I deeply appreciate my pastor's desire to communicate a godly view of sex and who we are as people. This is the 3rd of three sermons on that. If you listen, pay close attention to his reference to Augustine, one of the greatest theologians (and ostensibly a sex addict), and Jerome, the translator of the Vulgate. Augustine, and any believer who tells of the weight of his sin, knew God's doctrine of "unmerited grace", and Jerome, alone in the desert, realized no self-imposed rule, no effort of his own, undid his impurity. In Colossians 2, Paul says, "These rules seem like wisdom, but they won't work...because 'you' (people) thought of them. They're even an effort in false humility. Nothing can restrain sensual indulgence." EXCEPT, a turning from sin and turning to turning to Christ. v. 13 "When you were dead in your sins...God made you alive with Christ." This is the mystery Paul says he labors for, "struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me." This is knowing Christ and having fellowship with the Father and their Spirit. Their spirit is so convicting, arresting, and transforming that it consumes a person with desires inseparable from the world...because we have these earthly bodies, but yet not worldly. A Christian cries to be sanctified.
Amazingly, I was listening to John Piper preach a sermon called, Battling the Unbelief of Lust. He references the exact same texts in Matt 22:34-40 and 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8. Jesus says in Matthew, the greatest commandments are to love God with everything in you and then love your neighbor as you yourself. Thessalonians 4:4 is saying, "be holy and honorable". Why? because you know God and the will of God. The will of God is sanctification, which in marriage, is explicitly tied to sex. That's why Piper thinks the RSV most aptly translates, "that each one of you know how to take a wife...." BUT whether that or "control his own body" isn't the final point because not everyone marries. The final point is that knowing God, loving Him with your very self, is demonstrated in a holy and honorable love for your neighbor. Lust, which cannot be bridled apart from its replacement with a greater affection, a desire for God, is akin to rejecting God and his sanctification. (He makes us holy so we can be honorable.) It's a denial of the Holy Spirit (v.8) to renew what we think can't regenerate. It is unbelief. It is powerless despondence. To me, that's when there is no more mystery in the world or hope within me. Worldly indulgence is all can I see.
