Posted on 08/05/2021 11:16:18 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent" (Proverbs 6:27-29).
“Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman" (1 Corinthians 7:1).
Now, I don't have a problem with the common practical application to this verse, but I don't want you to think that that's all it is. If you bump into somebody, or rub shoulders or something it's one thing, that’s really not quite what it is saying. I hope you understand that I’m not trying to loosen things or make things more liberal; because it is a good practice to not get touchy feely with a female. On the other hand, I have news for you. This verse is not about brushing up against somebody with your arm in an accidental, unintentional way. This touching in 7:1 is defined by the touching back in Proverbs 6:29.
The Bible interprets itself, right?
That touching is a lot more than just touching, and if you doubt that consider Genesis 20:6. Starting in verse 3, “But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife. But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.” God didn’t argue with him, He said to him: “And God said unto him [Abimelech] in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.”
The Bible defines itself, and you just have to be careful that where you make a devotional application; just be aware that there are limits to it, and don't go completely to seed. Don't go completely crazy on practical devotional application when something deeper is sitting right before your eyes.
Once in a while, it's sad to have to tell people this, because there are some things that you ought not have to say. There are churches all across America where a bunch of people would be shocked to hear that adultery is wrong under any circumstance. That’s tragic! Brother don't go there. Sister don't go there. Young’uns don't ever go there. You're playing with fire. You're playing with some things that are going to scar you for longer than you can possibly know; and if you think that just playing around with it now will leave you one day where you can just go on forget about it, and put all things in the past, it’s not going to happen. It will be a scar on your conscience for the rest of your life.
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My problem with puritanicalism in American culture is the complete doing away with ANY form of physical affection, touch — which study after study has proven to be enormously harmful especially in the development of children..boys!
Instead physical affection seems solely associated with sex, period. In other cultures, even men kiss on the check and it is NOT homoerotic.
So if anything the lack of healthy touch among people: between family members, friends, acquaintances, etc...leads to an undue preoccupation with sex due to starvation for touch.
Starvation for non-sexual touch I mean*
Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. - 1 Peter 5:14
Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. - 2 Corinthians 13:12
Haha, this reminds me of some funny stuff I learned when I was reading tarot cards over the phone for money some years back. (Which is sinful, but being poor sucks!)
A lot of the calls we got on this particular service were from churchgoing religious folks. We would get a lot of calls on Saturdays because of horse-racing on Sundays, and we would get calls every night of the week about “What lottery numbers should I pick?”
On Mondays, we would get a lot of calls from people who had been to church on Sunday and encountered someone they had fooled around with. I swear, people in these churches (protestant and catholic both, though catholics are more inclined to call a fortunetelling phone line on Friday evening, after confession!) screw around more than a bunch of Rainbow Children at Burning Man! The intrigues! The sordid battles! The divorces! The “I hope my husband doesn’t find out he’s not the father” type things.
(Not being married myself, I often wonder why people even bother to get married. I’ve been propositioned more by married folks than unmarried ones. Usually if a guy is single, I end up putting the moves on him. *sigh* Oh well.)
You probably think I’m trying to refute God’s wisdom here, but noooooo. All this has given me food for thought about the subject of chastity and why marriage and so on.
The reason marriage isn’t working anymore seems to have to do with our governments realizing what an awesome money-making racket marriage is and getting their filthy hands all in it, when they should stay away. That’s one conclusion I’ve reached. Government ostensibly stays out of religion, but marriage isn’t a religious institution anymore, is it? It’s a materialistic contract that has to do with property and promises.
Another factor leading to the degradation of marriage: TV and movies. (Let’s leave rock musick out of it this time: You have to buy tickets and stand in line forever to see your favorite band, and then the best view you’re likely to get is obscured by bodies and giant bouncers telling you to stay in your seat. TV/Movies put all that stuff right in your face and force you to watch it unless you get up and go to the bathroom or to get a snack.)
“There are churches all across America where a bunch of people would be shocked to hear that adultery is wrong under any circumstance. That’s tragic!”
Likely the churches noted above, whose membership were REALLY KEEN on horse-racing and the lottery, were used to hearing homilies about the inadvisability of squeezing someone else’s squeeze, but they still did it anyway. (They knew the cleric was cheating on his wife, after all!)
We’re going to need a bigger...church.
Et tu Bill Clinton, Swalwell, Bezos, Bill Gates and many, many others? God is not mocked...
As they say, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” so also does a life of regret and shame. How many banks must a man rob before he is a bank robber? How many lies does someone have to tell to be called a liar? How many impure acts does it take for a man or a woman to be called a fornicator? The answer to each is . . . one.
Only one sin is all it takes over an entire lifetime for a person to be found guilty before the judgment bar of God, and as John 3:18 says - they are “condemned already” - yet, the death of one Man upon a cross was enough to atone for every sin ever committed by every person that has ever lived (past, present and future) to be redeemed and become the recipient of eternal life.
A man can live a perfectly holy, sinless life for the remaining days of his life (actually he can’t), but the one sin he committed early on in his life is permanent and enough to condemn his soul to Hell for an eternity. Only the shed Blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary can wash it (and all the rest) away.
It matters nothing how you lived your life B.C. (Before Christ), but once you receive Him as your Saviour, Paul writes: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Many have failed in the arena of purity. Many a preacher has lost his ministry, his family, and sometimes even his life over a single peccadillo.
The best thing for all is to let the wisdom of Proverbs to convince them never to “touch” a member of the opposite sex until God has brought them together in marriage.
In a real sense, a man is “married” to every woman that he has known carnally. A link in their souls is created, and they are in bondage psychologically for the rest of their lives. Again, it is best to remain pure and never engage in that first act of animal lust.
This whole concept of “try before you buy” is straight from Hell.
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