With Valentine's Day quickly approaching, I thought that it would be appropriate to post a blog about it. You can't help but notice that Valentine's Day is approaching because since the day after Christmas, stores have been lining the shelves with teddy bears, other stuffed animals, flowers, candies, cards, gift baskets, etc. For some, this day can't get here quick enough so that you can spend it with that special someone. For others, this day can't pass quick enough because it is a sobering reminder that you are single. For others, it may just be another day and you don't care one way or the other.
Regardless of your situation, the point I want to make is this: Do NOT let all this Valentine's Day hype cause you to stumble into sexual sin!! Dinner, flowers, and candy shouldn't be the access code to your body. Unless you are married to that man or woman, the only "cookies" you need to be giving up or getting need to be Pillsbury, Oreos, Tollhouse, or whatever your favorite brand is. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 to "Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." Fornication (pre-marital sex), adultery (sex with someone who isn't your spouse), masturbation, pornographic films and images....all that stuff is immoral! You can't continue in sexual immorality and call yourself a Christian. The lifestyle that we lead shows if we are truly following Christ or actually following the devil (1 John 3:4-10). There are eternal consequences for choosing to continue in a lifestyle of sin!
We all sin (Romans 3:23), and sin is a major problem in God's eyes and it separates us from Him (Isaiah 59:1-2). Sin is what separated Adam and Eve from having perfect fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden. Man's problem is that God is good (Psalm 136:1) and holy (1 Peter 1:16), and man is evil. We are born evil and our hearts are naturally evil because of the sinful nature that we inherited from Adam and Eve (Psalm 51:5, Jeremiah 17:9). Because God is perfect and holy, He hates ALL sin. There is no degree of sin. It's either perfection or sin, so there are no levels of sin. God hates murder as much as he hates lying. He hates abortion as much as he hates gossip. Sin is detestable to Him and He absolutely HATES it! (Psalm 5:4-5, Psalm 11:5-7, Psalm 45:7)
The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Think about it like this: you go to work everyday and the wages that you receive is your paycheck. You put in 40 hours and you receive what you earned. Same concept with sin...just like work earns you your paycheck, sin earns death. But the second part of Romans 6:23 says that the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Because sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, death also entered the world. Romans 5:12 says, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned"
God's standard of perfection was not and WILL NOT be lowered. Because God is a just and righteous judge, sin must be punished. A price had to be paid for our sins, so Christ left a perfect heaven and took on flesh, lived the perfect life that we could not, died a criminal's death in perfect humility, all to pay the debt that we ourselves couldn't pay.
John 1:14 - And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
1 Peter 2:24 - and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
2 Corinthians 5:15 - and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
2 Corinthians 5:21 - He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Romans 5:8 - But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
If sin was the origin of the problem in the beginning, can we continue leading a life of sin and call ourselves followers of Christ? If we continue to choose to sin and do the things that God absolutely hates, willfully knowing that those things separate us from Him, then we are not Christians and are not following Christ, but are following the devil himself. If a person isn't intentionally following Christ, they are following the devil. God created us for fellowship with Him and to have an intimate relationship with Him. However sin separates us from Him, and no sin is allowed in God's presence. Sin was a problem so serious that Christ DIED for it...so if he died for it, does that make a person think that it is okay for them to live in it? In order for us to have a relationship with God, we must confess our sins and repent. Romans 10:9-10 says, "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (Also check out Psalm 32:1-5)
Repentance means to turn away from, meaning we must turn away from sin in our lives and turn to Christ. He is our ONLY hope. Basically, this means that you can't follow Christ and follow sin...that's like trying to go east and west at the same time...it's impossible. The evidence of your salvation is seen in your lifestyle. A person can walk down to the altar in church, shed big crocodile tears and sling snot everywhere, shake the preacher's hand, repeat some prayer or whatever, but if they are truly saved, the evidence is seen in the lifestyle they lead afterwards. The proof is in the pudding! A person can say they believe in God, God knows my heart, God loves me so He'll forgive me, or even abuse God's grace as an excuse to continue in sin. But those who are God's children will continue in righteousness. The evidence of salvation is seen in a changed lifestyle. If evil is at the core of a person's heart, then sin is evident. If Christ is at the core of a person's heart, then righteous living is evident. The fruit in your life will show if you are truly saved or not (Matthew 7:17-20, Matthew 3:8, Matthew 12:33-37, Matthew 3:10).
Now back to Valentine's Day. Ladies, Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price to redeem you and He purchased you with His life....His LIFE. So giving up the "goodies" because some man bought you a $20 meal at Chili's, a bear, chocolates, and flowers shows that you don't know your worth. Jesus bought you with His life and you're selling yourself for cheap just because some man said he "loves" you but won't wait until marriage to sleep with you? If all it takes for a man to get in your cookie jar is to buy you a few items, then honey that's like prostitution! (Oh, but nobody wants to hear that) Jesus paid a super high price for me, so what would I look like prostituting my body off to the highest bidder who isn't my husband? Fellas, if all it takes for you to give up your goods is for some girl to whisper to you sweet nothings, then you don't know your worth. We gotta HONOR God with our lives and our bodies. Sleeping with your boyfriend or girlfriend is not honoring God. You're glorifying and honoring satan! Imagine somebody gave you a 3 million dollar diamond, but then you turned around and sold it for $1...talk about devaluing. We are more precious than that diamond because Christ died to purchase us, but when we sell ourselves short it's like we're selling ourselves for $1. Know your worth and don't sell yourselves short! If you gotta give up some sex to your boyfriend or girlfriend to prove you "love" them, then dump 'em and move on! It's not worth it people! Purity, holiness, and righteousness are still in order. Just because the world tells you it's okay to live anyway, doesn't mean you should. Go to God's Word and set your standards based off what He says!
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