“Is a moment of pleasure worth an eternity of pain?”

This above is the question that I pose to you, the reader today.

To be clear, the moment of pleasure that I am referencing today is an instance of sexual immorality.

To do this right though, before I ask you that question, I must first define:

What is sexual immorality?

In the Bible, sexual immorality generally refers to any sexual activity outside the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman.

The term often translates from the Greek word porneia, which encompasses “adultery, fornication, prostitution, incest, homosexuality, masturbation and other sexual practices considered sinful in Scripture.”

In your consideration of this topic, also consider the following scriptures:

1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 – “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor.”

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 – “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”

Ephesians 5:3 – “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.”

Colossians 3:5 – “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

Hebrews 13:4 – “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”

Revelation 21:8 – “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

God loves us—not just our spirits and our souls, but also the bodies in which they are housed.

Sexual immorality spits in the face of that love, it spits in the face of God who himself is love.

It is a sin against him and your body… which he created.

Given the above verses, this sin is most egregious because it harms so many things, it puts so many things, both physical and spiritual, in danger.

Our bodies were given to us so that we could serve God and worship him, not so we could worship ourselves and serve our desires.

Today’s world with its “modern” way of thinking isn’t actually as modern as it thinks it is, nor is it as wise as it claims to be.

The above verses amongst many others show you that issues such as sexual immorality have been around for nearly the entire existence of humanity. The only things that change with time are the words used to describe these immoral actions and the stance on them that this fallen world adopts.

The one important thing however: God’s stance on these issues has not and will not change. These actions are sinful and they will always be sinful. They are an affront to God that tarnishes, damages and misuses his creations, our bodies and sex itself.

I would not go as far as to call sex itself sacred, but it is a very precious and holy gift that God created for one man and one woman in the covenant of marriage.

Sex is not something that is meant to be participated in outside of marriage, and it certainly is not meant to be participated in within the confines of homosexual relationships or any other perverted settings.

It is a gift from God that is supposed to create union between man and wife and represent the union—and unity—of Christ and his church.

Sex is meant to be respected and seen as a privilege given by God to those who choose to undertake the covenant of marriage as God defines it. This “modern” world has lost that view.

Today, the world sees sex as a transactional recreation instead of a holy union. It sees it as pleasure, entertainment and sport. It sees it as something to be participated in freely, flippantly, and recklessly.

The world also sees sex as a way to make money in various different settings. Prostitution, movies, music, television, and fashion to name a few. This is made evident by the old, but still very prevalent saying “sex sells”.

Yes it does sell, but it costs a higher price than you think. When used incorrectly, It doesn’t just cost money. It costs you relationships, health, self-respect, freedom and in some cases, your life. Most importantly, though outside of the covenant of marriage, it also grieves The PRECIOUS Holy Spirit Of God—and costs you both your relationship with God and your eternity With Him.

Relationships: sex outside of marriage can lead to promiscuity. This can lead to the death of a romantic relationship or worse, a marriage.

Health: a promiscuous lifestyle almost always leads to someone contracting an STD, which can leave them with lifelong disability or death.

And these can happen even if both parties are willing and do consent.

Freedom: rape, trafficking, prostitution and child molestation are just a few examples of sexual crimes that can put you behind bars for a long time.

And in terms of legal or mostly-legal “sex work,” including “virtual” or other “tech-assisted,” consensual interactions or “displays,” let’s call them… THOUSANDS of people engaging in such things have taken to online platforms to express their feelings of emptiness, depersonalization, bullying, lack of respect, numbness, anxiety, grief, or other negative emotions either during or after the “work” is done.

If sex was designed to foster and celebrate connection in a holy, respectful, guarded (meaning not for anyone’s eyes except the man and woman who are married to each other), and protected manner (and situation, which again is that of Godly Marital Covenant) then it’s only to be expected that sharing the experience with others—especially for pay or without such a serious relationship—makes for those feelings of emptiness and numbness.

In fact, my precious wife tells me that a video game she once played featured futuristic takes on all manner of things, including sex work. She said that the workers were required to take certain “medications” that caused their state to become that of “unconscious” in the way that you’d be under full anesthesia, except with eyes open, awake, and functional.

In other words, the futuristic people were “modern” and “edgy” enough to normalize sex work (for both worker and client)… but they recognized that multiple partners, or just “even” selling it to a few or one, would necessarily lead to even more trauma, and also trigger existing trauma and make it worse.

Moving on to the last big area of destruction…

Your life: outside of contracting a deadly STD, you might also end up being murdered in any number of situations involving sex. An extramarital affair and an arrangement for prostitution both can cost you your life. It doesn’t matter if it’s a crime of passion, as would be the case with the affair or a robbery as might be the case with prostitution. Your life is put at risk every time.

This is to say nothing of perishing from strange situations and set-ups which I will not dignify by mentioning here, but let’s just say that super glue, duct tape, garbage bags, and such items are meant to fix up your house, not “enhance” any part of the bedroom (other than perhaps some light weekend home decor projects and cleaning up the copious snack food packaging after a neighbourhood pizza party).

The final consequence is one that’s worse than all of these.

The final consequence is an eternity separated from God in the pain, anguish and torment of the lake of fire in hell.

Revelation 21:8 – “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

So in closing, I ask the question again:

Is a moment of pleasure worth an eternity of pain?

-MB