Thou Shalt Flee Sexual Temptation--Online and Otherwise

We've made it to week 6!  How are your marriages or relationships?  Are you using any of this information to encourage you in your relationship with your spouse or significant other?  If so, tell me!  I'd love to know how you've been encouraged along this journey!

This week the commandment is

Thou Shalt Flee Sexual Temptation--Online and Otherwise

Let me tell you...I'm not an expert and I'm only communicating to you what is read in the chapter each week.  I hope to be proactive about my marriage...work on it now where I know it needs work instead of letting it all pile up and then we have to dig through issues later.

**Side note...I had NO EARTHLY IDEA that last week I would write about avoiding debt and today we would be completely DEBT FREE!!!!  God never ceases to amaze me.

Anyway, this week two examples of men were used in this chapter and showed how they dealt with sexual temptation.

David:  David is known as "the man after God's own heart," yet he acted out in his temptation.  If you've not read the story of David and Bathsheba, I encourage you to do so.  David saw a young, beautiful woman bathing, and instead of looking away, he brought her to his home.  He acted on his temptation, she went home, and later he received word that Bathsheba was pregnant.  Instead of accepting his mistake, he tried to cover it up.  When one plan didn't work, he tried the next plan, until Uriah (Bathsheba's husband) was dead.

Joseph:  He served Potiphar, who was on the Pharaoh's staff.  Well, Potiphar's wife kept making trouble for Joseph...she wanted him.  He told her no, but she didn't care.  One day, she grabbed him and demanded that he sleep with her.  He ran straight out of her house, leaving his shirt in Mrs. Potiphar's hands.  She then told her husband, of course and lied about it all.  Joseph got thrown in prison, but only months later did he become second in command, only to answer to Pharaoh and in turn he helped save his country from famine.  You can read Joseph's story here.

These two men demonstrate things that can happen as a result of sexual temptation.  Did you know that it's not a sin to be tempted?  Everyone is tempted.  It's what you do in reaction to that temptation that could be a sin.  Big blessings came as a result of Joseph's actions...fleeing from it.  David, on the other hand, had to deal with some consequences.

"The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, never encourage us to try to avoid struggling with sexual temptation.  It insists that we get out of its path altogether."  Ed Young

God's Designer Sex Plan:
1.  Sex is God's idea.    "He designed it to be an act of joyful pleasure by which a husband and wife bond physically, spiritually, and emotionally--they become one."
2.  Human sexuality is unique.  "Though the world might have us believe that we've evolved to a level just above the animals, God tells us we were created just slightly below the angels."
3.  Sex involves every aspect of our being.  "It creates bonds that are intended for marriage alone...Sex involves total oneness with our mates, just as it did with that first couple:  physically, yes. but also psychologically, emotionally, and mentally."
4.  Sex requires boundaries.  "It's a sacred act between two people committed to one another in the covenant relationship of marriage.  Because of it's sacredness, the expression of love and oneness between a husband and wife must be protected and honored."  Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled.  Hebrews 13:4

Sex symbolizes the love that God has for us, too.  It symbolizes the way that He interacts with His people.  God wants intimacy with each of us.

"How do we protect the sacredness of marriage?  We heed Scripture and flee sexual temptation.  How?  By running from it like a deadly disease, by recognizing the "purity" of sex as God designed it, and by protecting it from the onslaughts of a society that has degraded sex to a passionate 'pastime.'"  Ed Young

If you really want to flee the temptation, then stay off the rooftop.  Learn from David.  It doesn't matter if those "rooftops" are online, at work, in a club...stay off of them.  Run from them.   But what do we run to?  "In order to avoid the dangerous pitfall of sexual temptation and build happy, successful marriages, we need to flee to deep, genuine, and biblical intimacy with our mates."  

There is a WHOLE lot more to this chapter, but I don't have enough time to cover it all.  You really should pick the book up and read it together with your spouse!


This week's reflection questions:

1. Write your definition of sex.  Would your understanding of sex be more in keeping with "designer" sex or "cultural" sex?
2. What "rooftops" tempt you most?  What is your "flight" plan from this temptation?
3. What grade would you give the intimacy (sexual, emotional, and spiritual) in your marriage?  What is one thing you and your mate can do to improve your grade?
4. Is your marriage built on the rock or the sand?  Explain.

Missed a part?  You can catch up here:

Part 1: Thou Shalt Not Be a Selfish Pig

Part 2: Thou Shalt Cut the Apron Strings

Part 3: Thou Shalt Continually Communicate

Part 4: Thou Shalt Make Conflict Thy Ally

Part 5:  Thou Shalt Avoid the Quicksand of Debt