11/18/2025
What sins do we have in our lives that have enslaved us? Do we have an overriding desire for something that drives us to commit sin, or a need in our life that makes us complicit or vulnerable to sinful things? Either way, we have been enslaved, and our sin will rule us until we can find emancipation from it. Sexual predators are in the news again right now... let’s take a look.
“Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”
John 8:34 ESV
Sex is a natural function of our humanness, and is not meant to be sinful, but a beautiful and loving act, that is if we adhere to the bounds that God has set upon it for the good of mankind. We have moved away from a social order in which men fight and connive to breed, and then force themselves on the women they desire, and women have advanced beyond the need to tolerate or encourage such sexual behavior. Yet, that inbred nature is still just below our skin. Men still feel the overwhelming need to breed, and women feel the need to use their sexuality to control their destiny and the security of their progeny.
As we look around the world today at the outing of sexual predators in our society, we see the predominance of a couple of sins... on the part of men we see a lust for women coupled with the perversion of power, and on the part of at least some of the women that these men impose themselves upon, we see a lust for security, success, and power that either places them in vulnerable situations, or causes them to accept sexual sin and abuse as a stepping stone... a cost of doing business, or achieving their desires. In each of these situations there are victims, and only one way out... Jesus Christ.
There are always innocent people that are damaged by sin. In the case of a sexual predator it can be the object on which he or she preys, which is the woman or man who is innocent and not explicitly complicit, but it can also be the families; the children born, the marriages destroyed, the lives lost to suicide as a result of guilt and depression... there are so many ramifications. Is it any wonder that God placed boundaries and rules in effect to protect us from ourselves and our unbridled sexuality?
“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”
Hebrews 13:4 ESV
When we go to the home or private workplace of a more powerful person and accept offers to be alone with them we are putting ourselves in a situation that by its very nature compromises us. If we are a powerful person and allow ourselves to be alone with someone who covets or idolizes the things we have, or can provide, we are also putting ourselves in a situation that compromises us. This isn’t genius, its simply common sense, and the realization of mankind’s natural inclinations towards sex and its bastard offspring... all forms of sexual sin.
There is no safe place in our society when it comes to sexual predation or inappropriate sexual behavior... not the home, our schools, workplaces, halls of justice, seats of government, or our churches and synagogues... nowhere! This isn’t a sin that comes in search of us, but rather a sin that has its very roots, and residence, in us. If not for our ability to keep it under control, it will surface and wreak its destructive power wherever we are, and at a moment’s notice.
“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV
Sexual promiscuity and predation has perverted one of God’s greatest gifts to us as we seek to justify ourselves in this sin we commit. We cover this particular type of sin by wrongly calling it love... even if for a few days or a moment. You have heard the excuse “I thought he/she loved me.” Or “I loved them but they didn’t love me back.” Love takes the blame for a lot of lust, or sexual sin that demands explanation. Love is twisted in this way to produce an excuse for our failure. In so doing we are not fooling anyone but ourselves and claiming human love as our excuse can’t save us... only our deep-felt contrition plea for forgiveness, and the redemptive power of God’s Agape Love, coupled with the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ can do that.
“The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
John 8:35-36 ESV
In today’s news, we are seeing a number of lives that have been destroyed by sexual sin. The news is full of sordid details, but the destruction isn’t in the newspaper headlines, it occurred the moment that a robe was opened to reveal someone’s nakedness, or one body was forced upon another. Sin isn’t about its discovery; it is all about the fact that it was committed. Our sinful destruction is like an unsheathed knife that rests precariously within our grasp as it waits for us to make the wrong move... and at that moment it cuts, and cuts deep.
So, when we see these lives that have publicly been destroyed, don’t hold the press responsible, or blame the man or woman who was victimized, no, hold the sin that was realized in the moment of commission and the person who allowed its escape from containment accountable. Let no one believe they can hide their sinfulness because there are no hidden sins… God sees them all, and the wages of them are realized the very instant they erupt, and from them there is only one means of escape...
“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:22-23 ESV
Today we see lives turned upside down by past sexual predation and misconduct that was once thought to be hidden. What was once perceived as being secret has been revealed, and these sins are all exposed by the fullness of their destructive power. The real-world penalty that has long been stifled is at last reaching its crescendo, and a point of choice is now at hand. Will the perpetrators seek forgiveness from their victims and God? Even if they do, their earthly lives will still show the scars of those sins. So, the question isn’t how they can erase what has been done, but how they can go on living with the knowledge of it, and successfully sin no more.
Rich men will become poor, and mighty women will become weak. Castle homes will become shanties, and banquets reduced to scraps of food, but what becomes clear is the need for the washing of souls, and the rebuilding of heavenly mansions... not in this world, but in spirit. The fallen world doesn’t believe it owes us anything except punishment, but God has promised to separate us from our sins and forgive us completely. Earthly prices will still be paid for sin, and this includes sexual sin, but our contrition and pleas for forgiveness will be heard by the Lord. This is the wonder of salvation, and the grace of God.
“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”
Psalms 103:11-14 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your forgiveness of our sin through your grace and the blood of your Son Jesus Christ. Thank you for giving us the ability to stave off sin by our deep and abiding faith in you. Holy Father, I pray for those who have fallen, and whose lives are in danger of damnation and death. I pray Father that you will have mercy upon them, and that even as their worldly possessions crumble, you will lead them to a new life in the realization and renewal of their faith in you. I pray especially today for the innocent victims of the sins that have been perpetuated upon them by others. Loving Father, give them peace and consolation in your justice and vengeance; let them rest in your goodness and know that upon their own forgiveness of others rests your forgiveness of them. Help them Father to leave those feelings of shame, anger, and the vengeful spirit that feeds upon them to you, and to trust completely in your perfect judgement. Give peace where there has been guilt, and joy where sorrow once ruled... Let no sinner escape your hand, and not one victim go without your blessed comfort. In you we find rest... contrite sinners and their victims alike. Praised be your name for you are the God of mercy and grace… the God of all that is good and the source of righteous redemption! Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who knows our propensity for bodily sin and yet has provided for our redemption and forgiveness through your eternal love and the life, death, and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ. Holy are you who sees the destructive force of the sins we commit against our own body and rebuilds us and the lives that have been damaged by them. Great are you Abba and blessed are you who seeks after the lost lambs.
Amen!
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”
Matthew 5-27-30 ESV
“The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
John 8:3-7 ESV
Rich Forbes