Broad meadows

In the last writing we were able to define very precisely what the Bible defines as sexual immorality. Why this becomes relevant should be obvious to anyone that has read the Bible, but we will make the case anyway. So let’s start at the beginning.

In Genesis 1:28 it says this, “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. ” Given that the way to increase in number is by sexual means this defines the role of what our sexual lives are meant to do. While intensely pleasurable, that is not its main purpose. I believe this is why abortion isn’t simply murder, horrible as that is, but also falls under the category of sexual immorality. It is an abuse of the reproductive process and failure to obey our original command.

Jesus says in Matthew 15:19-20, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” So the things that were defined in Leviticus 18 as sexual immorality Jesus still calls evil.

The early church when discussing what things should be abstained from writes in Acts 15:29, “You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.” The church is advised away from those behaviors. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians that the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Jesus threatens the churches of Pergamum and Thyatira with loss if they don’t repent of sexual immorality. In Revelation 21 the sexually immoral are thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8) and are pictured outside the city (the kingdom of God) in Revelation 22:15. There is no upside to anyone in the church promoting or accepting sexual immorality as defined in Leviticus 18. This is also why you cannot separate the Old Testament from the New. The New is based on the Old. There are other reasons, but this is certainly one of them. How can the church discern without that definition? To those inside the church now who are promoting these things, I will tell you only what Jesus says, “Repent!”.