REASONS TO MAINTAIN MORAL PURITY

The following is a list developed by a fellow Christian who would review it whenever he felt vulnerable to sexual temptation. He cited the following as reminders of the negative consequences a wrong moral choice could produce.

• Grieving the Lord who redeemed me.

• Dragging His sacred name into the mud.

• One day having to look Jesus, the Righteous Judge, in the face and give an account for my actions.

• Following in the footsteps of those whose immorality forfeited or crippled their lives.

• Inflicting untold hurt on my best friend, my wife.

• Losing my wife's respect and trust.

• Hurting my beloved children.

• Destroying my example and credibility with my children, and nullifying both present and future efforts to teach them to obey God ("Why listen to a man who betrayed Mom and us?").

• If my blindness should continue or my wife be unable to forgive, perhaps losing my wife and my children forever.

• Causing shame to my family.

• Losing self-respect.

• Creating a form of guilt awfully hard to shake. Even though God would forgive me, would I forgive myself?

• Forming memories and flashbacks that could plague future intimacy with my wife.

• Forfeiting the effect of years of witnessing to other family members and reinforcing their distrust for Christians. Perhaps contributing to the hardening of their hearts.

• Undermining the faithful example and hard work of other Christians in our community.

• Bringing great pleasure to Satan, the enemy of God and all that is good.

• Heaping judgment and endless difficulty on the person with whom I committed adultery.

• Possibly bearing the physical consequences of such diseases as gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, herpes, and AIDS; perhaps infecting my wife, or in the case of AIDS, even causing her death.

• Possibly causing pregnancy, with the personal and financial implications, including a lifelong reminder of my sin.

• Bringing hurt to my friends, especially those I've led to Christ and discipled.

• Invoking shame and lifelong embarrassment upon myself.

RANDY ALCORN, "STRATEGIES TO KEEP FROM FALLING" LEADERSHIP, WINTER 1988.