The One Sin He Says to Run From

Paul writes, flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. It is worth noticing that Paul does not tell us to stand and fight this one. With many temptations we are called to resist, to hold our ground, to endure. Here his instruction is to run, and there is wisdom in the difference. Sexual temptation has a way of overpowering a man who lingers near it to prove that he can win the argument. You do not debate it. You do not stay in the room and reason with it. You get up and you leave, and you do it early, before the pull has its hooks in you. Paul also says something sobering about why this sin cuts so close, that it is a sin against your own body, against the very self God has joined to Christ. This is not distant or abstract; it reaches the most intimate part of you. So take the escape route seriously and practically. When it comes, move your body, change your location, put the phone in another room, walk out the door. Do not wait to feel strong. Ask God for the humility to flee, and then flee.