No one – including me – is above sexual temptation.
The acronym is PURE, and the “P” represents “preparing for spiritual attack.” I carry around a little acronym in my mind and heart for each time I face that overly sexualized culture I mentioned earlier. Instead, we are to perfect holiness in the fear of God. We’re not to mingle lawlessness with righteousness, darkness with light, idols with the temple of God, which according to the New Testament is our bodies – marrow and bone. The first verse of the next chapter then says: “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). “For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers,” it says. Second Corinthians 6 holds the key, I think, to living as men of honor, men who seek hard after God. It’s in our face 24/7, and if we’re not careful, we’ll dumb down our spiritual life, settling for far less than holiness requires.
But I like to think our challenge is still greater today, with technology enabling instant access to smut. We read of ancient men – prophets and kings, military leaders and shepherds, all who had wandering eyes.
We’re bombarded with TV ads, magazine ads, movies that leave too little to the imagination, Internet sites that find us, regardless of how strong our filters are, and what we’re left with is an overly sexualized culture, just looking to take us down.Ĭertainly, this isn’t a new problem. But most men I have met throughout my life would readily admit that the number one temptation they face, day in and day out, centers on remaining sexually pure. We all face temptations of pride and greed and rebellion, of unbelief and unkindness and unfaithfulness in our lives. Temptation is every man’s battle, and every woman’s as well.
It has also been my experience that no man can lead well who is not practicing sexual purity in his life. I praise God for dynamic women in our communities, our churches, in our families, in our businesses, and in our homes, but there is a marvelous effect in any community when its men, specifically, are leading well. It has been my experience through four decades in pastoral ministry that every community is only as strong as its men – as strong as their faith, their ingenuity, their confidence, their resolve, their commitment to walking in the ways and will of God.