HE PLAYED HIS PART

I believe the situation report in Genesis 39:11 of the house of Potiphar on the day his wife attempted to use force on Joseph to sleep with her that, “and it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within”, was written for us to know the grave situation he found himself and yet was able to refrain from committing sexual immorality. Joseph should be commended for outsmarting and escaping from the grip of a daring and adulterous woman, who happened to be her boss, in her well-planned ploy and snare. Joseph’s actions speak great volumes of the person, wisdom, doggedness, and a high level of moral integrity. He was courageous and decisive. He acted fast and timely. He played his part of watching and pray; resisting and fleeing from sexual immorality as expected of believers and by so doing he overcame. He did not take the grace of God upon him as a license to live a life of ease and carelessness.

There is always God’s role and the human role in all situations of life especially in overcoming temptations. God will always play His part because He is a faithful God. He expects that as He does His part in protecting and providing us with His sufficient grace to do all things and overcome all temptation, we also should make considerable efforts to ensure we watch and pray, resist and flee.

The reason many believers fall into the snares set for them by their predators has to do with many not taking into cognizance signs and warning alerts of danger lurking around them and also insensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit. The Scripture advises we should watch and pray so that we would not fall into temptation (Matthew 26:41).

SEXUAL IMMORALITY TEMPTATIONS

God created mankind as moral sexual beings (males and females) He created our bodies and the sexual organs and hormones responsible for our sexual urges. The sex hormone in the male is called testosterone while that of a female is known as oestrogen and progesterone. He also ordained marriage whereby a man and a woman would come together as husband and wife and enjoy sexual intimacy in purity, holiness, and love without guilt and shame.

However, when man sinned by disobedience to God’s commandment in the Garden of Eden, man became depraved/carnal. Among the things seriously corrupted in man due to his depravity was his sexuality and love; everything about sex has been perverted and the marriage bed defiled and dishonored. Fleshly desires and passions have overtaken spiritual/godly desires and passion; sensuality and lust have overtaken spirituality and true love from the heart. The sexual urge has become uncontrollable in both men and women to the point of having no shame or public decency. Sex is the greatest weapon of the enemy against mankind and is the in-thing.

Among the challenges anyone (both believers and unbelievers, young and old, females and males) would face in life are temptations. No one is exempted from this as our Lord Himself was tempted by Satan, but He never fell or sinned (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13; Hebrew 4:15; 1 Peter 2:22). Temptations are unavoidable in our earthly life. Temptations are not of God but the devil. There is no one living that will not be tempted to do evil. Being tempted in itself is not sinful, however, falling into temptation is. The aim of temptation is to ensure that a believer’s relationship with God is destroyed and the destiny is truncated.

Among the temptations one can face is sexual immorality temptations. Sexual immorality has to do with involvement in sexual activities outside what God designed it to be between husband and wife only and in purity and holiness, Hebrews 13:4. Therefore, being involved in it is a contradiction to God’s law and is a grave and heinous sin against God, others, and one’s body. Sexual immorality includes premarital sex (fornication) or extramarital sex (adultery), masturbation, anal sex, MouthAction, pornography, rape, sex texting, homosexuality, bestiality, incest, masturbation, lesbianism, sensuality, impure and degrading passions. Sexual immorality thrives in homes, churches, schools, everywhere and cuts across people of all races, religions, social statuses, age and class. The effect of sexual sin on one’s body can take several forms. It makes one feel guilty, pollutes/defiles one’s body, soul and spirit, it reduces one’s worth, sex is one of the sins that damages your soul and defiles your body. No sin eats deep into a man’s body as sex. it infects one with very serious sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes, syphilis, gonorrhea, HIV, aids, and several others.

Sexual immorality temptation is the commonest challenge most people especially youths are facing in our time because sex has been hyped and overrated. Satan has made immorality to be the accepted thing in modern days where everything from music, adverts, social media, video games, fashion, publications revolve around sex. It is even worse now with the new sexual provocative fashion trends of butt and breast enhancement, braless, body-revealing, body clinging, short dresses with long slits and low-necked dresses, seductive body movements, and facial make-up as well as social media, porn sites, sexual pollution of the internet. Those who are determined to live righteously are mocked and counted as old fashion.

All the actions of Potiphar’s wife in this sexual immorality saga perfectly described notable characters of those given to sexual immorality and the ways by which they tempt their victims to make them commit such sin with them. The sex predators could be anyone, male or female, young or aged, married or unmarried, rich or poor, literate or illiterate, black or white, and of any belief. Among the things they have in common are:

a) They act under the control and influence of their sinful sexual passions and desires like demonic-possessed people. Therefore they would do anything to satisfy their corrupt sexual desires and cravings.

b) They all have wanton/lustful eyes. They entice and seduce with their eyes, they are like ravenous lions always on the lookout for whom to devour. Once they set their eyes on their innocent prey, they don’t let go. they would go to any length to lay with them; they would cajole, pamper with gifts, entice, seduce, sweet-tongue, pretend, and could result in the use of deceit, violence or force.

c) They are shameless and daring. They do dumb and foolish things, they care less about decency or their reputation. They don’t care about the age, position, social status of their prey. Threats, insults, abuse, crying by their victims don’t work on them, because they have no conscience.

For complete post, see here http://lovelashblog.com/2020/09/19/dare-to-be-like-joseph-series-part-10-overcoming-temptations-of-sexual-immorality-continuation/

God loves you and so do I.