"It's too much to expect our young people to keep themselves pure these days."
I sincerely hope that this one is an anomaly, that nowhere else on God's Earth has a Christian made such a statement and meant it. Or maybe that I misheard, but since the statements that came afterward were all about "Why" we shouldn't expect it, I am afraid that is a vain hope. And what were the reasons given? The culture they grow up in, the influences of their peers, and the failure of the adults around them.
The Roman world of the New Testament was pagan, sensual, carnal, full of excess, and impure in every aspect. Very few sexual acts were considered "illicit." Slaves were used and abused, physically and sexually. Men kept little boys for horrible reasons and no one cried foul. Orgies were common. "Corinthian" was a synonym for licentious, but Paul never gave his brothers and sisters in Corinth any reason to think they could act that way and get away with it because of the culture they were surrounded with.
In the Bible we have several examples of young people who kept themselves pure despite their surroundings. Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, grew up in a Judean court that had left all things pure and gone into wholesale idolatry which often included fornication as a religious rite. They were taken to a land not a bit better at about the age of 14, yet they purposed in their heart that they would not defile themselves… Dan 1:8. At that time it was the king's rich and luxurious food, but they kept to that determination in everything, even when their lives were threatened. They had no support from their peers and no godly parents to stand behind them. Yet somehow they managed to keep themselves pure in some of the worst circumstances imaginable.
Timothy stands out as well. Yes, he had a godly mother and grandmother, but his father was not a Christian. Just who do little boys want to be like most? He had no Jewish community or synagogue school to help his mother teach him—Paul did not find a synagogue in Lystra and it takes 10 adult Jews to constitute one. She had no rabbi then, and thus he couldn't be circumcised, even if his father had allowed it. Yet this mother and grandmother taught this young man well enough for him to keep his own purity, and for Paul to expect nothing less of him. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity (1Tim 4:12).
And perhaps the best example of all is seventeen year old Joseph who, when approached and literally hounded by a temptress, simply obeyed the command in 1 Corinthians 6 as if he had read it himself. Flee fornication… (1Cor 6:18).
Yes, it is possible for young people to maintain their purity, even if they are surrounded by sin and pressured on all sides to take part. No, it is not asking too much of them. But it is much less likely to happen when we give them excuses to do otherwise.
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them” (Eccl 12:1).
Dene Ward
I sincerely hope that this one is an anomaly, that nowhere else on God's Earth has a Christian made such a statement and meant it. Or maybe that I misheard, but since the statements that came afterward were all about "Why" we shouldn't expect it, I am afraid that is a vain hope. And what were the reasons given? The culture they grow up in, the influences of their peers, and the failure of the adults around them.
The Roman world of the New Testament was pagan, sensual, carnal, full of excess, and impure in every aspect. Very few sexual acts were considered "illicit." Slaves were used and abused, physically and sexually. Men kept little boys for horrible reasons and no one cried foul. Orgies were common. "Corinthian" was a synonym for licentious, but Paul never gave his brothers and sisters in Corinth any reason to think they could act that way and get away with it because of the culture they were surrounded with.
In the Bible we have several examples of young people who kept themselves pure despite their surroundings. Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, grew up in a Judean court that had left all things pure and gone into wholesale idolatry which often included fornication as a religious rite. They were taken to a land not a bit better at about the age of 14, yet they purposed in their heart that they would not defile themselves… Dan 1:8. At that time it was the king's rich and luxurious food, but they kept to that determination in everything, even when their lives were threatened. They had no support from their peers and no godly parents to stand behind them. Yet somehow they managed to keep themselves pure in some of the worst circumstances imaginable.
Timothy stands out as well. Yes, he had a godly mother and grandmother, but his father was not a Christian. Just who do little boys want to be like most? He had no Jewish community or synagogue school to help his mother teach him—Paul did not find a synagogue in Lystra and it takes 10 adult Jews to constitute one. She had no rabbi then, and thus he couldn't be circumcised, even if his father had allowed it. Yet this mother and grandmother taught this young man well enough for him to keep his own purity, and for Paul to expect nothing less of him. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity (1Tim 4:12).
And perhaps the best example of all is seventeen year old Joseph who, when approached and literally hounded by a temptress, simply obeyed the command in 1 Corinthians 6 as if he had read it himself. Flee fornication… (1Cor 6:18).
Yes, it is possible for young people to maintain their purity, even if they are surrounded by sin and pressured on all sides to take part. No, it is not asking too much of them. But it is much less likely to happen when we give them excuses to do otherwise.
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them” (Eccl 12:1).
Dene Ward
RSS Feed