1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 – For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God…
I was a very young pastor, new to ministry, and trying my best to teach the Bible to a bunch of brand new, even younger, college-age Christians. Most had not grown up in church, let alone a healthy home with a mother and father. Like most every new Christian, they had no idea what was acceptable and unacceptable behavior for a Christian or any idea where the Bible drew various moral lines.
During the summers, I held an outdoor Bible study so that the punk rock kids would come, because they would not come unless they could smoke, and smoking in a room we were renting from a conservative church would not have been approved by the grandmothers on the building rental committee.
So, we met outside, and the punk rock kids showed up with their cigarettes. I had prepared a nice Bible study and, within the first minute, I got interrupted by the new Christians who wanted to know if we could do Q&A instead.
I said yes, wrongly assuming that I would be answering the typical questions ministry leaders are trained to answer – creation vs evolution, is the Bible trustworthy, how do we know there is a God, etc. Instead, pretty much every question was sexual and specific.
After a parade of sex questions, I asked the group if they were trying to make this the most awkward Bible study in history or if they were truly genuine. They sincerely wanted to know what the Bible said, both the new Christians and the non-Christians. The handful of kids at the study who grew up in conservative Christian homes pretty much blushed the entire Bible study, did not blink, or make eye contact. Honestly, I don’t think they even understood some of the questions.
Most questions or issues with the Bible have nothing to do with intellectual issues and have everything to do with moral issues. Those who oppose the Bible rarely have a hard time understanding it, but they just don’t like it. The church at Thessalonica was surrounded by much of the same sexual sin we see in our day where the world’s issues weren’t with their minds but with their pants.
Are there any rules related to sexuality in the Bible that you have an issue with? If so, pray and ask God to help change your heart.
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