The Bible says clearly in 2 Timothy 2:22 (NLT): “Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts,” but this is taken less and less seriously in our modern world. Looking at pornography, thinking impure things about other persons, letting your thoughts go everywhere without having any control over them, these things are becoming more common, even among Christians. How bad can a little impurity really be? As long as you don’t do anything with anybody else, what’s so dangerous about it?
A little impure thought is one of the most dangerous things in the world. You don’t know where that thought will lead. Or maybe you do know, but you just don’t believe it will happen to you. The truth is that we as human beings are very weak when it comes to sexual thoughts and temptations. We can say that “it’s not that bad” or “it won’t lead to anything worse” but the reality is that when you only give in a little bit to Satan, he won’t stop until he’s got your whole being.
The way downward…
Impurity in your thoughts is just as bad as impurity in your actions – Jesus makes that very clear. (Matthew 5:28.) God created the sexual relationship to be between one man and one woman within marriage. In the marriage it is meant to be a blessing, but if you give in to sexual desires outside of marriage, in thoughts or in deed, it only satisfies your own lusts.
All sin is living for yourself rather than living for God, and that is why God hates it so much. Maybe you don’t draw in anyone else but it shows your real mind, which is purely selfish. You can never be a blessing and never serve God as long as you let sin control your thoughts and in the end your actions.
But of course nobody suddenly decides to just jump into sin and start living for their lusts completely. It’s just small steps the whole way. Just once. Just this one website. Just this one thought. That’s all that Satan wants; just that one step at a time. And very soon you’ll find yourself in a world of sin, wondering how you got there and how you are ever going to find your way out.
No happiness in impurity
When your happiness is based on your lusts, then of course you’ll never be happy because your lusts are never satisfied. It always leads to a darker place, a worse sin. All you’re doing is feeding your own self-will, and when you are too busy with yourself you actually lose your relationship with God. Once you start giving in to your lusts, you start giving in to sin in every other area as well.
You feel that you can’t pray anymore; you feel uneasy when talking to other Christians. You feel judged when you read your Bible. You walk around with your eyes down and hoping nobody knows how much you’re sinning on the inside. Too ashamed to talk to your pastor or youth worker. Too ashamed even to talk to God. Then Satan can do whatever he wants with you. He has complete power over you.
Because of sin, things that you would never have thought of doing before seem natural now. Your conscience begins to die, and as it dies things that seemed very wrong before now become natural and you don’t feel bad about a little pornography, a little thinking of impure things. You start thinking it’s okay to go even deeper in.
Sin destroys your soul
And when you live in sin in the hidden like this, you will never have peace or rest. It destroys your soul. A little impurity comes with a lot of worry and stress. Fear that people will find out. Shame if they already have. If you sin here, you lose everywhere else. You become sad, bitter, angry.
What you’ve sown in sin must also be harvested (Galatians 6:7) and it is not a nice harvest. If you fill yourself with impurity in your youth you can’t just come out of it immediately – even though you can get forgiveness for your sins immediately. It will take years of harvesting what you have sown before you are completely free.
Giving in to your lusts so that they start to control you will destroy your soul. It can destroy your ability to make or keep a meaningful, lasting relationship or to stay faithful to your partner – both in thought and in action. It’s a huge struggle to get totally free and pure in this area so that mental images, the pictures in your mind you have gotten don’t trouble you anymore, and in the end they don’t even come up in your mind anymore.
You can be free!
But it doesn’t have to be like this. Yes, you will have to harvest the results of every sin you’ve done, but that’s just another reason to stop sinning now. Satan only has power over you when you are consciously giving in to sin.
From the minute that you decide to fight a battle against your lusts, Jesus is there by your side with power to help you win.
You can take up a battle right now and be called a brother of Jesus. You don’t have to live in shame because you’re doing this or that in the hidden. As soon as you take up that battle, you’re living in the light. And even if you fall again, you can repent from your heart and pray for forgiveness and get right back up, and then you’re in the light and you’re on the way to overcoming that sin.
Run away from youthful lusts, it’s written. (2 Timothy 2:22.) Sexual temptations are one of Satan’s tools that can cause the most damage. He has destroyed many lives with this tool and if you are not very much awake you can very quickly find your life destroyed as well. But God is ready and waiting to give you power and help from heaven if you decide that you want to be free.
As long as you have a burning desire to be finished with sin, then it is not only possible but sure that it will happen. God will help you then.