Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

As many as 80 percent of unmarried evangelical young adults have had sex, according to an analysis of a study on sexual activity in the upcoming October issue of Relevant, a Christian magazine.

Young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 who identify themselves as evangelicals are almost as sexually active as their non-Christian peers, according to the article “(Almost) Everyone’s Doing It.”

The article, which carries analysis of a study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy in December 2009, notes that of the unmarried non-Christian adults surveyed, 88 percent said they have had sex – only slightly higher than evangelicals.

Of those 80 percent of Christians who said they have had sex before marriage, 64 percent have done so within the last year and 42 percent are in a current sexual relationship, said Relevant writer Tyler Charles, analyzing the study that did not look into religious identification initially.

What’s perhaps even more disturbing, Charles noted, is that 65 percent of the women obtaining abortions identify themselves as either Protestant (37 percent) or Catholic (28 percent).

“That’s 650,000 abortions obtained by Christians every year.”

Review

(v.1) “Be a mimic of God”

(v.1) “As beloved Children” as children who have a father who cares about them and who is worthy of being followed

(v.2) “Walk in love” saturate everything you do “in love” everything you do even “rebuke” or “correct” should be done in a spirit of love

(v.2) “Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us” Use Christ example of self-sacrificing love as an example for you to follow.

(v.2) “an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” Just as Christ Death rose up to the nostrils of God as a fragrant aroma, so shall your acts of Self-Sacrificing love & obedience.

What does your life smell like to God??

Always-A life spent imitating Christ has the natural conse

I. Simon says Watch your Body

(v.3) “But” in contrast with “walking in love” Paul starts by giving you the do’s then he moves to the dont’s.

(v.3) Paul names three things in (v.3) these three things are a consistent couplet use throughout the NT.

Let’s define them:

a. Immorality---porneia---fornication-sex with anyone that you are not married too

b.

impurity---akatharsia---uncleanness; any behavior that is shameful or of ill-repute

c. greed---pleonexia-covetous---love of money; this is a hoarder; never having enough always needing more and willing to do shameful things to obtain.

also these people tend to be stingy givers.

Sidenote: God in his foreknowledge knew that there would be many ways to engage in impure/unclean acts particularly in the internet era.

Where folks could say “Well I am not committing fornication” that word “impure” encompasses not only Sexual activity but all things related too it.

Surely God’s word is timeless.

-Paul used this couplet of sins with an added fourth sin in several of his other writings.

Let’s dive in:

HELP

(v.9-10) Fornicators, Idolaters, Covetous

(Help)

(v.19) Immorality, Impurity(uncleanness), Idolatry

(Help)

(v.19) Sensuality(Immorality), Impurity(uncleanness), with greediness(covetous)

(Help)

(v.3,7) Sexual immorality, impurity

(Help)

(v.22) Flee youthful lust

What do these consistent couplets teach us?

-There is an important part to Biblical interpretation that is key to understanding ancient text.

You must try to immerse yourself into the historical world that Paul and the early disciples are moving in and out of.

Paul consistent usage of this word should tell us some key things about the ancient world.

He used these three consistent term; Sexual Immorality, Impurity, Greed, and Idolatry in his letters to the church of: Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Collosae, Thessalonika, and in the Pastoral Epistle to Timothy; who was ministering in Ephesus.

So basically every church Paul wrote too he had to warn the Church not to allow this behavior to slip into the church.

Now he probably said this because it was already an issue.

3 Awful Features of Roman Sexual Morality

written by Tim Challies

October 17, 2016  #current issues #homosexuality #sexSHARE

Roman Sexuality Was About Dominance

Sexuality was tied to ideas of masculinity, male domination, and the adoption of the Greek pursuit of beauty.

Romans did not think in terms of sexual orientation.

Rather, sexuality was tied to ideas of masculinity, male domination, and the adoption of the Greek pursuit of beauty.

“In the Roman mind, the strong took what they wanted to take.

It was socially acceptable for a strong Roman male to have intercourse with men or women alike, provided he was the aggressor.

It was looked down upon to play the female ‘receptive’ role in homosexual liaisons.”

A real man dominated in the bedroom as he did on the battlefield.

He would have sex with his slaves whether they were male or female; he would visit prostitutes; he would have homosexual encounters even while married; he would engage in pederasty (see below); even rape was generally acceptable as long as he only raped people of a lower status.

