Arrogance and Sexual Sin

Being a teenage young man sucked. You go through all of these physical changes, have raging hormonal desires, and hopefully by God’s grace no one to share them with. That, however, doesn’t really seem like God’s grace at the time. I assumed as I got older things like lust wouldn’t be an issue, especially after I got married.

Marriage certainly helps channel those desires in a healthy direction, unfortunately we still have a sinful heart that constantly seeks to pursue sinful things with our natural, God-given sexuality. Just like with all sin, our only hope in this is Jesus. He loves us and sends His Holy Spirit to convict us when our minds and eyes begin to wander. It’s too bad that we can get in a habit of quenching the Holy Spirit and avoiding his conviction.

I’m not very old (30), but I’ve seen in myself this propensity to ignore conviction. I would submit to you that this is the ultimate in arrogance. To ignore the convicting work of the Spirit is to deny our need for the gospel. We must always be about humbly repenting of sin and remembering the great sacrifice Christ made on our behalf. Failure to remember the gospel will always lead to arrogance which in many cases leads eventually to sexual sin.

Corinth

The church at Corinth had several issues with sinful behavior. They were divisive, worldly, and having some wacko church services. A specific worldly issue they were known for was their immorality that Paul addresses in chapter 5 of the letter. Interestingly enough, before he gets to that specific issue, he calls them out on their arrogance.

Some of you have become arrogant as if I were not coming to you. But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have.  - 1 Cor. 4:18-19

Not only were some of the Corinthians in sin, they arrogantly believed there would be no one to call them to account. They clearly had ignored the conviction of the Holy Spirit and had forgotten the importance of the gospel. This is perhaps why Paul spent so much time orienting their thinking around the message of the cross in chapters 1 & 2.

Arrogance arises when we don’t think we need the gospel anymore. This is the danger of assuming that its sole purpose is to get us in the door. In reality, we must be consistently put in our place by God’s grace to us who are completely undeserving. As men, when we grow arrogant or assume God owes us something or is demanding too much of us, one of the main areas where we will be tempted to fall is in the realm of our sexuality.

We must always set before us the example of Jesus as described in Philippians 2. He was humble and obedient. We must remember the example of Jesus who took responsibility for our sin and was willing to be humbled for a time. When we face the burdens and responsibilities of life  and ministry, may we accept them humbly and endure hardship just as Christ did. May we not become arrogant, assuming that we can fall into sin and continue to lead our families and minister the gospel without consequence or recourse.

Protect us Lord from our own arrogance and propensity to ignore Your conviction. May we live by the power of the gospel and accept the humble nature of a life of repentance.

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