Many well-known people have been in the news of late accused of some sort of sexual misconduct. Some have lost their jobs while others have issued apologies hoping to weather the storm.
I want to be clear that just because someone is accused of something doesn’t mean they’re guilty. Twice in the U.S. Constitution, due process is mentioned. Due process means that one must be tried in a court of law before being convicted of a crime. However, the court of public opinion is another matter. The trials in that court are ongoing with little to no due process.
“Sexual misconduct” is a very broad term. From a biblical perspective, any sexual activity outside of the bonds of marriage is sexual misconduct. To be specific, marriage being between one man and one woman. Many in today’s culture (including a fair number of Christians) view sexual misconduct as pertaining only to rape and assault. However, adultery, fornication, and homosexuality are all impermissible according to God’s word. In 1 Corinthians 7:1-2 Paul says “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: ‘It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.’ But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.” This clearly puts every sexual activity outside of marriage in the realm of sexual immorality.
For decades our culture in America has become increasingly immoral. Most research agrees that the divorce rate is somewhere between 40 and 50 percent. According to Pew Research, cohabitation (a.k.a. “shacking up”) is steadily rising year after year. Homosexuality has become more and more socially accepted especially since the Supreme Court ruled that homosexual “marriage” is legal. This ruling was unconstitutional and you can read my detailed sentiments here. Pornography has become so common and such a problem that many states are declaring it a public health crisis. And now we’re having to deal with transgenderism which irrationally suggests that men and women can identify as members of the opposite sex which somehow makes that a magical reality. All of this shows that our country is deep into sexually immoral behavior. Someone once said that ancient Rome has nothing on modern day America when it comes to sexual immorality.
In Romans 1: 24-27 Paul says, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
Since our culture seems to be in the midst of an epiphany where even the pagans are coming to the realization that sexual immorality should have no place in our society, Christians should capitalize on this national outrage and guilt by urging all to repent of any sexual immorality. The days of pornography, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, and all other forms of sexual perversion should come to an end. Will there always be sin in society? Of course, but this shouldn’t stop us from seeking a culture that is widely unaccepting of sexually deviant behavior and thought. This all must start in the church which is the body of Christ.