“He was strong, muscular, and hard in both body and spirit.

Society looked down on him only when he appeared weak or soft.”

So Romans did not think of people as being oriented toward homosexuality or heterosexuality.

Rather, they understood that a respectable man would express his dominance by having sex—consensual or forced—with men, women, and even children.

Roman Sexuality Accepted Pedophilia

The pursuit of beauty and the obsession with the masculine ideal led to the widespread practice of pederasty—a sexual relationship between an adult man and an adolescent boy.

This had been a common feature of the Greek world and was adapted by the Romans who saw it as a natural expression of male privilege and domination.

A Roman man would direct his sexual attention toward a slave boy or, at times, even a freeborn child, and would continue to do so until the boy reached puberty.

These relationships were seen as an acceptable and even idealized form of love, the kind of love that expressed itself in poem, story, and song.

In the Roman world “a man’s wife was often seen as beneath him and less than him, but a sexual relationship with another male, boy or man, represented a higher form of intellectual love and engagement.

It was a man joining with that which was his equal and who could therefore share experiences and ideas with him in a way he could not with a woman.”

Pederasty—pedophilia—was understood to be good and acceptable.

Roman Sexuality Had a Low View of Womanhood

Women were not generally held in high regard in Roman culture.

“Women were often seen as weak physically and mentally.

They were inferior to men and existed to serve the men as little more than slaves at times.”

A woman’s value was largely in her ability to bear children and if she could not do so, she was quickly cast off.

Because lifespans were short and infant mortality high, women were often married off in their young teens to maximize the number of children they could bear.

When it came to sexual mores, women were held to a very different standard than men.

Where men were free to carry on homosexual affairs and to commit adultery with slaves, prostitutes, and concubines, a woman caught in adultery could be charged with a crime.

“The legal penalty for adultery allowed the husband to rape the male offender and then, if he desired, to kill his wife.”

Under Augustus it even became illegal for a man to forgive his wife—he was forced to divorce her.

“It is not enough to suggest that women were under-appreciated in Roman culture.

There are many instances where they were treated as second-class human beings, slightly more honored than slaves.”

Sexual Promiscuity and Societal Stability

Rome was a culture of extreme promiscuity and inequality.

It becomes clear that Rome was a culture of extreme promiscuity and inequality.

Those who had power—male citizens—were able to express their sexuality by taking who and what they wanted.

Their culture’s brand of sexual morality was exemplified in the Caesars who, one after the other, “were living icons of immorality and cruelty,” using sex as a means of domination and self-gratification.

I am reading a book called “The Greco-Roman World of the NT; Exploring the background of the Early Christianity” One of the quotes in the book is:

Baths, Wine, and love-making destroy our bodies, yet love-making, wine, and baths make life worth living.....Common Roman Graffitto This is the Greco-Roman way of saying that I know this life is reckless and will do destruction to my mind, body and soul, but it is too good to stop.

-It is clear from Paul consistent use of this term to pretty much every church he wrote to this problem of promiscuity was widespread and pervasive.

Paul was not just writing to warn, but he was attacking the worldview of the whole Greco-Roman society.

He was asking to church to behave diametrically opposed to that which they say everyday in society.

He is entreating the churches in these areas to live a life that is totally seperate spiritually and practically from Roman Communities to which they were located notice Paul’s last phrase:

-This text reads the best out of the NIV:

(HELP)

(v.3) Look at how Paul phrases this text in the NIV.

He tells the church of Ephesus “There should not be a hint of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or of greed” Let me take you back to what Momma would say when me and brother and sister were all in trouble “I betta not hear a word on the way home!!!” This is the same way Paul is talking about these sins.

(v.3) “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people” Notice this text this couplet list of sins Paul gives the reason Why we should not be engaging in these things “because these are improper for God’s Holy People” wonder why Paul did not just say “God’s people” but he put a descriptor “Holy” this is strategic by Paul adjectives describe nouns.

We are God’s people and he expects us to act according to our calling.

He are called to be his children, but most importantly we are called to be “Holy” and why because our Father in heaven is “Holy” Holiness first speaks to “Separateness” let’s reread this this last phrase with Separate in it “because these are improper for God’s Separate People”