Honor younger women as sisters, with all purity!
I remember asking a friend of mine when was it that the evil of pornography had become apparent to him. He told me it was when he had daughters of his own. He knew then he would never want someone staring at them from the other side of a computer screen in all the positions and situations he had scene so many other women. As I think about it now I pray my daughter never ever finds herself in any of the pornographic images that have passed through my life.
Don't get me wrong sexuality is created by God and is a holy and wonderful gift to marriage. But is has been distorted so badly through the mess of pornography and the entertainment industry in general. I mean really! God created man in his image, male and female he created them (Gen 1). Shortly after that the bible describes the first marriage of man and woman coming together to be one flesh. (And we know scripture is talking about marriage, because Jesus uses the same phrase when talking about divorce. We also know it is talking about sex, because paul uses the same phrase when talking about uniting yourself with a prostitute. Just in case someone out there is rationalizing.)
Man and woman created in the image of God then uniting in marriage to be one flesh. Oneness is one of God's obvious attributes. The trinity, Jesus' prayer for his disciples to be one with him as he is with his father, Paul says the mystery of oneness has to do with Christ and the Church. When man and woman unite together in oneness this is one of the times they are reflecting the image of God the most. No wonder the Devil wants to distort marital oneness as much as possible.
Ok, let me get off of my soap box for a moment and come back to 1 timothy. Chapter 5 begins with the way we are to treat others. Older men as fathers, young men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters. Paul says a little later in the chapter that not taking care of our family is worse than denying the faith. So we are suppose to take care of our family...and everyone is our family. I don't want to lessen the weight of needing to care for our immediate family that Paul brings out in this passage. I just want to highlight something in light of the previous discussion.
I have heard it said the wake up call for pornography is to realize the woman on the screen is somebody's daughter. It is also true of the men being someones son. They are real people and if we were to place our children in their place we shutter to think of it. This is true!
It is also true that we all are the children of God. And all of those women out there...men...are to be treated as your sisters. And all of those men out there...women...are to be treated as your brother. So if the shutter factor of your children in those situations is not enough or if you don't have children yet. Then perhaps the gross out factor of naked pictures of your siblings will be the wake up call that you need.
I know there is much more that goes into addictions and recovering from them. But let this be perhaps the wake up call to shake you out of the stupor in which you may be stuck in. TREAT YOUNGER MEN AS BROTHERS AND YOUNGER WOMEN AS SISTERS WITH ALL PURITY!!!
OK, I'm done. If anyone is struggling in this particular addiction, please get help. There are good resources out there. And just as Paul later in the chapter admonishes us to care for our families, let's lift one another up in this issue...please...love, support, and accountability are so, so, so important!
Ok, I'm really done now.
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