A little boy´s mother baked a bath of cookies and placed them in a biscuit tin, instructing her son not to touch them until after dinner. Soon she heard the lid of the tin move, and she called out, "Son, what are you doing?" A meek voice called back, "My hand is in the biscuit tin resisting temptation." It´s funny to think of a person trying to resist temptation with their "hand in the biscuit tin". This is as much a challenge in our culture today, as it was for the Ephesians.
There were all kinds of open "biscuit tins" in Ephesus. One was sexual immorality. Paul realised that illicit sexual activity was an enormous problem for new Gentile Christians in the early church to overcome. They didn´t have an accepted social standard with regard to sex.
Paul wanted the Ephesians to defy their environment and live out their identity as God´s holy children. So he reminded them that sexual immorality - adultery, premarital sex, pornography, homosexual liaisons, prostitution, sexual abuse and any other sexual perversion - was incongruent with what it meant to be imitators of Jesus (Ephesians 5:3). If they ignored this clear warning, they would miss God´s best and experience His discipline (v.6).
As believers in Jesus, it´s God´s will for us to stand out, or be holy, especially in a culture where sexual immorality is an accepted behaviour. Standing out as light for Christ means appropriating God´s Word (Psalm 119:9), controlling our bodies (1 Thessalonians 4:1-7), intentionally resisting temptation (Proverbs 7:24-25), living in the spirit (Galatians 5:16) and enjoying sex within its proper limits (1 Corinthians 7:2, 9). Let´s keep our hand out of the biscuit tin! - Marvin Williams
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Ephesians 5:1-14
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly cloved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God´s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure : No immoral, impure or greedy person - such a man is an idolater - has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God´s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said :
"Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you."
Genesis 39:1-18
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh´s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So he left in Joseph´s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well built and handsome, and after a while his master´s wife took notice of Joseph and said, "Come to bed with me!"
But he refused. "With me in charge," he told her, "My master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" And though she spoke to Joseph day afeter day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, "Come to bed with me!" But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she called her household servants. "Look," she said to them, "this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house."
She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. Then she told him this story: "That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house."
Question to Ponder
Why is it such a challenge to resist sexual temptation and immorality in our culture?
How can knowing our identity as God´s children help us resist sin?
**Article taken from ODJ (Our Daily Journey with God) Dec 2014 - Feb 2015 issue.
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