(Connecting Advent and Holiness)
A sex-saturated culture views sexual satisfaction as its highest good. It will shout all voices down who would challenge it. The NT apostles connected the dots between sexual purity and holiness. (1 Peter 1:14–16, Titus 2:11–14, 2 Corinthians 7:1 as well as many others.) None is clearer than 1 Thessalonians 4:3–8 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you” (ESV). The first century house churches were known among the pagans as those who avoided adultery and sexual immorality. The Roman world’s loose regard to sexual morality was not unlike our own. Those early followers of Jesus loved Him more than they loved the sex idol of the surrounding culture.
