Sexual temptation

Genesis 39:9 (NIV)

“How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" 

This is Joseph’s response to the queen of Egypt who wanted Joseph to have sex with her.  Have you ever been in a similar situation where someone asked you to do something that you knew was against a law of God, be it sexual temptation or any other kind of temptation?  Did you respond as Joseph did or did you give in to the temptation?  Temptations like these can be very, very powerful.  Note Oscar Wilde’s quote: “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it”.  That is not good Christian advice.   

Sexual temptation is especially powerful.  And it is everywhere.  You cannot pick up a People magazine or, for that matter, any magazine displayed by the supermarket checkout and not be bombarded with sexual messages?  I’m uncertain that I agree with this, but I read somewhere where the primary driving force behind the development of the internet, VCRs, DVDs and other media technologies was/is pornography.  It is true that pornography is very addictive, especially to men.  Here are some facts/statistics from a website called “Family Safe Media”:

§ Revenue from pornography is greater than all combined revenues of all professional sports teams and all revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC.

§ 68 million pornographic search engine requests every day (25% of all search engine requests.

§ 47% of all Christians admitted that pornography is a major problem in the home (This is very difficult to believe).

§ 20% of all adults admitting to pornography addictions.

§ 1 of 3 visitors to adult web sites are women.

§ More people view porn websites on Sunday than any other day of the week. 

§ And there are far worse facts related to child pornography and crime.

Sexual additions have been around since Adam and Eve with so many biblical stories describing people succumbing to moral failures (and how many famous people have been in the headlines for the same reason?).  The one exception is this story of Joseph.  He was a rare person who refused to submit to moral failure just as today it is rare for anyone to run away from sexual temptation, exactly what you are to do (I Cor 6:18).

Why was Joseph a moral man when everyone else around him was not and so many today are not?  His secret was that he allowed God to be the center of his life and to control all his thoughts and actions.  You read throughout Genesis 39 that the Lord was with him.  The battle against sexual temptation is won spiritually, not physically.  You must “flee immorality” because it is recognized biblically that sexual temptation is too powerful to overcome it physically.  You must fight it spiritually, first by allowing the Lord to control your thoughts and actions, second by doing all you can to keep yourself away from all sources of sexual temptation and third, make a covenant with your eyes as succumbing to sexual temptation starts with the eyes (Job 31:1, Prov 4:25, Matt 6:22).  However, like Joseph, it’s impossible to be totally isolated from sexual temptation so when it confronts you, you must do as Joseph did---flee it.

Joseph realized that to yield to sexual temptation was a sin against his master (the Pharaoh), a sin against himself, and a sin against God.  With these three components of such sin, as he says, how could he possibly do such a wicked thing?  Is this how you think?  Is this how you act?  How close are you to the Lord such that His influence in you will enable you to say and do what Joseph said and did when tempted?  And if you have failed in your past, the Lord will forgive you if you sincerely ask Him and if you resolve to repent of such sin.  The Lord always gives you hope for changing your ways (Jer 29:11).  However, you must have the personal desire and rely on the personal power of the Lord to enable you to overcome and resist the temptation(s) in your life.