Strive For Sexual Purity

# 309 - Today's Du-votional comes from 1Sa 21:3 "Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found." 4 And the priest answered David and said, "There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women." ( 1 Sam 21:3) David asks for bread for himself and his men. The priest had no ordinary bread on hand only that bread which was considered holy. This bread was, according to Levitical Law, reserved only for the priests. Le 24:9 "And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the offerings of the LORD made by fire, by a perpetual statute." This was serious business, and if we zoom ahead to 1Sa 22:10, we see that Ahimelech took the time to ask God if it would be all right to give David and his men this holy bread. "And he inquired of the LORD for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine." God said yes to this request, and Jesus would later use this very incident to make the point to the Pharisees that mercy triumphs over judgment. But, please note that God also gave a stipulation for the use of this bread. David and his men were to have had no recent sexual activity. Sexual purity matters to God and not just in the Old Testament. 1Co 6:13b says, “the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And in 1Th 4:2-5 we read, “for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;” And then in v7,8, “For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.” Strive for sexual purity. It is the will of God, and was commanded by the Lord Jesus. Father, help us to control our illicit sexual passions.