Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matt. 6:24). And while he’s referring to the love of money, it pertains to the love of sex as well. Will we serve our good, beautiful, and true God or the false god of sexual sin? Our love for our Father will lead to our obedience to him. 

When a Good Gift Becomes an Idol

“I’m so ashamed.”

“I don’t see a way out.”

“I hate myself for it, and yet I keep going back to it.”

The draw to sexual sin is strong. As creatures with bodies, minds, hearts, and souls—which cannot be extricated one from the other—the physical and nonphysical pleasure and satisfaction offered by sex are uniquely powerful. So powerful, in fact, our culture enthrones sex as our highest good. The message that only sex can satisfy permeates music, movies, and social media. Monogamy seems quaint. Celibacy is unthinkable (a message we Christians might even unwittingly ingest). Sex has a godlike status in our age and in our minds. As a people, we view it as a must-have.

To be sure, sex is a good gift offered to us by our good God who made us good and in his image (Gen. 1:26–28, 1:31, 2:24–25). This good gift, though, when elevated to the best gift—a necessity, a nonnegotiable, something we cannot live without—causes great damage.

For Christians who are convinced of a biblical sexual ethic (sex is reserved for marriage between one man and one woman), giving in to sexual temptation leads to a painful cycle of shame in ourselves, unbelief that God can meet us, and succumbing again to sin in search of comfort, relief, and satisfaction, which brings us back to shame all over again. The draw to sexual sin is strong, but so is the resultant isolation, self-contempt, and despair. When men and women in the church give in to sexual sin and even become accustomed to it or addicted to it, they feel overwhelmed by humiliation and guilt. In fear, they keep their sin to themselves; it festers, feeds the cycle, and robs the Christian of the abundant life Jesus promises to his followers (John 10:10).

What can be done with this idol which looms large over our world and our own thoughts, causing great harm to our souls and relationships? Is there hope for the Christian man or woman who has given in over and over to sexual sin? The story told by Jesus of the prodigal son in Luke 15 says, Yes! There is tremendous hope.

Remember Who Your Father Is

You may recall in the parable of the prodigal son that the son asks his father for his inheritance while his father is yet alive. Such a request is a clear rejection of the father and a stated preference for the father’s gifts over the father himself. Nonetheless, the father obliges, and the son takes his money and runs. The son “squandered his property in reckless living” (Luke 15:13) and finds himself starving, longing for pigs’ food, but no one will give him anything (Luke 15:16). It’s at this point that he comes to himself and remembers who his father is (Luke 15:17). He remembers the wealth and provision of his father and realizes it’s ridiculous that he would stay there and perish when there is plenty in his father’s house.

The same is true for you and me. Even the Christian who has regretfully turned to sin time and time again still belongs to our Father in heaven. We who are saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:1–10) have been adopted by God (Gal. 4:4–7), and as his sons and daughters, we have access to all that he has (Eph. 1:3–23). Paul says we have “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:3) and a rich inheritance through Jesus, including the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (Eph. 1:19–20). Christian, we have a good Father who will never leave us and never forsake us (Heb. 13:5). Nothing whatsoever can separate us from his love (Rom. 8:37–39).

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