Enjoying God’s blessings in the right context

The apostle is urging Christians to learn to exercise control over their sexual passions just as over other bodily cravings and desires. Now, how important that is. You and I live in a world that says, If it feels good, do it. And the Christian says, No, it is not just about feelings. There are things that may feel good that are wrong, and they need to be done in the right way. We do not believe that sensual craving is the key to happiness. Our society believes that what makes life good is feeling good. And we believe, that no, we are happy to receive good blessings in their own place, but that is not the key to happiness. We do not believe that we should do it automatically if it feels good. We live in a culture that says what you need to pursue is immediate gratification: If it feels good, do it now.

And Christians say, You know, there are good things that need to be handled responsibly and properly, and God gave them for a certain context in a certain way. And we are going to honour God, and we are going to seek true blessing—a higher blessing, by the way—than what you are getting out of this by doing it in a proper way, with self-control. In a world that urges us to define our own morality, we embrace our allegiance to a sovereign Lord of truth and love and goodness. And he calls us to holiness and honour (1 Thessalonians 4:4). Now these are the two words when it comes to sexual self-control. What does it mean? We are striving for these two words: holiness and honour. They mark out our aim in self-control—that we do not abhor sex, but we want it to be kept holy, and we want to grant to sex the honour it merits, and also to our bodies the honour they deserve, as well as the bodies of others.¹

Richard D. Phillips