Satan and his host work hard to draw men and women into sexual sins and perversions because it is a direct attack on the only institution God established before the fall. I’m talking about marriage. God created mankind in his own image (Gen 1:27). After he had created Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden, “The Lord said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen 2:18). “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Gen 2:24)
Today, there are those who are trying to redefine marriage by marrying man to man and woman to woman. Others see no harm in having extra-marital relationships. They justify their actions by saying that it helps the marriage.
Marriage, as God has ordained, is the foundation of a family and families are the foundation of society. When marriages are destroyed, families are hurt severely and society eventually is affected in an adverse way. This is all part of Satan’s plan to divide and conquer.
God spoke very clearly through Moses as he warned the Israelites concerning sexual sins. In Leviticus chapter 18 Moses provided the people with a set of laws addressing their sexual practices.
18:6 “No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations.”
18:7 “Do not dishonor your father by having sexual sins with your mother.”
18:8 “Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife.” (Stepmother)
18:9,11 “Do not have sexual relations with your sister.” (Including stepsister)
18:10 “Do not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or daughter’s daughter.”
18:12,13 “Do not have sexual relations with your father’s or mother’s sister.”
18:14 “Do not have sexual relations with your father’s brother’s wife.”
18:15 “Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law.”
18:16,18 “Do not have sexual relations with your sister-in-law.”
18:17 “Do not have sexual relations with a woman and her daughter.”
18:19 “Do not have sexual relations with a woman having her monthly period.”
18:20 “Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife.”
18:22 “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
18:23 “Do not have sexual relations with an animal. That is a perversion.
“Everyone who does any of these detestable things, such persons must be cut off from their people. Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came [from Egypt] and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord your God.” (18:29-30)
Now the above list is not all-inclusive, but it laid a foundation for understanding what constituted sexual sins.
We notice in Deuteronomy 27:20-23 that sexual sins are included in the list of sins that release curses upon those who practice sin. The impact of curses often lets us bear the full consequences of our actions. Those consequences diminish the quality of life for the person. That is what bondages are all about.
“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen.” (Rom 1:24-25)
Even today, people continue to exchange the truth for a lie. They say the scriptures have been misinterpreted and that Christians are being mean spirited and intolerant on this issue. There are some that deny that any sexual activity is a sin, but a natural process.
“The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?” (1 Cor 6:13b-15a)
Those who have become one with Christ should be horrified to take such a glorious relationship and expose it to that which is detestable to God. The Lord dealt with such a person in Corinth through his servant, the apostle Paul. A believer in the church had been involved sexually with his father’s wife or stepmother. The sin was compounded by the fact that it was known, but the leaders did not discipline the man and put him out of their fellowship. So Paul instructed the church to assemble and “hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.”
Many scholars tell us that this action was only excommunication. I happen to believe there is more happening here than putting the man out of the fellowship of believers. I believe he was removed from the protective power of the Lord and placed into the power of Satan for a period of time. It was done for his soul’s sake. It wouldn’t be the first time God’s people had been placed under the power of their enemy until they experienced repentance for their sins.
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.” (1 Thess 4:3-8)
“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)
The “One Flesh” Bond
“Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ “ 1 Cor. 6:16
Imagine becoming one flesh with someone through sin and that person is already in bondage. Because you are now “one flesh” you are vulnerable to sharing in the bondage of that person. We see the result of this continually. God permits it to happen. When a believer continues in sexual sin, this is a definite act of rebellion in order to gratify self sexually and emotionally.
Proverbs 5:22 – “The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast. “
That “one flesh” bond is like a cord holding the person fast in a bondage that was released through sin. This is why there is so much difficulty breaking free from these relationships. The cords of sin hold them in place. There is a bondage. Only true repentance will enable a person to get free.
Unfortunately, there are “one flesh” bonds put into place through rape, incest and molestation. No wonder the effects of these terrible experiences do not ever seem to let go. There is more than psychological damage affecting the person. There is also a spiritual hold that compounds the psychological problems. There is a bondage in place.
All this does not seem fair and it isn’t. Warfare is seldom fair. There are a lot of victims. But our God is a deliverer, who can break such bondages, heal us and restore us and turn the bad to good.
“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” (1 Cor. 6:18)
I know these principles work because we have seen them work for those with whom we work.
Pray for your heart to be truly repentant of your sexual sins and confess your sexual sins to the Lord and then renounce them once and for all. Covenant with the Lord, in faith, to walk in the new life He has given you and die to the old life.