Let’s determine to handle our desires with Christlike purity. Let holiness and our sanctification be the benchmarks in our lives.
By D. Scott Hildreth
OK, lean in close. Let’s talk about an area of ministry few of us take seriously enough—personal purity.
Pornography and sexual immorality have derailed far more ministries than any of us care to reflect on. Along with the decimation of the work, failure in this area will also cause you significant shame and devastation in your relationship with your wife, children, and ministry partners. It has the potential to undo everything you’ve worked for and even set things further back.
Paul’s words offer us a perfect warning here.
For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God.… For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness.
(1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, 7, CSB)
Our purity is God’s will
Dietrich Bonhoeffer observed that when we allow lust to overpower us, it’s like fanning a smoldering ember into a blazing flame. At this moment, he wrote, “God is quite unreal to us… Satan does not fill us with hatred of God, but forgetfulness of God.”
When we’re tempted to look at pornography or to consider engaging in sexual immorality, we often convince ourselves it’s OK. We tell ourselves, “God understands.” However, Paul is quite clear that sexual immorality is never God’s will.
Our purity reflects our spiritual devotion and call to ministry
Christian ministry places us in a cultural context that expresses and practices sexuality in ways that deviate from God’s will. We find ourselves bombarded by images, invitations, and opportunities. It may even be true that “everyone is doing it.” But in this moment, we must remind ourselves we are Christians. God has placed us in a dark society to be His witnesses.
Church historians have pointed out that early Christians were often mocked because of their sexual ethic. However, their elevated morality also drew many out of paganism to the gospel. Though the culture celebrated debauchery, the opponents of early Christianity admitted its different lifestyle influenced society.
Let’s determine to handle our desires in a Christlike manner. Let holiness and our sanctification be the benchmarks in this area of our lives.
Christian ministry can be tedious and unrewarding. The measurements for success differ from most other vocations and the lag time between action and results can take months, or even years. These realities can make us vulnerable to developing bad habits that, though they seem small in the beginning, will eventually undermine the work.
Below are a few suggestions to help you maintain a productive and healthy ministry.
1. Do important little things
It’s a mistake to presume that our lives and ministries are established on monumental accomplishments and activities. It’s fun to preach to a large crowd or host an exciting event. However, these public happenings are not the foundation for successful ministry.
“If you want to have long-term missionary success, make the little things a priority.” — @dshildreth Share on XIf you want to have long-term missionary success, make the little things a priority. These are the actions you could reasonably ignore, and no one would immediately call out on it. In time, if you continue to neglect the little things, your foundation will be irreparably weakened.
I love these words from Paul David Tripp:
The little moments of life are profoundly important precisely because they are the little moments that we live in and that form us. This is where I think “Big Drama Christianity” gets us into trouble. It can cause us to devalue the significance of the little moments of life and the “small-change”…. You see, the character of a life is not set in two or three dramatic moments, but in 10,000 little moments. The character that was formed in those little moments is what shapes how you respond to the big moments of life.
2. Maintain your walk with the Lord
If you study ministry numbers or plans before you study the Word and pray, you’re already in trouble. Nurturing a deep and growing relationship with the Lord is a lifeline for ministry. Our time reading Scripture and in prayer keeps us connected to Jesus as the source for life.
“If you study ministry numbers or plans before you study the Word and pray, you’re already in trouble.” — @dshildreth Share on XIn John 15, Jesus reminds His disciples: “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me” (John 15:5, CSB).
Let’s all determine to be in this ministry for a lifetime. This requires us to reject fleeting passions for the eternal commendation: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
For permission to republish this article, contact Marissa Postell Sullivan.
D. Scott Hildreth
Scott serves as Associate Professor of Missiology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of Together on God’s Mission and the co-author of Sharing Jesus Without Freaking Out. Both books are published by B&H Academic.
Adapted and excerpted with permission from Before You Go. Copyright 2024, B&H Publishing.
