.JPG)
The law of chastity are those commands that make clear our obligation to God for this shared power of creation and keep us sexually pure before marriage and monogamous and faithful within marriage. The passions of sexual desire are not in themselves sinful, they are in fact a beautiful gift when we express them in the committed love of marriage. In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Alma counsels his sons to: “See that ye bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love.” (Alma 38:12) Notice the word “bridle,” a bridle is a harness that makes the animal useful in obedience to its master. If the passions are the horse, then this description denotes that we are not to “kill the horse” but rather control it and make it useful to us in getting us to our ultimate destination. We must be the masters of our passions and sexual appetites and use them for the God given purposes. In so doing we will remain sexually pure and as Alma teaches, then we will be filled with love.
So, what do the scriptures teach us about the sin of sexual acts outside marriage?
Epistle of Paul to the Romans begins with probably the best explanation of how a people fall so far from grace as to be given over completely to the lusts of the flesh until their carnal appetites become unnatural. His words are powerful and descriptive, and many today have rejected them as too harsh. What he describes is the end result of widespread sexual promiscuity within a society, the way that it deadens the soul and draws the people away from God. It’s important for Christians to understand that this path doesn’t begin with the most depraved sexual sins but it begins with the acceptance of heterosexual fornication as an understandable, and maybe even necessary, expression of attraction and love. Many Christians today do not view premarital sex as particularly sinful, some even encourage it as a responsible part of finding a spouse. This is NOT what the bible teaches us about sex and marriage. If we are honest with ourselves, we can look at the disintegration of marriage and family in our society and we can trace its origin back to sexual liberation. We are well along on this path now, and many are in shock at how depraved sexual appetites have become. This is what Paul warned about in Romans chapter one.
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God… but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools; And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man…
“Wherefore, [they gave themselves] up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
“They changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator… For this cause [they gave themselves] up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
“They did not like to retain God in their knowledge, [they gave themselves] over to a reprobate mind… Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness… haters of God… proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient… without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection.
– Romans 1:21-32
Many young people today are taught that what they do sexually is a purely private matter and they aren’t accountable to anyone but themselves. What the bible teaches us is that we have a duty to God for how we act in relation to our sexual passions. When Joseph is sold into Egypt he is pursued and propositioned by the mistress of the house in which he is a slave. “She spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her.” Listen to how he responds to this temptation: “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9-10) It is his understanding that such sin is a wickedness in the sight of God that causes him to risk his position in Potiphar's house, even his life, to repel such advances.
Remember earlier in this study we defined different categories of sin based on the words the Lord uses in scripture to describe them. One word we identified was abomination. Abominations are those sins that God hates, they are the greatest of sins because they are sins against the greatest powers God shares with his children on earth. About sins against the laws of chastity the Lord has said: “I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity… And whoredoms are an abomination before me.” (Jacob 2:28)
The Book of Mormon teaches that sexual sin is “most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost?” (Alma 39:5). When I was a teenager, I was struggling to understand why it was such a bad thing for two people who love each other to be together sexually if they aren’t married. I asked my dad, “surely, it can’t be so bad if two people love each other.” My father read this scripture to me and asked me a difficult question, he said, “What could these two things, sex and murder, possibly have in common that the breaking of the laws regarding these acts be considered most abominable? Why would God consider sex before marriage so grave a sin?” I was truly dumbfounded by the question and after some silence my father explained. He said to me that the power to give and take life is God’s power, and in this mortal world these abilities are shared with us so that we may learn how to govern them righteously and fulfill the purposes of God in their use; but to break them is the greatest act of rebellion against God because it puts in jeopardy the lives of his children. He told me that two people who engage in premarital sex, no matter how careful, risk creating a new life without the necessary protection of committed marriage. In so doing, they tamper with the progression and happiness of that human life. The harm they do is not only to themselves but to an innocent child of God. This talk has come back to me many times over the years, and it has brought greater depth to my understanding of Joseph’s exclamation, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
As Christians we MUST stop rationalizing sexual sin and be like Joseph in Egypt, in a world that sees nothing wrong with fornication and every manner of sexual act, we must flee from the world and recognize these sins for what they are; abominations, great wickedness, and sins against God.
“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence… That no man go beyond and defraud another in any matter: For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.” — 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8
Sex outside of the covenant of marriage not only defiles ourselves but also defrauds, dishonors, and despiseth our partner. Fornication (sex outside the bounds of matrimony) is a grave sin against God and a great injury to our partner because it defiles their spirit and steals them of virtue and honor.
God teaches us that marriage is an honorable state wherein the sexual relationship sanctifies rather than defiles, and does no injury but rather brings both partners closer to God bound together in a covenant relationship with God.
“To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” — 1 Corinthians 7:2
The worst offense against chastity and the human soul, most abominable, is forcible rape. Many societies have regarded this crime to be worse than death. In a society that is unbridled in their sexual passions, where every kind of sexual perversion is permissible and pornography rampant, rape will also abound. The relation between the two is immutable and there is no way to eradicate rape in a society while making allowances for every other type of sexual sin and perversion.
Here is a passage describing this most awful state that became the condition of a society that was once virtuous but who lost their way:
“For behold, many… daughters… have they taken prisoners; and after depriving them of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is chastity and virtue — And after they had done this thing, they did murder them in a most cruel manner, torturing their bodies even unto death — O my beloved son, how can a people like this, that are without civilization — (And only a few years have passed away, and they were a civil and a delightsome people) — But O my son, how can a people like this, whose delight is in so much abomination — How can we expect that God will stay his hand in judgment against us? Behold, my heart cries: Wo unto this people. Come out in judgment, O God, and hide their sins, and wickedness, and abominations from before thy face! O the depravity of my people! They are without order and without mercy… They delight in everything save that which is good… they are without principle, and past feeling.” — Moroni 9:9-18
“Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God.” — Doctrine & Covenants 121:45
“Abide ye in the liberty wherewith ye are made free; entangle not yourselves in sin, but let your hands be clean, until the Lord comes.” — Doctrine & Covenants 88:86
“Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God.” — Mormon 9:28, Book of Mormon
“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit: Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness… and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” — Galatians 5:16-21
“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” — 2 Corinthians 7:1
“Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” — 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
“God doth not dwell in unholy temples; neither can filthiness or anything which is unclean be received into the kingdom of God.” — Alma 7:21, Book of Mormon
“We have been taught . . . to look upon these bodies of ours as gifts from God. We do not regard the body as something to be condemned, something to be abhorred. . . . We regard [the body] as the sign of our royal birthright. . . . We recognize . . . We believe that these bodies . . . may be made, in very truth, the temple of the Holy Ghost. . . .” — James E. Talmage
“Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of [Babylon]; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.” — Isaiah 52:11
“Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” — Hebrews 13:4
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind… shall inherit the kingdom of God.” — 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
No comments:
Post a Comment