Sex sells. This is a truth of which those who
market products are acutely aware. Whether it is beer or
protein juice, deodorant or shampoo, a scantily clothed
young lady or seductress appealing to our baser instincts
seems to be the most popular method of pitching products
today. You can’t avoid it.
Television commercials are
filled with it, billboards abound, and even radio ads entice
the imagination with flirtatious voices and innuendos.
Sexually explicit messages sent through text messaging are
so popular in some circles that it has a name, “sexting.”
With such an incessant appeal to sexuality in our culture,
one is left to wonder how to survive the minefield that is
sexual temptation. Sex is not just in the city. It is in the
country, the prairie, the desert, on the oceanfront, and
everywhere in between.
A friend once asked me how I keep myself from
sexual temptation. My response to him was that I don’t.
Initially he was taken back by my response and thought I
was going to lay on him some unforgivable tale of marital
infidelity. I comforted him by informing him that while I
am not able to keep myself from temptation, I am (by
God’s grace and faithfulness) endeavoring to keep myself
from sexual sin. It is not easy. Temptation is all around
us. To take one’s self away from temptation is to take
one’s self out of the world. It was Martin Luther, the 16th
century German monk, who said, “I can’t keep the birds from flying over my head, but I can keep them from
nesting in my hair.” The fight against temptation and sin
is not a fight to keep temptation from ever flying over your
head; it is more a fight to keep sin from making a home in
your heart. This is particularly true with sexual sin. The
issue is the heart. And our Lord says as much in Matthew
7:27-30:
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not
commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who
looks at a woman with lustful intent has already
committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right
eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it
is better that you lose one of your members than that
your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right
hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it
is better that you lose one of your members than that
your whole body go into hell.
When addressing the issue of sexual temptation, the
core of Jesus’ teaching was addressed to the heart of men
and women. Sexual sin, like all sin, is conceived in the
heart. Therefore it is in the heart that the battle against
sexual sin is either won or lost. It is the discontented heart
that fuels the lust of the flesh. Only by informing our hearts
and minds with the words of our Lord against sinful lust
will we be empowered to navigate the sexual temptations
around us. To this end, this book looks briefly at the above
passage and sees that Jesus gives us a command against lust; tells us how to curb our lust; and offers the path to
contentment in place of lust.
