https://thepreachersword.com/2017/06/02/eliminate-any-hint-of-sexual-impropriety/
Eliminate any Hint of Sexual Impropriety
In her book, Settle For More, Megyn Kelly relates a time early in her broadcasting career about a rumor regarding her relationship with Britt Hume, her boss and managing editor of the DC bureau of Fox News.
Radar Online started the story. Kelly was called a “Hume wrecker.” And she was furious. Megyn wrote that there was no romantic relationship between the two of them–“not a single inappropriate or even borderline moment, ever.”
The next day Hume came into Kelly’s office with a “half-cocked grin” and asked, “Have you seen Radar?”
Kelly was not amused. She feared people would assume the worse. But Hume replied, “They won’t. Because we didn’t have an affair.” Then he offered this insightful answer.
“Therefore, there will never be proof of an affair. There will never be a text, a photograph, a phone bill, a doorman, a driver, an email, or anything whatsoever that suggests an affair. And people will come to see that it’s a lie.”
Hume’s reasoning was right. Later the person who began the vicious rumor was found and fired from their job.
This story reminds me of the Bible warning regarding sexual purity in Ephesians 5:3. “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.”
Did you get it?
“Not even a hint.”
In a world that winks at loose morals, it’s too easy for Christians to become influenced by what our culture approves, instead of what God commands. While the Bible condemns fornication, adultery and homosexual behavior, it also warns us against lust, lewdness, and lasciviousness. (Gal. 5:19-21). These are called “the works of the flesh.”
We are to have nothing to do with thoughts, fantasies, or actions that even suggest impurity. Sexual purity is more, much more than just refraining from illicit sexual relationships. It begins in the mind. In the heart.
Jesus said, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man…” (Matt 15:19-20)
The challenge is that we can deceive ourselves. Yes, even our own heart. The prophet Jeremiah warned, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Jer 17:9). Even a religious person can deceive their own heart.” (Jas 1:26).
So, Jeremiah asked the Lord to search his heart and test his mind. (Jer 17:10). What would happen, if the Lord did that to us and then sent us a text message with the results for us to read? Would there be any hint of impurity?
A quick glance?
A curious peek?
An indecent thought?
A flirtatious gesture?
A secret internet site?
A hidden magazine?
An amorous email?
A titillating text message?
A teasing wink?
A coy smile?
An unholy hug?
An erotic novel?
An obscene joke?
A bawdy movie?
An off-color remark?
A racy TV show?
“Be not conformed to the world,” (Rom. 12:1), is not a suggestion. It’s a command. If we’re really honest, it’s tough. Difficult. And demanding. But not impossible.
“Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold,” as J. B. Phillips paraphrases this passage. Then he writes, “Let God re-mold your minds from within.”
That’s the answer to overcoming any hint of impurity. A heart directed by God. Divine mind control. Inner spiritual strength.
When there’s no hint of impropriety, rumors are quickly expelled. Lies are exposed. Our character is exonerated. And God is exalted.
–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman
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