The flesh is mankind’s earthly nature, which is prone to sin. The works of the flesh are things that come naturally to mankind’s earthly nature. Mankind finds physical and mental pleasure in them because the fact of the matter is: they feel good! Some of these fleshly works are:
Adultery,
Fornication,
Uncleanness,
Lasciviousness,
Idolatry,
Witchcraft,
Hatred,
Variance,
Emulations,
Wrath,
Strife,
Seditions,
Heresies,
Envying,
Murders,
Drunkenness,
Revellings,
and anything that resembles these.
The scripture says:
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (v. 19-21)
The Apostle Paul was not writing to non-Christian people, he wrote this epistle to the Christians in Galatia. He was showing them the difference between the fruit of the Spirit of obedient Christians and the works of the flesh of disobedient or carnal Christians. The scripture says that these sins prevent people, even Christians, from inheriting the kingdom of God.
The Holy Bible teaches that sin is sin and there is none that is worse than the other. The Bible also says that sin separates man from God.
"Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness." Isaiah 59:1-3 (KJV)
BUT what is so different about sexual sins why most people are weaker and give in easier to them than they give in to other things? Why do some married people lust after other persons? Why do many single people find it hard to abstain from sex until marriage? Why is it that some born-again Christians give in to the temptation to have sex even though they are unmarried?
Why do people love sex so much that they masturbate when they are alone, indulge in pornography and promiscuity, buy sex from other people, indulge in homosexuality, lesbianism and bestiality as well as paedophilia, sado-masochism and commit rape? Is there evidence to suggest that the urge and desire for sex increases or intensifies with each of these different practices?
Psychology Today says: "Different people enjoy and pursue sex in different forms—as the pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey put it, the only universal in human sexuality is variability itself. But within the universe of intimacy and pleasure that sex affords is a lot of room for error. Most people are affected by sexual problems at some point in their lives."
The reality is that if you cheat on your spouse; if you are unmarried and are having sex; if you are lusting about having sex with someone of the opposite sex, the same sex, and/or animals; if you have gone past lusting and have actually had sex with them, or, if you are doing all of the above, then you have committed SEXUAL SIN.
Many Christians have fallen into the 'sexual sin' trap because either they are Biblically uneducated about its alluring power or they have knowingly given in to its seduction. The Bible says EVERY sin is outside the body but sexual sin is against the body. When a person is born-again, their body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the scripture tells us to flee fornication because it defiles this temple. 'Flee' comes from the Greek word PHEUGO referring to seeking safety by running away, escaping safely out of danger, and vanishing away from it.
"Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 (KJV)
The first word 'fornication' in this scripture is translated from the Greek word PORNEIA. It refers to illicit sexual intercourse (Acts 15:20, 29), which includes: idolatrous defilement that occurs when a person eats food that is sacrificed to idols, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals, intercourse with relatives (Leviticus 18) and people who divorce each other for any reason other than fornication (Matthew 5:32).
The second word 'fornication' in this scripture is translated from the Greek word PORNEUO. It refers to prostituting the body to the lusts of another, having unlawful sexual intercourse, and to allowing oneself to be drawn into idolatry. Every meaning of the first word is summed up in the meaning of the second. Fornication is Prostitution. WOW!!!
When we become born-again we no longer belong to ourselves. We belong to and come under the authority and dominion of God Himself. The scripture also says we are to glorify God in our body as well as in our spirit because both body and spirit belong to God. Let us not sin against our body, God's Holy temple that houses His Holy Spirit!
Be holy, be blessed.
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