90. CORPORATE, CHRISTLIKE LOVE FOR THE FATHER AND HIS SON (bb): Pursuing Christlike holiness (15)

(continuation from Meditation 89)

Last time we said that God’s Word mentions two kinds of prostitution: (1) prostitution as a ‘carnal sin’ and (2) prostitution as ‘a spiritual sin’ or ‘a sin of the heart’. Today we want to reflect on the second type of prostitution.

(2) Prostitution as ‘a spiritual sin’ or ‘a sin of the heart’

Beside prostitution as ‘a carnal sin’, God’s Word uses the image of prostitution also for those who are unfaithful to Him, break the covenant He made with them and follow other gods and the evil desires of their hearts.

a.) Breaking the Mosaic Covenant

Here are some of the many examples in the Old Testament in which God speaks of prostitution as ‘a sin of the heart’:

   

-- “The LORD said to Moses: You are going to rest with your fathers, and these people (Israel) will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them.” (Deuteronomy 31:16)

-- “The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: `Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD your God.'” (Numbers 15:37-41)

-- “I (the LORD your God) will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people.” (Leviticus 20:6)

This image of prostitution speaks of unfaithfulness to God and the Mosaic Covenant He made with His people at Mount Sinai. Again and again Israel broke that covenant and worshipped the gods of the surrounding nations, engaging, like them, in sexual promiscuity and other sins, contacting mediums and spiritualists and asking those nations for political cover instead of seeking God’s help and protection.

Eventually God responded to this ‘spiritual prostitution’ by His people with His judgment: The northern kingdom of Israel went into exile after its destruction by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. The southern kingdom of Judah went into exile after its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. God describes through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel (6^th century B.C.) a shocking picture of His people as a prostitute. Here follows an excerpt of this divine message of God’s judgement:

“Your destruction is certain, says the Sovereign LORD. In addition to all your other wickedness, you built a pagan shrine and put altars to idols in every town square. On every street corner you defiled your beauty, offering your body to every passerby in an endless stream of prostitution.

Then you added lustful Egypt to your lovers, fanning the flames of my anger with your increasing promiscuity. That is why I struck you with my fist and reduced your boundaries. I handed you over to your enemies, the Philistines, and even they were shocked by your lewd conduct! You have prostituted yourselves with the Assyrians, too. It seems you can never find enough new lovers! And after your prostitution there, you still were not satisfied. You added to your lovers by embracing that great merchant land of Babylonia-- but you still weren't satisfied!

What a sick heart you have, says the Sovereign LORD, to do such things as these, acting like a shameless prostitute.

You build your pagan shrines on every street corner and your altars to idols in every square.

You have been worse than a prostitute, so eager for sin that you have not even demanded payment for your love! Yes, you are an adulterous wife who takes in strangers instead of her own husband.

Prostitutes charge for their services-- but not you! You give gifts to your lovers, bribing them to come to you. So you are the opposite of other prostitutes. No one pays you; instead, you pay them!

Therefore, you prostitute, listen to this message from the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because you have exposed yourself in prostitution to all your lovers, and because you have worshiped detestable idols, and because you have slaughtered your children as sacrifices to your gods, this is what I am going to do.

I will gather together all your allies-- these lovers of yours with whom you have sinned, both those you loved and those you hated-- and I will strip you naked in front of them so they can stare at you.

I will punish you for your murder and adultery. I will cover you with blood in my jealous fury.

Then I will give you to your lovers-- these many nations-- and they will destroy you. They will knock down your pagan shrines and the altars to your idols. They will strip you and take your beautiful jewels, leaving you completely naked and ashamed. They will band together in a mob to stone you and run you through with swords.

They will burn your homes and punish you in front of many women. I will see to it that you stop your prostitution and end your payments to your many lovers.

Then at last my fury against you will be spent, and my jealous anger will subside. I will be calm and will not be angry with you anymore.

