"My thoughts on unmarried Christian couples holidaying alone together"

A reblog from http://pastorpeterko.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/my-thoughts-on-unmarried-christian-couples-holidaying-alone-together/

I’m going to get straight to the point: unmarried Christian couples holidaying alone together is a really bad idea.

Before I go on, let me clarify. I am talking to Christian couples. I assume that Christian couples are committed to sexual purity before marriage. If you are reading this and not Christian, this isn’t a word for you (though by all means keep on reading). I am also talking about unmarried couples. That includes engaged but not-yet-married ones. Furthermore, the issue is holidaying alone. I have less of an issue if they are with other Christian couples and definitely no problem if they are holidaying with one of the couple’s family, or if there’s a chaperone. No problem there.

Okay, now that’s settled, let me keep going…

I know all the arguments for this practice. And it seems to me that it’s growing in popularity among young adults in churches. Some of the reasons I’ve heard are: “It’s not like we’ll be sharing a room.” “Don’t you trust us?” “I know couple x and y and they did it and they were okay.” “Where in the Bible does it say we can’t do this?” etc. etc.

Here are some reasons I would still strongly advise against it: (And at the risk of sounding harsh, I may actually remove someone from leadership if, against all advice, they still went ahead and did it.)

• Don’t trust yourselves. Friends, the heart is deceitful beyond all things (Jer. 17:9). The devil, your flesh and the world are against you. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us that ‘your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.’ In sum, no, I don’t trust you and neither should you trust yourself. Don’t trust yourself that, in a place of no accountability, under some beautiful starry moonlight night, when you’re both tired and maybe had a few drinks, you’re not going to seriously compromise your sexual purity. Don’t trust yourself.

• God doesn’t want us just to be minimalists in obedience. The ‘how far before I cross the line’ mentality behind these kinds of holidays is flawed to begin with. This is what the Pharisees did. In contrast Jesus called on them to go for maximum heart-obedience. You might set all these artificial lines for yourself, such as: ‘If we were sharing a bed/room, then that wouldn’t be okay; but if we’re not sharing a room, then it’s okay.’ Jesus said, ‘If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out.’ (Matt. 5:29-30) Elsewhere, we’re called to flee temptation (2 Tim. 2:22). Friends, don’t be a legalist and a minimalist. Figure out the kind of life that pleases the Lord and pursue that maximally.

• We are called as Christians to be above reproach (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 2:7-8). This is a call for church leaders in particular (and that’s why I may remove someone from leadership over this). Our reputation with outsiders matter… a lot! When your unbelieving friends hear that you’re holidaying alone together, their assumption is that you’ll be sharing a room, having a ‘romantic time’, sexually compromising in all sorts of ways. Now of course you can take the time and effort to explain: ‘No, we’ll be sleeping in separate rooms; we’ll keep our hands off each other; we’ll have a curfew; we won’t get drunk…’ But are you going to be able to explain that to all the outsiders you know? Furthermore, is it going to be convincing, or just sound to them like you really want to do what everyone else does but want to save a little bit of moral integrity? Again, why not aim for ‘above and beyond reproach’? Your Lord Jesus’ reputation is on the line. Why not instead give no one any cause to whisper or doubt?

• You can wait. You really can. Our generation is particularly bad at ‘delayed gratification’. My fear is that God’s people are, on this issue, just becoming more and more like the world. Why can’t you wait for marriage to have that holiday alone? It really is much more gratifying then, believe me! You can share a room, share a bed, share lots of romantic moments, and (sorry for the crassness) ‘go at it like rabbits’… all for the glory of God! Is waiting a year, two years, however long, really that much of a problem given you might have a lifetime together?

• Fight the idol of pleasure at any cost. Yes we Christians are being sucked into the hedonism of our world. And we need to actively fight the idolatry of pleasure, which in recent decades, because of wealth and cheaper airfares, is this thing called ‘travel’. Travel isn’t wrong. There are lots of good and pleasurable things about it. But any good thing becomes a ‘god-thing’ when you are willing to sacrifice more important things for it. What are you putting on the altar of this false god? Your reputation? Your purity? Your example and model to younger Christians? Friends, it’s not worth it. Know that there is a greater pleasure in waiting and pursuing God’s will for you with all of your heart.

