How Does Believing James 5:16 From The Bible Change The Way You View Lust?

It is virtually impossible in the Western globe to escape sensuality. Sex is on the television, in the movies and in our music, on the side of buses, during halftime shows, in our books and in glossy close-ups at supermarket check-out. Sex is all effectually u.s. in the mall, dripping off every beer commercial, and two stories high on our billboards. Sexual sin is walking effectually our high schools, flaunted across our universities, and hiding in our churches.

And of course, sex is on the internet. Pornography and sex-related sites make up 60 percent of daily web traffic. Of internet users in the U.Due south., twoscore per centum visit porn sites at least in one case a month, and that number increases to 70 percent when the audience is 18-34 year old males. One-half of hotel room patrons purchase pornography from their rooms. 90 percent of 8-16 year olds with internet admission accept viewed pornography online, and the average age of exposure is eleven.

The seventh commandment is not but broken in this country; it'southward being smashed to pieces.

And sexual sin is not merely an "out in that location" problem. Any pastor will tell you stories nearly how sexual sin has destroyed people in his congregation. None of us are immune from the dangers of sexual immorality. In a Christianity Today study from several years ago, 40 per centum of clergy acknowledged visiting pornographic websites. Some other survey found that 21 per centum visit regularly. Nonetheless another survey at Pastors.com plant that fifty percent of pastors reported to viewing pornography in the previous year. And then there's the underlying issue of the heart. The seventh commandment doesn't just forestall adultery and pornography. It forbids every activeness, look, conversation, thought, or desire that incites animalism and uncleanness.

So how in the world, in this world we live in, and with our sex activity-saturated hearts, can we obey the seventh commandment?

Let me suggest fifteen passages of Scripture that can help the states fight lust and the temptation to sexual immorality.

1) Proverbs 5:18-nineteen "Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the married woman of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Allow her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her beloved." This may seem a strange text for fighting sexual temptation, just married couples need to know they have delight at their lawful disposal. We need to know that sex activity is good, intimacy is proficient, bodies together in marriage are skillful. Skillful, glorious sex is spiritual warfare for the married couple.

ii) Lamentations 3:25-27 "The Lord is adept to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should expect quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Information technology is skillful for a homo that he bear the yoke in his youth." This a verse is for singles. Granted, this passage isn't talking virtually waiting for a spouse. It's about waiting on the Lord. But that'due south the point: the Lord is good to those who wait for him. He knows what you need. The preceding verses tell us "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I volition hope in him." Don't think "How tin I live without sex for another year or decade or two decades." Remember about today. The Lord has given you grace for this day and he volition give you grace for the every subsequent mean solar day in which you follow God in the midst of unmet desires.

three) i Peter 3:15 "In your hearts regard Christ the Lord equally holy, e'er being prepared to brand a defense to anyone who asks yous for a reason for the hope that is in yous." Before you take a second look or dress yourself and so that others will, think: "Will this make me more than fix to talk to someone nearly Jesus?" Sensuality deadens the spiritual senses and makes the states less mettlesome and effective witnesses for Christ.

iv) ii Peter 3:10-xiv "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief…Therefore…be diligent to be constitute by him without spot or blemish, and at peace." Do you want to be cheating on your husband, masturbating, or watching Game of Thrones when Christ returns?

5) James ane:14-15 "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed past his own want. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when information technology is fully grown brings forth decease." This passage helps usa empathize how temptation works and reminds us that feeling tempted is not necessarily the aforementioned equally sinning. Temptation beckons us to do what we should not practice. That's not sin. When the desire is nurtured it conceives and gives nascency to sin (sin in the flesh or sin in the mind). Sin and so grows and matures and leads to expiry. It is non lust to exist attracted to someone or notice he or she is good looking. Information technology is not lust to accept a strong desire for sexual activity. It is not lust to be excited about sex in matrimony. It is non lust to inadvertently notice a woman bathing on the roof. It is sin to keep noticing and showtime scheming. Stoke the fires of this lustful passion and information technology will bring forth death. Just inquire King David.

6) Hebrews ii:17-xviii "Therefore he had to exist made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might go a merciful and faithful loftier priest in the service of God, to brand propitiation for the sins of the people. For considering he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to assistance those who are being tempted." Jesus was tempted, non as we are from a sinful nature. But in that location were external voices calling him to sin. Allow the states not underestimate the existent nature of his temptations and undercut his sympathy and his ability to help. Jesus was hungry in the wilderness. He had a desire, a want. He was enticed to make the stones bread so he could savor the pleasance of food. But he told the devil, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Matt. 4:1-iii). In our moments of sexual temptation, we need to think, "Mankind does not sustain me. Jesus does."

