Take care of each other

that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. – I Thessalonians 4.6

There is more to this matter of sexual immorality than just keeping pure ourselves. Like in so many other areas we have a responsibility to watch out for each other.  

We are sexual beings. That is how we are made. Without that truth the human race would not get very far. We are all aware of our own struggles.

But we need to remember that our brothers and sisters in Christ have the same struggles. We need to be careful that we don't, as Paul put it, take advantage of and defraud one another in these matters.

How do we do that? How do we take advantage of or defraud each other in these matters?

I think we do that when we take these matters lightly. Sexual attraction is strong. Men and women both can cause problems for our brothers and sisters in Christ by the way we dress, the way we act, the things we say and the way we say then, the way we touch, and even by the way we look at each other.

We a have huge responsibility to make sure that we don’t cause these kinds of problems for each other. Sure, we are all responsible for our own hearts and for avoiding sexual immorality in our actions and in our hearts. In a perfect world with perfect Christians we would not have to worry about these things because we would all have perfect minds.

But we don’t. Our dear brothers and sisters are sinners like us. Let’s be sure that we don’t do anything to make anyone’s purity any more difficult.

Our love requires no less.