Okay, over to you. Comments?

- Posted by Pete

Image taken from:
http://blog.42floors.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/beach-vacations-caribbean.jpg

We all once were

Today’s sharing is based on the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, which can be found from Matthew 18:23-35.

Two types of relationships are prominent in this parable. Firstly, the relationship between the King and His servants. Secondly, the relationship between the fellow servants. This exactly how it is in the kingdom of heaven. God, represented by the King, being just and righteous is to punish sin and “settle” accounts with those who “owe” him punishment.

                        

Two types of currency can also be seen here. The talent (mentioned a few times throughout the 4 gospels) and the denarii. The talent at the time would be equivalent to 6000 denarii and denarii, the daily wage of a servant. * So there are 365 days in a year excluding leap years. 6000 over 365 is slightly over 16 times! A talent is a lot of money, just imagine 16 years wages! The debt owed by the servant was beyond his capacity. Ten thousand 16 year wages were owed and it would have been impossible to repay. On the other hand, the fellow servant’s debt was 100 denarii, a small amount in comparison and was highly possible to be paid back.

How could someone that had been forgiven so much not have it in him to forgive? Forgiveness is never easy. Sometimes we feel that by holding on to the grudge we will have a reason to get back at them. We feel that by forgiving, we are letting them off the hook with no justice whatsoever. This is even more so when the person who wronged us is someone close to us. It is much easier to forgive a stranger. For me, most of it is due to the expectations we put on our close ones or even our view of others in light of ourselves. Even the slightest of things tick us off and becomes a stumbling block.

“For all have sin and fallen short of the glory of God” – Romans 3:23

We need to realise that all of us have failed God’s standards and that we were forgiven a debt that we could never ever repay. Like the servant who owed 10000 talents, we too were deep in debt and headed for punishment. It is God who forgave our debt and paid the price himself through Christ.

“For God so love the world that He gave His ONLY BEGOTTEN Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” – John 3:16

The relationship between the King and His servant is now reconciled and that is how it is between God and us as well. Part of living out the grace that has been shown to us is to do the same. In fact, it is almost a necessary criterion in coming to God.

“Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” – Matthew 5:23-24

All of us have sinned and will continue to struggle with sin as we undertake this journey of transformation with Christ. Failures, hurt and wrongdoing will happen but that’s where we as the church extend our salvation and forgive as God has for us.

Peace be with you, Amen.

- Alex Tan


*values taken from http://text.watv.org/english/qna/view.html?idx=1573 and http://www.keyway.ca/htm2000/20000511.htm

Pride

 

 Pride - a least favourite topic for me to share. However, I felt compelled to share, as this is one of the things that God wanted me to turn away from, which also was touched on during the recent Church camp.

It has been years I’ve “accumulate” pride in my life, whereby I thought I had more experience/holier than others, trying to impose my own set of ideas, causing distress in my interaction with others and service to God.

It occurs to me that when I think that I am better than the other, I am as if the Pharisee in the “Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector” – Luke 18:11, NKJV

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

The parable coincides with what I read in Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, Chapter 8 – The Great Sin, page 122, paragraph 2

Pride gets no pleasure out of something, only out of having more than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.

There are also times that I was so full of myself, I was certain my thoughts are always right. I couldn’t stop but ponder upon the words of Virgil Vogt of Reba Place Fellowship:

“If you cannot listen to your brother, you cannot listen to the Holy Spirit”.

It is the pride of life (a term coined in 1 John 2:16, NKJV) that I have fumbles and stumbles a lot in my journey with Lord. May I be “turn and be renewed” [Church camp 2013 theme]. Amen.

-Yit Mun

Image taken from:
http://www.goodshepherdbh.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/pharisee-crop.jpg