7) Romans 14:21 "Information technology is good not to eat meat or drinkable vino or practice anything that causes your brother to stumble." Every bit Christians, we want to aid each other avoid sin, not lead one some other into it with flirting, fibroid joking, and immodest dress.

8) Matthew 5:27-30 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit infidelity.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes yous to sin, tear information technology out and throw information technology away. For information technology is better that you lose i of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes y'all to sin, cutting information technology off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose i of your members than that your whole body go into hell." We are non good fighters. We brand excuses. We don't go radical. We pray a few prayers, feel bad all the fourth dimension, tell a friend to inquire how we're doing once in awhile and that'southward it. We need more decisive action than that. Avoid the movies, get rid of your internet connection, don't kiss earlier marriage, throw out your t.v., tear out your eye—whatever it takes to battle lust. There are too many whole-bodied people going to hell and not plenty spiritual amputees going to heaven.

9) Galatians six:vii "Do non be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that volition he also reap." At that place are often temporal consequences for defiance. It could exist STDs, baggage in wedlock, a guilty conscience, getting mired in a deeper habit, distraction at work, a pornography fetish you pass on to your children, destroying your family, your marriage, or your ministry. At that place are also eternal consequences if you requite yourself over to this sin. Galatians 6:8 "For the one who sows to his own mankind will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit volition from the Spirit reap eternal life."

10) 1 Cor half-dozen:15-20 "Practise you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!…Or practice y'all not know that your trunk is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you take from God? Y'all are not your ain, for you were bought with a toll. So glorify God in your body." We need a theology of the body: the body is good, but it'south not yours. Jesus didn't just die to ransom our souls. He too died for your body. Information technology belongs to God. It is a fellow member of Christ's torso now. Surely, we don't desire to employ Christ'due south trunk in some sexual escapade or his optics in viewing pornography or his listen in sensual fantasy.

eleven) 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The one-time has passed abroad; behold, the new has come." Cultural liberalism says, "Just be yourself." Self-assistance doctrine says, "You can discover a meliorate you if you just dig deep enough." Moralism says, "Exist a amend person." The Bible says, "You are a new person by God'due south grace, now live like information technology." "Be who you are" is the gospel motivation for holiness.

12) Hebrews 10:24-25 "And let u.s. consider how to stir upwardly one some other to beloved and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more than as yous come across the day approaching." No one fights a state of war by himself, and no one volition accept victory over sexual sin on his own. You need to talk to others nearly your struggles and mind only equally well. Be honest. Ask good questions. Don't just confess and experience better. Apologize and modify. Don't merely sympathize; admonish. Follow up with your brothers and sisters. Pray and remind each other of the gospel.

thirteen) James 4:six "Simply he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." God ever gives more than grace. Then proceed coming to him with your sin and all your commandment violations. Confess like David in Psalm 51 that you lot have sinned against God. Confess that God is the almost offended party as a result of your sin. And then believe like David in Psalm 32: "Blessed is the ane whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blest is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity." We will never experience growing victory over sin unless we are quick to plow to Christ all the times nosotros fail.

fourteen) Matthew 5:viii "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." This has been the well-nigh helpful verse for me in fighting lust and the temptation to sexual immorality. We need to fight want with desire. Satan tempts u.s.a. by belongings out something that will be pleasurable to us. We aren't tempted to gorge ourselves on liverwurst, considering for nearly of usa, information technology doesn't agree out the promise of great pleasure. But sexual activity does. Pornography does. A 2d await does. The Bible gives us many weapons to fight temptation. We can tell ourselves it is wrong, it is sinful, it will lead to bad things, it isn't what I should practice every bit a Christian. All of those are helpful. Simply the ane weapon we rarely use is more pleasure. We need to fight the fleeting pleasure of sexual sin with the far greater, more abiding pleasure of knowing God. The fight for sexual purity is the fight of faith. It may sound like nothing only hard work and gritting your teeth–the very opposite of faith. Only organized religion is at the middle of this struggle. Practice we believe that a glimpse of God is better than a glimpse of skin? Practice we believe that God'south steadfast honey is better than life (Psalm 63:iii)? Nosotros'd probably sin less if nosotros spent less time thinking near our sins, sexual or otherwise, and more time meditating on the love and holiness of God.

15) Ephesians one:xix-21 "…and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward u.s. who believe, co-ordinate to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all dominion and authority and power and rule, and in a higher place every name that is named, non only in this historic period but also in the ane to come." The great power that created the world, and saved us, and raised Jesus from the expressionless–that same ability is at present at work in you lot. We must believe that God is stronger than sexual temptation, sin, and habit. If you believe that God brought a dead homo back to life, you should believe that you can alter. Not over nighttime usually, but from i degree of glory to the side by side. Work out your salvation from sexual sin with fear and trembling, for God's ability is already at work within y'all.