Practicing Purity in a Pornified World1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 Philippians 2:12-13[Help others to practice purity.]Viewed in biblical perspective, sex is a good and natural part of our lives. After all, God created us as sexual beings. As fallen people, though, our culture has lifted sex as a god and condones any sexual practice. Pornography—which is so readily accessible—turns people into objects for personal gratification and cheapens the gift God has given us.The Bible calls us to be people of purity, people who reject sexually explicit materials in favor of God’s pure standard. By our example of purity, we can help those struggling with pornography.
Paul had established the church in Thessalonica during his second missionary journey, about A.D. 50. While some Jews received his message gladly, others did not. A few incited a mob, accused Paul of acting against Caesar, and drove him out of town Acts 17:1-9. They even followed him to Berea and stirred up trouble there Acts 17:10-15. Later, out of concern for the believers in Thessalonica, Paul wrote a letter to the Thessalonians to encourage them in the faith. The letter included a discussion of the ethical demands of the gospel.It is a long, grueling, bruising battle, but it’s the battle that every Christian is called to. I promise you, if we went around this room and if we trusted one another enough, for each of us to stand up and announce what our three greatest besetting sins were, there would be no one in this room who named a besetting sin and said that it was an easy sin to fight against. That’s why it’s a besetting sin.