michael56 - There is an interesting issue around sex and sexual desire. We have a culture where "sex" is deemed as fulfilled in one relationship with one individual. The problem is both parties have to agree when and how this is expressed which is often simply not a reality. You therefore have a lot of marriages where love exists but sex is no longer a part of the relationship.
Each individual has to work out how they deal with these issues, but there is no easy answers, and as long as this is internal, sin is not involved, only desire. It is hard for people to accept biological responses are not sinful, it is how you deal with them and actions that result which effect others which are.
A good illustration of this was anger. Someone was driving along and got angry about another driver and what they were doing. Over months, the anger mounted, until an incident happened and the driver found themselves outside their car pounding on the door of another car hurling abuse. The problem was how they dealt with the anger which finally resulted in an inappropriate response.
Many young christians only see the outer working of love and faith, and do not see the inner issues and resolutions, so think it is impossible, and people are so perfect. There are churches who are completely hypocritical, and appear to have made it but it is just a show. Until you get people openning the lid of their own successes and failures, it appears like one is a failure and they are just so different.
I have been married 20+ years but in my heart I have left my wife many times, only to return and fall in love again. The sea of emotion when being lived is all consuming, and appears to give absolute certainty. That is why holding on to the basics and knowing Jesus deeply loves you, brings peace and stability through the storm. But you will not often hear this from people. So I know in part what you are saying, but long ago I abandoned looking at others, and just need to cope with the needs that overwhelm everyday.....
God bless
Good post.
We can ask ourselves, what sin is the most likely one to trip us up? Would the answer not be lust?
Paul gave an example of why he had to die to the law. This is what he wrote:
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.[SUP]
8 [/SUP]But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
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9 [/SUP]For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
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10 [/SUP]And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
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11 [/SUP]For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Rom 7:7-11
The law came to Paul as a Pharisee. We can take it he is speaking of a time he came of age to make a personal commitment to God. To Paul the Pharisee the law must be obeyed-especially the Ten Commandments or he is condemned. Paul was in earnest as to his religion, of that there can be no doubt. But sin, through Paul's knowledge of the commandment produced in him all manner of concupiscence. If a person today joins a church that stresses holiness, but they do not preach the grace Paul was given to preach, will they not end up in the same position Paul the Pharisee did? They will focus on the law, in order to live a holy life, believing if they cannot obey it they are condemned.
Why would such knowledge arouse all manner of concupiscence in an individual? To me, the penalty of sin, brings great fear of sin, and fear of sin brings much allurement to sin. Basic human nature would suggest that is the case.
A Christian knows God desires them to live a pure and holy life. If they do not believe the grace written in the bible, how will they react to an impure thought? Shock horror in many cases I would suggest.
You would be animated, overwrought,disturbed, nervous, and panic stricken at the thought of sin. The morethese emotions concerning sin overcome you, the more sin will overwhelm you,and the more your ability to resist sin will weaken. Why is this? Because thoseemotions bring you to an excited state. They are all bar panic-strickendefinitions of the word excite. And thedefinition of panic-stricken is “frenzy,”and the definition of frenzy is “wildexcitement.” The emotions that result from your fear of the penalty for sinbring you to a very excited (or aroused) state where sin is concerned. If youlive under the law, therefore, your fear of breaking it (sin) results in sinfulpassions being aroused in you. That is why Paul tells us the law arouses sinfulpassions in us if we live under it. Rom 7:5
So it is not hard to understand the statement that half the sex addicts in the us have at one time or another been members of holiness churches, if those churches did not preach the grace that saved and changed Paul