But first, because you have not remembered your youth but have angered me by doing all these evil things, I will fully repay you for all of your sins, says the Sovereign LORD.” (^NLT Ezekiel 16:23-43)

God promised that after the judgement of exile He would take His people back to their land and make an new and eternal covenant with them. God spoke of this promised messianic covenant with His people through several prophets. Here is the promise through the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah (7^th century B.C.): 

“The day will come, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife, says the LORD.

But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the LORD. I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their family, saying, 'You should know the LORD.' For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will already know me, says the LORD. And I will forgive their wickedness and will never again remember their sins.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

By mouth of the prophet Isaiah, God promised that the gift of His Spirit would be the content of the new covenant with His people: “This is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit will not leave them, and neither will these words I have given you. They will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and your children's children forever. I, the LORD, have spoken!” (Isaiah 59:21)

This is the New or Messianic Covenant which God has made with all the Jewish people who follow Jesus Messiah and with all the followers of Jesus worldwide. Jesus initiated this covenant at the ‘Last Supper’ on the evening before He died: “After supper he took another cup of wine and said, ‘This wine is the token of God's new covenant to save you-- an agreement sealed with the blood I will pour out for you.’” (Luke 22:20)

We saw in the Meditations 27 to 33 that the essence of this new covenant is the gift of God’s Holy Spirit to all who put their trust in Jesus Messiah for the forgiveness of their sins. Paul writes about himself and the other apostles as ambassadors of this new covenant, saying: “He (God) has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant-- not of the letter (the Mosaic Covenant) but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6)

 

b.) Breaking the New or Messianic Covenant:

Jesus and the apostles do not use the image of prostitution for those Christians and those churches  who are unfaithful to God and break the New or Messianic Covenant He made with them. Yet, the subject is treated throughout the New Testament. Here are some examples: 

-- “Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world.” (1 John 2:15-16)

“Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace.

For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will. That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them are not Christians at all.)

So, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you keep on following it, you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” (Romans 8:5-9 and 13-14)

“The love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:10)

“I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. Their future is eternal destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and all they think about is this life here on earth.” (Philippians 3:18-19)

-- “You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:4)

You can find in Meditations 54 and 55 New Testament examples of churches who fall into ‘spiritual prostitution’. There we can read about the way in which Jesus judges the churches in the book of Revelation. 

Yet, by pursuing Christlike holiness, God’s Spirit is well able to keep any local church faithful to the Lord of the New Covenant. The apostle Paul finishes his second letter to the church in Thessalonica (Greece) with the blessing: “Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

This meditation on ‘spiritual prostitution’ requires careful reflection. I wonder if the problem of prostitution as ‘a spiritual sin’ or ‘a sin of the heart’ is sufficiently dealt with in Christian circles. Yet, I think that this is a wide-scale problem, causing terrible havoc in many churches worldwide. Here are some questions to ponder:

-- How often is the way we provide pastoral counseling defined more by humanistic science than by the revealed wisdom of God’s Word?

-- How often is the way we run our churches more characterised by project management than by God’s Spirit and God’s Word?

-- How often do our churches reflect our modern, materialistic, hedonistic, individualist and greedy culture rather than being Christlike, transformed communities generated by God’s Spirit and God’s Word?

-- How often do the evangelistic programmes of our churches look more like running a clever advertising campaign than heralding the Good News of reconciliation with God?

-- These days, we live in a sex-mad society manipulated by an overwhelming amount of sexually-charged media: sex in advertisements, in films, on television, virtual sex (cyber sex, phone sex), internet pornography, etc.

      

In 2006, the Barna Research Group in California carried out a nationwide survey, called “A New Generation of Adults Bends Moral and Sexual Rules to Their Liking”. This research showed that in matters of morality and sexuality, people in the USA are more likely to imitate their peer group than the principles of personal faith.

The Vice President of the Barna Group added, "We expect to see this mindset of sexual entitlement translate into increased appetites for pornography, unfiltered acceptance of sexual themes and content in media, and continued dissolution of marriages due to infidelity.”

(www.barna.org/culture-articles/144-a-new-generation-of-adults-bends-moral-and-sexual-rules-to-their-liking?   

