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Sins of the Flesh

In listing the wrong things that people had done in the past, and that they stopped doing after becoming believers in Jesus, Peter also lists what could be called “sexual sins.”

Read 1 Peter 4:3 again. What else does Peter list there?

Two words have a distinctive sexual connotation: “lewdness” (aselgia, which means “sensuality”) and “lusts” (epithumia, which means “lust” or “desire”).

Yet, it is all too easy for Christians to give the wrong impression about sexuality. The Bible is not against sex. On the contrary, God created sex, and He gave sexuality to humankind to be a great blessing. Sexuality was there in Eden, at the beginning. “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (Gen. 2:24, 25). It was to be one of the key ingredients that would unite a husband and wife in a lifelong commitment that forms the best background against which to raise children. And this closeness and intimacy would be a reflection of what God seeks with His people, as well (see Jeremiah 3, Ezekiel 16, Hosea 1-3).

In its correct place, between a man and a woman in marriage, sexuality is a profound blessing; in the wrong place, in the wrong context, it can be one of the greatest destructive forces in the world. The here-and-now devastating consequences of these sins are beyond human calculation. Who among us doesn’t know about lives ruined through the abuse of this wonderful gift?

What do the following texts have in common? 2 Sam. 11:4, 1 Cor. 5:1, Gen. 19:5, 1 Cor. 10:8.

Of course, one doesn’t need the Bible to know stories of the pain and suffering that these sins have caused.

Yet, we must be careful, too. Certainly, sins of this nature can have powerfully negative effects on people, and society tends to frown upon them. But sin is sin, and Christ’s death covers sexual sins, as well. As a Christian, you should be careful, especially in this sensitive area, to make sure that you “first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Luke 6:42, NIV).