Ten Reasons to Remain a Virgin until Marriage

Why you should remain a virgin until you are married

Teens having sex. It's in the movies, on TV, and splattered on the pages of magazines. It seems that having sex makes many teens feel that they are mature, popular, normal, or loved. Teens often mistake sex for love - and fondling for affection.

But not all teens are having sex. They are the ones showing the most maturity - they are doing what God wants. God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin. Then each of you will control your body and live in holiness and honor (1 Thess. 4:3-4).

Ten reasons to remain a virgin until you are married

1. To protect yourself from making the physical and sexual part of life too big a deal. This part of life easily can begin to control you and cause you pain and grief.

2. To protect yourself from distrust in marriage. If you give in to the sex pull now, you will live with the question in your mind, Will I be able to control my sex life when I am married? It is a painful and awkward spot to be in when you look at your husband or wife on your wedding night and say, Honey, I give you myself, but you aren't the first.

3. To protect yourself from guilt and anger. If you avoid having sex while you are unmarried, you will save yourself a lot of guilt and anger. Sexually active relationships outside of marriage increase the potential of a broken relationship, leaving both people feeling hurt, angry, and guilty.

4. To protect yourself from low self-esteem. Teens who have had premarital sex have lower self-esteem because of giving in to sexual temptation and later regretting it.

5. To protect yourself from the risk of pregnancy. Unless you are ready to be a mommy or daddy - for the next 18 years - stay away from sex.

6. To protect yourself from medical problems such as sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS. They can be painful and damaging for the rest of your life.

7. To protect yourself from emotional problems such as depression.

8. To protect yourself from a perverted or depraved mind (See Romans 1). Playing around with sex can make you really obsessed with it.

9. To protect yourself from a cold conscience. If you are willing to ignore God's truth in this area of your life, you probably will become quite hard in other areas as well. This can lead to callousness toward God and His Word.

10. To protect yourself from sexual confusion and homosexuality. People who experiment with sex early, often have bad experiences. These early negative experiences can cause such strong negative images that some teens actually are repelled at the idea of having sex with someone of the opposite sex.

Tim Smith is family life pastor at Calvary Community Church, a senior associate with Heritage Builders, founder of the Family Ministries Forum, and frequent conference speaker. He has written several books including Family Traditions