On Sunday 20th Jan in the evening, Liam preached from this passage (listen here). It encouraged me as to how
I should live as a follower of Christ, united to Him and part of His body. Having been charged to flee from sexual
immorality, I was challenged as to where the temptations lie in my life and
what does sexual immorality look like for us as Christian women in Edinburgh in
2013?
First,
whilst I am not naive enough to think that none of us watch pornography, I
suspect that for many of us that that is not where our particular temptations
lie as women. It is not physical depictions of sex that tempt us, it is the
romantic fantasy. The strong handsome lover who listens to us, brings us
flowers, tells us we are beautiful. We find this in the latest romance novels,
TV shows or romcom. Perhaps some women find themselves attracted to the hero of
'Fifty Shades'. Generally though as women we are turned on by emotional
attachments and when a man takes notice of us, listens to us, shows an interest
in what we are doing, that's when it's really dangerous. It may be entirely
appropriate for that man to show an friendly interest in us; perhaps he is our
pastor, elder, boss, friend, doctor, but we need to watch our thought lives and
fantasy life in this situation. I once read about a married woman who stopped
going to a hairdresser when she realised she was becoming attached to him. He had no idea of her feelings and had never
shown any impropriety, the sin was in HER heart and head as she fantasised
about him. Once recognised, she realised her need to flee from sexual
immorality.
Secondly,
I was struck by our need as women to be a 'helper' to our husbands and male
friends. If we are married, then we need to be helping protect our marriages by
being sexually available for our husbands. It's so easy as time goes on to make
excuses, to 'have a headache'. Our culture laughs about it but it's dangerous. Of course, there are seasons of life when sex is not possible or as frequent as
at others but surely our general rule should be to say 'yes please' rather than
'not tonight'. John Piper[1] on this subject, discussing 1 Cor 7 v 3-5, says that ' a
married couple gives a severe blow to the head of that ancient serpent when
they aim to give as much sexual satisfaction to each other as possible'. What a
great inducement, if you needed any!
Whether
we are married or not, we can be unhelpful to our husbands and male friends if
we behave like Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39).
We may not be as blatant as she was, but have we considered the impact
of our behaviour and dress on the men around us? Do we flirt with men who are
not our husbands? Do we dress provocatively? Do we spend too much time with a
man who is not our husband? Do we encourage our boyfriend into sin by pressing
ourselves against him and encouraging him into an intimacy which should be
waiting for marriage? How do the men around us interpret our behaviour? Men too
can be aroused by a woman who pays them attention so let's be careful about how
our behaviour could be interpreted.
Finally,
we can be thankful for our wonderful saviour through whom we can seek
forgiveness for our failures in this area of our lives and ask His help as we
seek to flee the temptations as they come.
If you have questions about this post, please do email womenatcharlotte@gmail.com
