We are under attack. The assaults of the devil and the enemies of God come at us on every side, but particularly in the areas of sexuality and marriage. This is why you so frequently hear encouragements and admonitions from this pulpit to stand firm, to love your wife, to respect your husband, to cultivate biblical joy in your homes, to stay pure, to honor the marriage bed.
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Gal. 6:9). You face daily attacks in your families, at your places of work, in classrooms, in the media and online. You are mocked. You are lied to. You are tempted.
And you must not lose heart. You must not doubt in the dark what you knew in the light. So what is it that we know in light? We know that God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. We know that our hearts are dark, and that our impulses are to selfishness, slavery, and destruction. Our hearts cannot be trusted. To follow your heart is to walk down a dark and slippery path toward a sure and certain cliff.
Paul says elsewhere that marriage is one of God’s great solutions to sexual sin. If you are married do not withhold from one another, do not be distant. Men pursue your wives attentively, be continually satisfied with them, and wives, receive your husbands graciously. Paul says that failure here leaves room for the devil. If you are not married and wrestle with temptation, seek out godly counsel, but above all else prayerfully seek to become the godliest man or woman you can be, prayerfully pursuing marriage. Talk to your children about temptation, talk to them about the lies being fed to us constantly. Fathers, do not be distant from your children. Delight in them, laugh with them, teach them, talk with them. Mothers, do not be harsh or coddling.
We are under attack. But God created this world. He made us male and female. Do not be ashamed of this glory. Embrace your duties with joy. These are not merely gifts; they are weapons of light. We will reap in due season if we do not lose heart.
God in His mercy has come for us in our darkness. There is no sin or failure that is too dark for the light of Jesus to drive away.
Photo by Braden Collum on Unsplash
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