“Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong…” -Habakkuk 1:13. God is perfect purity- He is holy. And He has no association with evil. There is no exception, no justification of ‘lesser’ sins, no relativity. God’s very character draws the line clearly for all of humanity. So why do we play this game? –
Let me have my dirty thoughts, at least I’m not into porn.
As long as I’m still a virgin, God will understand if I watch porn.
As long as it’s straight porn, I’m doing pretty well.
Just once a week; I’m not addicted or anything.
Only until I’m married.
Fantasies are ok, it’s not like I’m hooking up.
Just one time to see what it’s like.
…
The trouble is that we like to REdraw the line. If we’re being honest, we don’t want to obey God. Our hearts are flawed. We ought to hate sin, but we want to keep a manageable amount of sin in our lives. We ease guilt by establishing and observing our own boundaries, but have already sinned against our holy God long ago. How this must grieve our Father. He set us free from the power of sin, but we still choose it.
The path of the virtuous leads AWAY from evil; whoever follows that path is safe. –Proverbs 16:17
FLEE from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. -1 Corinthians 16:18
So let’s flee! Let’s turn away. Don’t inch toward that line you’ve personally drawn for yourself. Look back over your shoulder and remember the Line of God’s holiness. Stand in reverent awe of His infinite goodness and heed His call toward His Line of moral perfection. If you have received the healing salvation of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells in you and like a magnet, orients you toward this righteousness. But a magnet’s pull is slight. You can hold a compass, see where the needle points, and walk contrary to its instruction. We still have free will. It’s what got us into this mess to begin with, why we can still draw our own deceiving lines.
This is a confession and a reminder. A confession that I have forgotten His Line before. I drew my own line and I crossed it. Drew another, crossed it. Drew and crossed still another. Eventually, I got so far into pornography and homosexual lusts that I lost sight of God’s holiness, or maybe just became too ashamed to look upon it. I loved my sins and they carried me away. But the Spirit, my ‘compass’ still pointed to God’s purity and goodness and when I finally began the trek back toward God’s standards, He received me with the love and mercy I remembered.
What motivates me to revere God’s holy Line? What powers repentance? A knowledge and personal experience of my own depravity. Hopelessness. The realization that, without the righteousness credited to me in grace by Jesus Christ, I will never see God, because He cannot tolerate my wrongs. Gratitude. Love.
Porn could never separate you from the love of God- read Romans 8:38-39 and believe it. And purity could never earn your salvation. But if you love porn, homosexuality activity, or any sexual immorality so much that it’s leading you progressively further from God’s will for your life, then you need to check your heart. Faith saves us. But obedience is the necessary evidence. 1 John 2:3- “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.” Work on will power and self-discipline all you want, but only your relationship with Jesus Christ can free you from this sin. The beauty is He’s done it all, you only need to choose Him.
Have you crossed the line?
Whether you’ve crossed your personal boundaries or not, you have crossed God’s. This is a reminder of the Line God’s character drew- it is so beautiful, God is so good, may it captivate you. May Jesus lead you to it.