We are now 6 years further down the line and the question is how I myself, my church congregation, our church leaders, and specially our young people, are affected by this development. I have heard some reports of church leaders struggling with internet porn, all attained by the click of a mouse. So, how are you and your church doing in the face of this tsunami of sexual immorality? 

-- And what about the influence of media violence (films, television, computer games, smart phones, etc.) on the children of Christian families? I think that this is another serious matter for our churches to reflect upon. How can my church help Christian families pursue Christlike holiness without muzzling them by legalistic restrictions? 

Certainly, there are more issues to consider for our churches these days when we speak of prostitution as ‘a spiritual sin’ or ‘a sin of the heart’. Yet, it is clear that God wants our churches to continue pursuing Christlike love and holiness.

In these troubled times, our churches desperately need divine guidance by God’s Spirit and God’s Word. The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica (Greece): “God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin. Then each of you will control your body and live in holiness and honor -- not in lustful passion as the pagans do, in their ignorance of God and his ways ... for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. God has called us to be holy, not to live impure lives. Anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human rules but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 and 6b-8)

Deuteronomy 31:16, Numbers 15:37-41, Leviticus 20:6, 2 Corinthians 3:6 and James 4:4 are quotes from the New International Version. All other quotes are from the New Living Translation.

89. CORPORATE, CHRISTLIKE LOVE FOR THE FATHER AND HIS SON (aa): Pursuing Christlike holiness (14)

(continuation from Meditation 88)

Prostitution in the Corinthian church (see also Meditations 78 and 87)

As we wrote in Meditation 78, prostitution was an integral aspect of Greek culture. Moreover, Corinth was a port city with many brothels. It also had the temple of Aphrodite (the goddess of love) with its 1,000 temple prostitutes.

In Meditation 87 we read Paul’s keynote on sexual immorality to the Corinthian Christians who lived in this den of iniquity: “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

God’s Word mentions two kinds of prostitution: (1) prostitution as a ‘carnal sin’, (2) prostitution as a ‘spiritual sin’ or a ‘sin of the heart’.

(1) Prostitution as a ‘carnal sin’

At Mount Sinai, after God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt (14^th century B.C.?), He made the Mosaic Covenant with His people. In some laws of this Covenant, God strictly forbade prostitution:

-- “Do not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be filled with promiscuity and detestable wickedness.” (Leviticus 19:29)

-- “The (Jewish) priests must not marry women defiled by prostitution ..... for the priests must be set apart to God as holy.” (Leviticus 21:7)

-- “If a priest's daughter becomes a prostitute, defiling her father's holiness as well as herself, she must be burned to death.” (Leviticus 21:9)

-- “No Israelite man or woman may ever become a temple prostitute.” (Deuteronomy 23:17)

Why did God give His people such rigorous laws at Mount Sinai? In Meditation 87 I mentioned two main reasons. I will repeat them here:

a.) The apostle Paul says about God’s Mosaic Law: “The Law was our guardian and teacher to lead us until Christ [the Messiah] came...” (Galatians 3:24)

In other words, the Law prepared us for Christ’s coming. The Law kept us on track towards Christ’s future.

Paul explains to the Christians in Rome:“No one can ever be made right in God's sight by doing what his Law commands. For the more we know God's Law, the clearer it becomes that we aren't obeying it” (Romans 3:20) or as the New International Version translates:“... through the Law we become conscious of sin.” It is through the Law that we come to understand what ‘sin’ is in God’s eyes. And it is also through the Law that we become aware of the need for the sin offering of God’s Son at the cross of Calvary to reconcile us with God the Father.

b.) God used His Law as both guardian and teacher to lead His people until the Messiah would come, He also used it to separate His people from the lifestyle and customs of the nations around them.

We can read in Exodus 19:3-6: “Then Moses climbed the mountain to appear before God. The LORD called out to him from the mountain and said, 'Give these instructions to the descendants of Jacob, the people of Israel: 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I brought you to myself and carried you on eagle's wings. Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the nations of the earth; for all the earth belongs to me. And you will be to me a kingdom of priests, my holy nation.' Give this message to the Israelites.'”

