I propose that there is a right way and a wrong way to speak in regard to sexual immorality from the pulpit. Our church is currently going through the book of Exodus. When we arrived at Exodus 21:16, "Now one who kidnaps someone, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall certainly be put to death." In this passage, our pastor spoke about the sex trafficking and its close involvement in the pornography behemoth industry, and how the watching of pornography is participating in its guilt and having in one's own possession. There is a way to encourage the believers in regard to sexual purity: by handling the matter with dignity, gravitas and seriousness. And I believe the pastor addressed the issue of sexual immorality in this manner. He preached about sexual purity legitimately in the course of an expository preaching of a verse. In contrast, I have heard a pastor, without fail, mention something about sexual immorality every Sunday that I have been in his church, and his talk always came out of nowhere, and never from the text we were supposed to be hearing a sermon on. To make matters worse, his supposed denouncement of sexual immorality consisted of his speculations (or through some private knowledge of someone in particular) of the many inventive ways in which people would go through in order to access immorality. One is left wondering if he has someone in particular in mind and wants to motivate the guy through humiliation, or if he wants to plant some ideas in our minds. I believe that kind of salacious, undignified speech is not helpful to anyone.
The right way is to speak about the sexual matters in the normal course of an expository preaching of a given passage, as the text allows. This way, the pastor's way of handling a matter of the most intimate and private aspect of our humanity has a context, and the pastor is able then to speak and encourage the congregation in a dignified, serious manner. The wrong way is to utter undue and arbitrary mentions of lewd things in disregard of what the passage means. This kind of prurient talk from the pulpit is simply inappropriate, and constitutes a kind of assault on the congregation's minds who have come to hear the word of God preached, both young and old. The effect on the congregation is not a helpful one. It has a very jarring effect, and its effect is much worse than a cheap jump scare in a horror movie because it is an out-of-place and irreverent treatment of sexuality. At the very least, it causes annoyance to the hearer.
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CategoriesAll Discourse Doctrines Gospel Humour NT Commentaries OT Commentaries Tactical Life Date
August 2023
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