The above question is also phrased as “How far is too far ? ” - A question that many youngsters even within church struggle with.
Before we would go deeper to understand the Biblical Perspective, I would want to dive deeper into the heart of the question, often the un- said part of these question, is the curiosity among the people “ Not to miss doing anything that doesn’t refrain from making their way into heaven and to refrain from things that would lead to Hell “ ☺ . The larger problem left in this is that people want to corner God to a part of their life and not the centre – Are our desires/ action reflecting Christ through us?
Let’s get deeper - A lot of youngsters are misled and believe that it’s only involvement in “physical intimacy” that breaks the purity. The scripture wants us to look deeper – Jesus tells “ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart”.- Mathew 5.28. God looks much deeper within us and sees our heart – don’t rationalize sin.
Genesis 4.7 (b)- “.. Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Even as we live in this human body- it's quite natural to be tempted and sexual desires are the most powerful and dangerous. So it’s very important that each person takes steps to avoid being in situations that make you prone to do sin -not only for “physical distance” but also in the online space.
The best illustration we could look here is that of a fish – the fishermen throw the rod with a bait at the end of the rod. The fish might think, I would just go and see, just taste and move away before the cord gets clanged on to me... but we know what happens the minute it touches with bait... So do our life even when we believe it's something we could manage – even without knowing we are drifting apart. Song of Songs speaks with calm and reassuring wisdom when it says to the young women of Jerusalem, “Do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.” This caution is so important to the Song’s portrayal of the beauty and power of love that it is repeated three times (Song of Solomon 2:7; 3:5; 8:4) It talks about it depicts and praises the breathtaking intensity of a unique, lifelong, committed relationship between one man and one woman. It shows the importance to wait for the time God had ordained in each person’s life within the boundary of marriage.
Paul in his epistles mentions 2 Corinthians 11:3 - “But I am afraid that just as the serpent deceived Eve by his treachery, your minds may be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” What happened with Eve? She was deceived by the pleasure of breaking God's commandment – the fruit was so appealing to her – it was good to see, taste.... instead of fleeing, she kept engaging/ rationalizing the sin.
Even as we trust in God for his grace to strengthen us to be pure, we also need to take commitment. Jobs states "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman".( Job 31.1) Let’s look at the life of David and Joseph!
The story of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11) – depicts on how David was falling down even without him realizing the lust in him made him to commit adultery, murder and making God’s wrath fall upon him and his family. On the contrary, Joseph's life is inspiring in this line, even as Potiphar's wife forced him to come into bed with her – he fled! There could have been much reason for him to stay back / rationalize it – but rather he chooses to flee. Bible strongly condemns fornication, lust, pre-marital sex and teaches us to be holy and offer ourselves as a living and holy sacrifice.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.
Waiting is a challenge for a person who is single or even in a committed relationship to cross boundaries with such heavy influence from the media outside. Here we got to trust in the lord; marriage in itself would not be a solution. Even as we mediate the story of the Samaritan women, we see that she had been with 5 men in her life, but still we understand the thirst in her soul was not met, we don’t see Jesus giving her another husband but instead Jesus drew her to the living water in which she would never thirst again. In whichever form of life, you are today – you would need God to fill in your life – deep within- every other pleasure of this world is temporary.
The Bible states Rebecca as “The woman was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever slept with her”- Genesis 24. 16. The deeper meaning in these words is that it’s just not on the physical purity/ separation she maintained but emotional purity she maintained until she had married Isaac. The best gift you could offer to your life partner when you get married “is yourself”. Even as many of you continue to wait for the right Isaac and Rebecca. Believe in the Lord that he would bring in the right person in your life at the right time and even during this period of time of wait – would you ask Lord today to prepare you for the person He has ordained in your life and to give you the strength to wait upon Him! #relationship #love #waiting
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