“But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.” (1 Cor. 8:9-13)
When we become “born-again”, and begin to grow in our Lord Jesus Christ, we begin to realise our freedom doesn’t mean that anything goes, such “pre-marriage relationships” within a Christian’s life. Our salvation isn’t determined by good deeds, or being honest, by the free Gift of God, and doesn’t guarantee our “eternal life”.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9)
We become “born-again” through God’s unmerited grace, not as the result of any effort, ability, intelligent choice or decision, or act of service on our part, but HIS GIFT of Salvation. Out of our gratification of this “FREE GIFT”, we will seek to help and serve others with kindness, love, and gentleness, and not merely to please ourselves, and do what we want to do on the premise the once we are saved, then we can’t lose our “eternal life”..
No action or work helps us to obtain “salvation”, but it will result in our “acts of service”. We are not “saved” merely for our own benefit, but to serve our Lord Jesus Christ to build up HIS CHURCH, “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12).
Therefore, our Christian freedom is tied to Christian accountability and responsibility. When we become “born-again” we often become sensitive to knowing what is right and what is wrong; and what we should do and what we shouldn’t do. Then, that is no different as we mature.
Our actions may be perfectly all right in our own mind, but our actions may also harm another Christian Brother or Sister, who is still young in faith, and learning what the Christian life is about. Such actions are those actions that are committed by legalistic Christians, because they are not fully written or explained in His Word for the modern world of today, the 21st Century.
We must be careful not to offend a sensitive or younger Christian or, by our example, such as living in an unmarried relationship or practising other practices that are not of our Lord Jesus Christ on the pretence that marriage is hopeful or the practices are harmless, because the Bible is silent. These sorts of beliefs do lead to SIN.
When we love others, our freedom should less important to us than strengthening the faith of another brother or sister in our Lord Jesus Christ.
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.” (1 Thess. 4:3-8)
Our “sanctification” is to be holy, which is the process of living the Christian life. The Holy Spirit works in us, conforming us into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Rom. 8:29)
In Paul’s days, sexual standards were very low, and today in the 21st Century those standards are no different. The temptation to live together, and live as man and wife for sexual intercourse outside the marriage relationship has always been a powerful temptation to Christians.
Giving in to that temptation, and the “snare of the fowler” can have disastrous results. Sexual sin always hurts somebody, the individuals, the family, and the church. Beside physical consequences there are also spiritual consequences.
“Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.” (1 Cor. 6:18)
God’s ultimate goal for us is to make us like our Lord Jesus Christ, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). As we become more and more like HIM, we discover our true self, the person that we were created to be, and to be conformed to our Lord Jesus Christ’s likeness.
Therefore, we are free to be all we can be for our Lord Jesus Christ. God created sex to be a beautiful and essential ingredient of marriage, but sexual sin, sex outside of marriage relationship will always hurts someone. It will hurt our Lord Jesus Christ, because it then shows that we prefer to follow our own desires instead of the leading of the Holy Spirit. It deeply affects our personalities, because we respond in anguish knowing we did wrong by harming ourself physically and spiritually.
Some believe that “once saved always saved” and a little sin cannot hurt them, and that is where many Christians fall down believing that going to get married, gives them a licence to have a trial before married life, as they say, “a taste before you buy”. But, normally we find that those who speak of a trial, have most likely already been active in their earlier sexual immorality, and don’t realise the gravity of it all.
Sexual desires and activities must be placed under our Lord Jesus Christ’s control. God created sexual intercourse as a procreation and pleasure that expresses love between husband and wife. Therefore, any sexual experience must be limited to the marriage relationship to avoid hurting oneself, and our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Many may say that they are not going to have sex, but just live together. I always wonder where temptation may fall into place in this arrangement?
