24-27). God’s moral laws are like the traffic laws: you can disobey them for a while and perhaps get where you want to go faster. But sooner or later, you’ll come around a curve too fast, hit a pole, and suffer the consequences. God’s laws are designed by the wise Creator to protect us.

1. Sexual sin hurts many others.

This is probably what Paul means when he says (1 Thess. 4:6), “and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter….” To have sexual relations with another man’s wife or another woman’s husband is to transgress against the innocent spouse and defraud him or her. To violate an unmarried woman is to hurt her and to defraud her future husband of her virginity. Implicit in the word “defraud” (related to the word for “greed”) is that sexual sin is inherently selfish. You’re taking advantage of the other person for your own pleasure or benefit. You may rationalize it by saying that it was by mutual agreement and for mutual pleasure. But you’re deceiving yourself. If you have children or grandchildren, your sexual sin hurts them by robbing them of your godly example. It hurts other church members by damaging the reputation of Christians in the community. As David’s sin with Bathsheba shows, he paid an awful price with his family and with his kingdom for a night of sinful pleasure. But Paul ups the ante:

(Con’t tomorrow)