i SEX- c r a z y WORLD
by Rev. Kenneth L. Loge, Evangelical T h e C h r is t ia n l if e is not a gloomy affair. Radiance and joy should characterize the Christian. However, to know that radiance and joy one must be a clean Chris tian. The Christian who yields to worldly attractions is unhappy. For any such, Paul in Ephesians 5:1-12 is mak ing a plea to enter into a better way The theme of Ephesians is the church. The last three chapters speak particularly of the Christian walk of members. “Because God has for Christ’s sake forgiven you, be ye therefore followers of God.” The word fol lower means imitator. We are exhorted to be imitators of God in His holiness, in His purity. We are to be clean Christians, imitators of God as dear children. The Ephesian church was located in a difficult place in which to be clean. The city was the center of the worship of Diana. As the Ephesians pictured her, she was a very sensual goddess. The religion in the temple of Diana was a vile one. Sexual indulgence played an important part in this worship. The city abounded with iniquity of the vilest kind. It was of great importance that these early Christians be reminded of the danger of following in their old ways. This situation is duplicated in North America today, except that these things are not done directly in the name of religion. The things that take place today in this realm make us shudcler! How important that we live close to the Lord Jesus that we may be kept from these .evil things! Paul boldly warns these Christians of these things in Eph. 5:3-5. “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” Fornication, uncleanness and covetousness all refer to the vile immoral corruptions of the day. The word covetousness does not speak of greed for money nor wealth, but rather of sexual greed, desiring the’ body of another person, whom one has no business desiring or approaching. This is the vilest, most disgusting greed we can imagine, based on the basest of all human greeds. The Christian life should exhibit a striking contrast to the evil life of the pagan world. Next Paul warns of the vices of the tongue, linked with the same kind of sin. Worldlings generally love dirty stories, vile remarks, jokes of the spicy kind. This very thing is all around us today; the air is full of this kind of talk. Trash such as this is what the public de-
Free Church, Big Timber, Montana mands, so it gets it in vast quantities at the newsstand around the comer. This is what is shown on the screens of the theaters. The world today has made these unclean things so commonplace that they are accepted as natural and ordinary. We are fast getting to the place the Lord spoke of describing the second coming, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.” Marriage and sex are treated so lightly today. “We’ll get married today. If it doesn’t work out we will get a divorce and try somebody else,” they reason. Sex is dis played on advertising whether the product has anything to do with it or not. Cartoons in magazines prey on that which is sensual. The child of God is to guard against every evil ten dency! Paul warns us against impure thoughts; we are to guard against the lust of the flesh. Is there any sin more dreadful, more vile, more disgusting than that which will ruin the life of an innocent girl, or that which will deliberately come in to break up a home, turning wife against husband, regardless of the children in volved? Saddest of all is that people look with indiffier- ence upon these things. They go ahead and send, or bring, their children to the theater where the very air is putrid with this sin. We become defiled in the mind merely as we look at the ads in our newspapers. Parents allow young people to play with these sensitive emotions on the dance floor. Even many professing Christians have no scruples against some of these things. Even they seem to have accepted these things as inevitable. In Eph. 5:4 Paul is not telling us it is wrong to laugh. We are not to be long-faced, unhappy people. He is talking about an era in which every Christian must watch himself. Do not talk of indecent things! How peo ple like to use language that may have a double mean ing. How they like to make the innocent blush. She who is embarrassed is ridiculed. Christians should be clean! Christians should be imitators of our blessed Lord, clean in thought, clean in word and in deed. Don’t allow your mind to be filled with vile thoughts. What you think upon and what you read will largely determine whether your life is going to be clean. Spend time in the Word of God that cleanses and purifies (Psalm 119:9). In calling in a home recently I was asked what I thought about a certain book. The book was written by a well-known author and was based on an Old Testament (continued on next page)
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JU LY, 1963
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