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Dear Disciple,
We have been looking at chapter three verse five where it says that we are to “put to death what is earthly in you.” I waxed eloquent in previous posts about the active nature of the “put to death” process. So today I’ll begin to address the things we are to put to death.
But note, first, that the Apostle Paul would not be saying this to the church at Colossai unless there was a need to, so, we are reminded, even in the really “good” churches like at Colossai, the young believers were still in process of becoming all that they were called to be.
So, what is the first thing to put to death? Sexual immorality. "Sexual immorality" is a general translation of the Greek “pornea.” We are to put to death sexual immorality. It does not say we are to put to death sexual expression. God has designed a proper place for that. Remember, this is not about denying the physical aspects of human life, but the inappropriate or immoral aspects of physical human bodily life. So, there is a place for appropriate sexual expression, and the rest is “pornea,” is immorality, is sin. God has given sexual expression a proper place - within the boundaries of heterosexual monogamous marriage between a man and a woman, and only within those boundaries. It does not matter what our genetic pre-disposition may be. And I mean this not as a swipe against homosexual sexual expression. Many people undoubtedly have a genetic predisposition to heterosexually fornicate and spread their seed far and wide. But that is irrelevant. If we are bound by what our genetic inclinations are we are no different than the beasts. People are predisposed to all sorts of things. So what? The apostle Paul tells us to “put to death” sexual immorality, that is, inappropriate sexual expression. We do this negatively by denying opportunity, by fleeing, by saying no, by resisting temptation, by setting up daily patterns and structures of life which make such things improbable at best. So many people play with fire. They let themselves into situations of temptation when they should not. I will write next time about the positive aspect of this, but let’s remember; it is “on account of these things that the wrath of God is coming.” God made his world to be a certain way. We have rebelled. One way among many we have rebelled is in the area of sexuality. We must commit ourselves as those raised up with Christ to living lives that are consistent with His Lordship, and sexual immorality is not consistent with His Lordship. On account of such things, when our risen Lord returns, He will return in wrath and judgment. |
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