Chastity

Chastity

Exhort the younger women as sisters with all purity. 1 Tim. 5:1-2. It is just as vital for a woman to be perfectly chaste toward every man. The crucial decision is actually not in word and action, but rather in thought and a glance, for that is where impurity begins. If you stay away from the beginning, then the rest cannot follow!

There is no one who knows better than you if you are weak in this area!? Take care of your own soul! “If your eye makes you sin, pluck it out.”—“If your hand makes you sin, cut it off.” This means: Do your utmost to keep yourself pure! Whatever can be mentioned is better than committing the least sin!

If love stories in newspapers, periodicals, and books tempt you to read them, and thus to impure thoughts and actions, get rid of them; out of your house or out of your room! Out with it!!! If you don’t have the liberty to make that decision, then go out and look for another room. If other people’s eyes, face, or figure are a snare to you, then turn your back on them; you can both hear and speak just as well, for that matter! When you sit down, choose your place with this in mind. Sirach has given this advice to men: “Do not sit among women!”

We should make a covenant with our eyes and with our thoughts as the most God-fearing and righteous man on earth in his time did (Job 31:1); that is where the decisive battle is fought—the first thought and the first glance. Afterward it is too late!

Idleness is also a root of sin; it is also a root of licentiousness and unchastity. You have almost no time to sin if you live a very active and sacrificial life. Impure thoughts and desires are awakened by idleness and indolence, by having ample time to look at newspapers and magazines and at people of the opposite sex, and ample time to sit or lie, dreaming and fantasizing. Therefore do not knowingly go into temptations, especially when you are aware of your former weakness! It is playing with sin and being indifferent to the salvation of your soul. Do not look needlessly in a newspaper; do not look needlessly at the opposite sex; do not sate yourself excessively so that you are tempted to take an unnecessary nap; never lie on your bed unnecessarily but jump up; pray and work, work and pray!!!

When a sister is seeking spiritual help and there are older sisters who can easily give that help, I wonder why she absolutely wants to speak to a brother about the matter. I wonder if it isn’t the natural attraction to a man that is also at play? I wonder if, besides spiritual help, she is also additionally enjoying an unchaste satisfaction. Even if her conscience is as pure as gold from Ophir, I wonder if she subconsciously is savoring a satisfaction that she would miss in a conversation with an older sister??

As truly as you are alive, that is so. Therefore the brother should consider referring such hungry, God-fearing, and therefore lovable sisters to an older, tried sister, and thereby help them in the choicest, best, and most profitable way, for truth-seeking souls are worthy of all goodness and all care! Of course we must not make a hard and fast rule about anything, but assess each individual case according to the perfect law of liberty, always acting according to what you think is in the very best interest of everyone. Therefore one can always—and sometimes one ought to—speak alone with someone of the opposite sex, just as a brother often is obliged—in stark contrast to the letter of Sirach’s advice—to sit among women. Nevertheless, he always has an opportunity to obey the spirit of this advice.

The one who is strong in chastity and who has possibly always had his strong point in that direction knows best about it himself. But now the point is that if he is ever so strong when it concerns chastity—even as strong as an eunuch—this is not any guarantee whatsoever that the other person is just as strong!!! If you are saying that it is impossible for you to understand it, then all you are thereby demonstrating is that you are an incredibly big fool—you are extremely deficient as a servant of the Lord. For how could a person serve properly when such an overwhelmingly common weakness is hidden to him!

I cannot fully know how weak or how strong each individual is, and asking about it would be utter stupidity. Therefore I do the very best—lose the least and gain the most—by assuming that everyone can be weak and thus take it very much to heart and sincerely follow all exhortations to chastity.

You, who are strong, do not, through your carelessness cause the soul for whom Christ has given His life to come into unnecessary temptations, and even to fall. Do not play with the treasures that have cost Jesus Christ His life’s blood!

Do not forget the apostle’s golden law of love: “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.” This is indeed when the love of Christ needs to be applied!

Just some generous words by way of encouragement in the daily struggle can be sufficient to elicit impure thoughts and looks from a young sister. The fact that a brother in purity, but thoughtlessly, calls a single sister “beloved” or “my friend” can, against his will and without his knowledge, have caused her year-long sufferings, temptations, and falls.

Oh, how many preachers and others have both fallen and fallen way because of adultery! You can be sure that they have not suddenly fallen into it. Far from it! It was the final fruit of the little “insignificant” beginning, the final fruit of a little bit of unchaste satisfaction in thought and deed.

It is written, “Flee fornication!” Yes, flee as quickly as you can—away from the small beginning, for then it is impossible to continue!

Greetings in the love of Christ to everyone with Psalm 18:23. Amen.