EXCLUSIVE EMBRACE
You shall not commit adultery. Exodus 20:14 (NIV)
THE PURPOSE OF SEX
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 (NIV)
3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”
4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Matthew 19:3-6 (NIV)
THE PLAN OF SEX
4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Hebrews 13:4 (NIV)
THE POWER OF SEX
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man. ”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Genesis 2:23-24 (NIV)
THE PRACTICE OF PURITY
- Choose to live by God’s Design
9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
By living according to your word.
Psalms 119:9 (NIV)
15 Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well. Proverbs 5:15 (NIV)
- Understand the Consequences
32 But a man who commits adultery has no sense;
whoever does so destroys himself. Proverbs 6:32 (NIV)
- Nurture Your Marriage
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord…. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her Ephesians 5:21-22, 25 (NIV)
3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 1 Corinthians 7:3-5 (NIV)
- Maintain Healthy Boundaries
3 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. Ephesians 5:3 (NIV)
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 1 Corinthians 10:12 (NIV)
- Cultivate Right Relationships
1 Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. 1 Timothy 5:1-2 (NIV)
- Avoid Temptation
I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. Romans 16:19 (NIV)
…but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. James 1:14-15 (NIV)