Sexual Sin

There are few things in this life that give me more joy and more relaxation then spending time at camp. Despite some cold and dreary weather, I spent four fantastic days up in the Poconos. A little work on Saturday (if you consider leading low ropes and belaying the climbing wall working), but the rest of the time I was pretty much hanging out with a couple awesome friends. In this setting, topics cover pretty much everything, from the ridiculous, to nonstop quotes from The Office, to bowel functions, to serious "God stuff".

One of the more serious topics was on the topic of the church's involvement with sex, particularly how many Christians view sexual sin differently then other sins. The general consensus among us three was that the church seems to view this sin as being worse than other sins. To this point I agree that this is a common trend, and I also agree that it is wrong that it happens. Several years ago I heard a great analogy to demonstrate this point. Imagine two beautiful white walls with absolutely no blemishes. Pure, chaste white. At the first wall, take a bucket of red paint and splash it all over the wall. Obviously, there has been a lot of paint (sin) that has terribly damaged this wall. Now at the second wall, pull out a fine tip red sharpie. Approach the wall and tap the end of that sharpie ever so lightly that there is but a speck of red on that wall. The red may not be covering the wall, it might take less effort to fix this wall, but the pure whiteness of it has been ruined. It takes but a pinch of sin to separate us from God, in fact, condemnation (Romans 5:16). As we know, salvation through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, we are called to eternal life! Amen!

Although I stand by the fact that all sin separates us from God, all sins are not to be treated equally. I reiterate, sins are not to be treated equally, I did not say sinners are to be treated unequally. In regards to this post's topic, we are to flee from sexual sin (1 Corin. 6:18). In fact, "no other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body" (1 Corin. 6:18, NLT).

This approach differs greatly to other advice given about sin. In other parts of the bible we are told to put on God's armor to stand firm against Satan's temptations (Ephesians 6:11-17), to stand firm against Satan (1 Peter 5:9), and even that resisting Satan will make him flee from us (James 4:7). So clearly, if we are instructed to flee from sexual immorality, there must be something that differentiates this from other sins. Not that it separates us from God anymore than other sins, but that its effects are not on the same level as other sins.

What then is sexual immorality. Let me quote from Mark Driscoll's Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions. From the chapter titled, "Sexual Sin":

"I do not mean to be graphic, but because there is such widespread sexual confusion, I will plainly state what constitutes sexual sin (though this is not meant to be exhaustive). Some acts are always sinful, such as homosexuality, bestiality, rape, polygamy (including both polyandry and polygyny), pornography, prostitution, pedophilia, sinful lust, and incest. Some are sinful outside of marriage, including sex, masturbating another person, phone sex, sexual online chatting, heavy petting, oral sex, anal sex, and dry humping."

He continues:

"In the New Testament, porneia (from which we get the word pornography) is translated as 'sexual immorality' and encompasses all sorts of sexual sins; it is frequently used as a junk drawer in which every sort of perversion is thrown. This is because God in his wisdom knew that if he only listed certain sexual sins as off-limits, someone would find a loophole by which to keep the letter of the law while denying the spirit and write yet another book explaining how to sin against God in a way that is 'biblical.'"

Although I concur on the "junk drawer" idea of the term "sexual immorality", I do so for slightly different reasons. I believe if God wanted to explain all sexual sins without people finding a loophole, he could. People might believe they found a loophole, but it wouldn't be one. Rather, I think sexual immorality is left vague because things we engage in today included on a list thousands of years ago would make no sense at that time period. I'm not an expert on what was available, but certainly pornography in magazines, videos, and the Internet wouldn't make any sense for many years. Also, other sexually immoral use of technology such as phone sex and cyber sex couldn't be included. Therefore, the term "sexual immorality" is very useful, even if there are those interpreting its meaning very loosely.

So basically, what I'm saying is this: all sin separates us from God, and the church needs to stop the excessive guilt trip being laid onto those who have sinned in this way. Rebuke needs to be done, preferably by a pastor, a church leader, or a friend, but the congregation is failing the person if they ostracise him or her. With that said, more attention needs to be paid to this sin, knowing that we are to flee it as opposed to simply fighting it.