Temptation Is Not Sin

Though every sincere child of God wants to please the Lord, He never intended that we should drive ourselves insane in the effort. Seeking to deny the natural state of man will never cease to cause frustration, confusion, and complicate spiritual matters. God, who made us as we are, thoroughly understands us and is neither angry nor displeased with our normal human instincts. The primary difference conversion makes is that those converted no longer fulfill, or do, all the things the flesh and mind dictate. Within the context of marriage, we are given the opportunity to satisfy the natural biological instincts and urges. Thus, what's acceptable within the marriage relationship becomes sin outside of marriage.

 Jude describes those who live with unbridled desire: What they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Christians deal honestly and scripturally with those same desires, yet remain uncorrupted. Uncontrolled and riotous sinners, as beasts, are irrational. Such beastliness is the result of individual choice. Since Adam's sin, all are born with mental concepts of good and evil, and the privilege of choosing which to pursue.

In addressing the Christian's problem with fleshly desires, Paul never once denied the sexual aspect of human nature. Neither did he hint that we might become so spiritual that we'd be free from sexual desire. Speaking of the Christian's past, he says, Among whom (the disobedient) also we all had our conversation (behavior) in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. He refers distinctly to normal human biological desires that were simply out of control. In no way does he insinuate those desires are unnatural or sinful. The sin is in wantonly fulfilling those desires - outside the marriage bond. Fleshly desires are to be expected, met, and dealt with - not by denying they exist, but by either satisfying them in marriage, or refusing to fulfill them altogether.