Warnings against impurity of all kinds.
The sins here described were common among the heathen, and received no adequate check from their moral guides. Indeed, the old pagan world regarded them as things indifferent. They are, for the most part, sins against ourselves, as the sins condemned in the previous verses are sins against our neighbors. They are to be condemned on many grounds.
I. THEY ARE EXPRESS VIOLATIONS OF THE DIVINE LAW. (Exodus 20:14.)
II. THEY ARE DISHONOURING TO GOD AND HIS HOLINESS. The corruption that is in the world through lust is inconsistent with the Divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
III. THEY THWART THE DESIGN OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, which is "to purify a people to himself" (Titus 2:14); "to cleanse us from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit" (2 Corinthians 7:1). Jesus suffered in the flesh that we should die to the flesh (1 Peter 4:1).
IV. THEY GRIEVE THE HOLY SPIRIT, whose office is to sanctify us (Ephesians 4:29, Ephesians 4:30). "That pure and holy dove will not dwell in a cage of unclean and filthy birds."
V. THEY DISHONOUR THE BODY, which is the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:18). They waste it as well as dishonor it (Proverbs 5:11).
VI. THEY WAR AGAINST THE SOUL in every sense of the term—against its life, its aspirations, its happiness (1 Peter 2:11). They even darken the judgment and the understanding (Hosea 4:11). No sort of sin so hardens the heart.
VII. THEY PROVOKE GOD'S AUGER. (Colossians 3:5, Colossians 3:6; Jeremiah 5:7; Ephesians 5:6.) "For the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience." They subject transgressors to God's judgment, for "whoremongers and adulterers God wilt judge "(Hebrews 13:4). And they keep them out of heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Corinthians 6:5). These sins of impurity are not even to be named among saints, who are to be pure in thought, pure in heart, pure in speech, pure in life. "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof" (Romans 6:12). To this end we must:
1. Avoid all the occasions that prompt to impurity:
2. Make a covenant with our eyes (Job 31:1).
3. Watch over our thoughts (Ma Ephesians 2:16).
4. Delight in God's Word (Proverbs 2:10, Proverbs 2:16).
5. Continue in prayer (Psalms 119:37).—T.C.