Furthermore, God says in Leviticus 20:22-26: “You must carefully obey all my laws and regulations; otherwise the land to which I am bringing you will vomit you out. Do not live by the customs of the people whom I will expel before you. It is because they do these terrible things that I detest them so much. ... I, the LORD, am your God, who has set you apart from all other people. ... You must be holy because I, the LORD, am holy. I have set you apart from all other people to be my very own.”

* * *

About 1,300 years later, in his letter to the church in Corinth, the apostle Paul shows the implications of  prostitution as a ‘carnal sin’ in the New or Messianic Covenant. As we know, the characteristic of the Messianic Covenant is the rebirth by God’s Spirit after one’s conversion to Jesus Christ. Therefore, Paul explains to these Christians in Corinth who endorsed sexual liberty (see Meditation 87):

-- “Our bodies were not made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies.” (1 Corinthians 6:13)

-- “Don't you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which belongs to Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never!” (1 Corinthians 6:15)

-- “And don't you know that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, "The two are united into one" (Genesis 2:24). But the person who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” (1 Corinthians 6:16-17)

-- “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

It is clear that these directions for individual followers of Jesus also have significance for the entire local church which is the Body of the Messiah and the Residence of God’s Spirit. If someone in the church does not obey God’s commands and consequently brings the entire church into disrepute, God will certainly interfere. By mouth of His apostle, God warns the church in Corinth and everywhere else: “Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will bring ruin upon anyone who ruins this temple. For God's temple is holy, and you Christians are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17) 

At Mount Sinai, where God made the Mosaic Covenant with His people Israel, He promised them: “If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5-6)

When the apostle Peter specially addressed the non-Jewish followers of Jesus who had entered into God’s New or Messianic Covenant with the Jewish followers of Jesus, Peter quoted God’s Words to Israel at Mount Sinai (see Exodus 19:5-6), saying: “You are a kingdom of priests, God's holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. Once you (non-Jewish Christians) were not a people; now you are the people of God. Once you received none of God's mercy; now you have received his mercy. Dear brothers and sisters, you are foreigners and aliens here. So I warn you to keep away from evil desires because they fight against your very souls. Be careful how you live among your unbelieving neighbors. Even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will believe and give honor to God when he comes to judge the world.” (1 Peter 2:9-12)

In this meditation we have reflected on God’s abhorrence of prostitution as a ‘carnal sin’. As we read in 1 Corinthians 6:18, God wants Jesus’ followers to flee from sexual immorality. That leaves me with some questions for me and my church:

-- Am I aware of the fact that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in me and whom I have received from God at my conversion and rebirth?

-- Do I know that I am God’s very own possession, that I was bought by God from the slavery of sin at the price of Jesus’ blood? Is it for that very reason my intention to honour God daily with my body? Do I know what that implies practically?

-- Does my church realise that all our church members together are also God’s holy temple and that the Spirit of God lives in us?

-- Does my church understand that all our members together are a kingdom of priests, God's holy nation and his very own possession to show the goodness of God to our unbelieving neighbours?

-- Sexual immorality is a gigantic worldwide problem. Therefore, members of our churches might easily be involved in prostitution. If so, how does my church respond to this need? Does my church cover up such situations? Does it try to restore ‘fallen’ members in a spirit of love and compassion? Does my church have ‘awareness programmes’ to fight sexual immorality by church members? Is my church prepared to use Christlike church discipline to deal with unrepentant members? (see Meditation 88)

-- To summarise it all, does my church pursue Christlike holiness (1) so that the transforming power of God’s Spirit may attract those around who search for God and for the true meaning of life? (2) so that my church will be ready as a ‘pure virgin’ (2 Corinthians 11:2) for the glorious wedding day of Jesus Messiah?

In the next meditation we will reflect on prostitution as a ‘spiritual sin’ or a ‘sin of the heart’.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20, Exodus 19:5-6, are quotes from the New International Version. All other quotes are from the New Living Translation.