Last week we began a more in-depth look at Galatians 5:18-21,starting with the first work of the flesh that is listed there, “immorality.” This week we will look at the next two, which are “impurity” and “sensuality.” Impurity is the lustful gratification of our own flesh through such things as pornography, fantasizing, masturbation, etc. Sensuality is the tendency to try to be sexually attractive to someone other than our spouse, causing us to, in the very least, become stumbling blocks to others.
One can be attractive without being sensual. There is a dignity and honor with which the sons and daughters of the King of kings should behave. The apostle Paul stated it powerfully in I Thessalonians 4:3-8:
that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.
For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.
Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.
There are some foolish souls who believe that because they have never committed an actual act of immorality that they are living a holy life, when in fact they are addicted to pornography or practicing other impure or sensual behavior. This is a deception that can also lead to the hardness of heart and kinds of deception that we discussed last week.
First, we need to understand that sex was created by God as a special gift to mankind, as a wonderful way for a man and woman to bond and express their love for each other when in a committed marriage relationship. It should not be a taboo subject in the church, but if it were taught rightly, with the dignity and honor that it deserves, the devil would not have the opportunity that he does to pervert it.
Sex in marriage edifies. Sex outside of marriage destroys. It is that simple. Sex outside of marriage may briefly gratify one physically, but there will be inevitable emotional and spiritual damage done, every time. You may not think it does, but the thief is using it to pervert your soul and move you further from the most fulfilling relationship that you could have ever had on the earth, which God has planned for you.
Likewise, impurity and sensuality do damage our souls by setting us on a course of being led by lust rather than love. Lust and love are in opposition to each other. Lust is motivated by self-centeredness, and love is motivated by care for others. To the degree that lust is able to grip our lives, we will be in opposition to the Spirit of God, who is Love. Impurity and sensuality are the primary ways that lust gains an entrance into our lives and is a primary way that will be used to keep us from growing up into Christ. As we are told in Romans 6:19:
As this verse illuminates, impurity is one of the primary open doors to lawlessness, which will be one of the greatest evils to come upon the world at the end of this age. If we start compromising with our own bodies, which are temples of the Holy Spirit, then we will soon start compromising the clear truth of the Word of God. We will then be led more by self-will than by the Spirit. As the apostle also wrote in Romans 6:1-11:
May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;
for he who has died is freed from sin.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Being free from the sins of impurity and sensuality are the result of our loving God more than the desires of our flesh. If we will take them to the cross, they will be resurrected into something far more fulfilling than anything our lusts could ever produce—a relationship where we can become one in body, soul, and spirit. The Lord wants to give us life and give it far more abundantly than we can even imagine. That is why recent studies have shown consistently that Christians tend to have far better sex lives than non-Christians. The Christians who do not have fulfilling sex lives are almost always the ones who have slipped into some form of seeking sexual gratification in an illegal way.
Lust can never really satisfy us, but rather will always keep us seeking satisfaction without any possibility of ever really getting it. Love alone can lead to our true satisfaction. Love is what the Lord wants for us, which is the guiding motivation of our life. This is first a love for Him by which we would never want to do anything that is displeasing to Him, and then such a love for others that we would never want to use anyone selfishly in any way.
With the overwhelming onslaught of sensuality in the West, it will take a supreme devotion to keep pure in this environment. I believe this may be one reason why the Lord gave His greatest promises to the overcomers of the church at Laodicea, the last church that He addressed, and which in many ways was a prophecy to the last day church. Our love for the Lord and our love for others will have to grow correspondingly if we are going to assault the lust, impurity, and sensuality in our times. It will be possibly the greatest battle, but perhaps it is also the greatest opportunity.
In all things remember this—love is the answer. This is not just a cliché. As we will study in a few weeks, the answer to overcoming evil is being filled with the Spirit and growing in the fruit of the Spirit. For now we must resolve to never rationalize the clear Word of God. We must call sin what it is—sin. It is not justifiable under any circumstances. It will lead to death in all circumstances. Life is found by loving God and loving one another.