Chastity

Jesus was the perfect example of purity in sexuality. He was not someone who did not have feelings, emotions, desires, hormones, and temptations. He was a man -- real flesh and blood. He did not sin, and he practiced self-control in all areas of his life, including his sexuality. He remained pure in an oversexualized culture where he came in contact with the sexually immoral, prostitutes, adulterers, etc. He loved them with a pure godly love and not with an impure carnal physical response falsely labeled "love."

We are the body of Christ, and our bodies are temples of the Holy One. How can we excuse disgracing this body, his temple? Chastity is not the absence of a drive, but the choice to control it and live according to God's law of love. There is no shame or fear of embarrassment in perfect love. Sexual impurity is a perversion of God's desire for our lives and for us to have healthy human relationships with one another. It is taking a natural desire and abusing it in the same way that overeating abuses the desire to eat. It is never too late to become pure. God has the power and the desire to restore us to what he has made and called us to be: pure.

Reflection Questions

Q: What impact do movies, magazines and easy access to pornography have on you?
A: All of the media in our current culture seeks to tempt us into giving into our carnal sexual desires. Movies and television form their plots around "romance" and exploring human sexuality. They glorify promiscuity and experimentation. Movies like "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" mock purity and seek to 'rectify' the 'problem' of seeking healthy non-sexual relationships and waiting until marriage. Magazines depict 'beauty' as directly proportionate to the amount of skin you're showing. Pornography sits on racks in convenience stores and gas stations and floods the internet with an overwhelming concentration of filth. It is so hard to keep pure when exposed to these things. That is why I must remember how God commanded his people: He commanded them to be different -- not for the sake of difference, but to purify themselves from worldly institutions of haughty eyes and impure thoughts. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. (John 15:19, 17:14; 1 John 2:15; James 4:4)

The way that I handle this is to avoid watching things that force me into that mindset of sexual depravity and perversion. I do not use the internet in ways that lend itself to delving into impurity. Anything that hinders is cut off. (Hebrews 12:1; Matthew 5:30) I can't control every message that comes into contact with me, but I will eliminate what I can control.

Q: How has your faith helped or not helped you face issues of your own sexuality?
A: My faith allows me to have a meaningful relationship with God and to find my self-worth and my value in who I am in Christ. I am not subject to the world's depiction of success and worth. I am a son of God, what could be more important than that?

I trust God with my relationships. If I am focusing on "fulfilling my needs" and not being alone, then I am looking for the wrong reasons. I am who I am because Christ lives in me. I will not give myself away to the whims of the worldly self, because it has been put to death. Christ lives in me, and he is the focus of my life. If any relationship gets in the way of this or seeks to hinder it, then that relationship is not worth having.

God's law of love is stated in the two greatest commandments by Jesus: Love God with everything and Love People. We are to share God's love with the people around us. This most definitely does not mean using them for pleasure or destroying their purity. Chastity is being who God made me to be despite the pressures that surround me.