Moral Impurity
A type of moral impurity is sexual impurity, which Jesus describes its severity in Matthew 5:27-28. I explained this in an earlier blog entry, and it would behoove you to contemplate this even further. Romans 1:24, Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. If you are sexually impure you will face God's wrath. However, through baptism (sanctification) and repentance, you are saved and justified. First Corinthians 6:9, 11: Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit God's kingdom? Do not be deceived: no sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals... will inherit God's kingdom. Some of you were like this; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Verse eleven is extremely important! When people preach against homosexuality, for instance, they always leave out verse eleven. In this letter to the church of Corinth, as a leader of the church Paul recognised that there were people in the church who were suffering with all these things. He reminded them that they were washed and sanctified and justified in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit of God (baptism) and that because of this, all these sins he listed are not fit for their faith! They're not natural and they must be eliminated! I want to urge you yet again with the repentance and renouncing of your sins, especially any of these, in Proverbs 28:13 and I John 1:9.
You must repent in order to be saved. Let's look at Jezebel as an example in Revelation 2:20-22: "Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrifices to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways."
In Revelation, Jezebel is not a literal person but she represents a church, maybe even a cult. In the Old Testament, the actual woman named Jezebel married Ahab king of Israel and they both began to worship Baal (I Kings 16:31). Because of the influence that Jezebel had on Ahab, they spread cult worship of the pagan god Baal throughout the northern king of Israel. Jezebel (the church) dominated Ahab (the state) and thus controlled it (I Kings 21:25). The result of this apostasy was a drought for three and a half years (II Kings 9:22). She persecuted the faithful people of God (I Kings 18:3-4; 19:1-2). She encouraged fornication — sex outside of marriage (Revelation 2:20). However, the ultimate end of this false prophetess was and is death, both literally and figuratively, meaning her past existence and people who practise what she stood for (II Kings 9:36-37; Revelation 2:22-23). Now, her influence still exists today, and Jesus gives us warnings of the ultimate outcomes of those who practise her teachings. Those who practise her cult teachings will not be saved at the Judgement, for she has not repented (and refused to). When Scripture says "she" in Revelation, it's including all those who practise her ways; it's not speaking of the woman herself. We learn something else from this. If you're a Christian who's sexually impure and have not repented, you may not be saved because Jezebel taught fornication — which, translated in Greek from the word ekporneuo, means "giving one's self to fornication" and can also be translated as "pornography." So, if you're a Christian and are rather promiscuous and sexually impure without forgiveness, you are a hypocrite, for your actions are not examples of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you're Christian and you're sexually impure and have not repented, you might want to do something about that.
Jesus says in Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." People always misinterpret a "pure heart" as never committing a sin. They're terribly mistaken. Their interpretation is that of perfection, but purity is not perfection. How I interpret a pure heart is one who seeks to be pure sexually and morally — as free as they can get from gossip, slander, malice, quick temperance, strife, promiscuity, sexual immorality, idolatry, hatred, selfish ambitions, envy, drunkenness, and dissension. How can one achieve this? Use Romans 13:11-14 as an inspiration: Besides this, knowing the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, and the daylight is near, so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light. Let us walk with decency, as in the daylight: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy the fleshly desires.
Here is Paul's aspiration for us: Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practise of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more (Ephesians 4:17-19).
If you don't want to be like everyone else around you, aspire to not walk in the ignorance and lustful desires they all walk in. First peter 4:1-4, Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same resolve — because the One who suffered in the flesh has finished with sin — in order to live the remaining time in the flesh, no longer for human desires, but for God's will. For there has already been enough time spent in doing the will of the pagans: carrying on in unrestrained behaviour, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry. In regard to this, they are surprised that you don't plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation — and they slander you.
Verse four describes that when you're very self-disciplined in sexual manners and other moral purities, people insult you because they're astounded by your extreme self-discipline (and because it's not the norm of the world). In my own life, when my peers who aren't in the faith find out that I'm waiting until marriage to have sex for spiritual reasons, they're astounded and call me crazy, stupid, and even worse accusations; but it doesn't bother me. They're even more surprised since I've already committed premarital sex. However, I quickly realised my fault and repented and committed myself to that repentance, so I know that God has forgiven me and I will not burn in the fiery depths of Hell.
Sanctify yourself! Acts 2:38, "Repent," Peter said to them, "and be baptised, each of you, in the name of Jesus the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Titus 3:4-7, But when the goodness and love for man appeared from God our Saviour, he saved us — not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that having been justified by His grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
Dissension
Remember when I said to remember this word in the last blog entry? Dissension is possessing an argumentative attitude. First Timothy 6:4-5 explains in great detail a person with dissension: ...he is conceited, understanding nothing, but having a sick interest in disputes and arguments over words. From these come envy, quarreling, slanders, evil suspicions, and constant disagreement among men whose minds are depraved and deprived of the truth, who imagine that godliness is a way to material gain.
This is how Paul describes one who does not teach the Gospel — ultimately people who oppose Christianity and seek dissension amongst the members of the body of Christ, and those who practise and preach false doctrines. Here are Paul's words on being a successful servant of Christ: And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil... (II Timothy 2:24). We Christians are not to fight amongst ourselves, for we are selfless servants.
Second Timothy 3:16-17, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
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