Resources by Topic: Sexual Purity

The following advice comes from a Revive Our Hearts conversation between Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth and Mary Kassian, two sisters I greatly appreciate. Though this is geared towards women, the principles are applicable to both men and women.

Every sad tale of immorality among Christian leaders over the last several years has been a shot fired across the bow. But from my viewpoint, almost nothing has changed. We don’t talk about it—or we say how horrible it is each time a leader falls and then move on, not bothering to change anything. God calls us to something far better.

I met with a man who had been a prominent ministry leader until he committed immorality. I asked, “What could have been done to prevent this?” He paused only a moment, then said with haunting pain, “If only I had really known, really thought through what it would cost me, my family, ministry, and my Lord, I honestly believe I never would have done it.”

My next few blogs will follow up on my three previous posts and continue to allude sometimes to what happened with Ravi Zacharias. Why? So that as Christian leaders and laypeople, we can learn from it and avoid sexual immorality ourselves.

It is certainly true that there’s nothing we can do about Ravi’s life now. That is done. But there’s a lot we can and should do about our lives. And families. And churches. And ministries. That’s the whole point: not to wallow in what Ravi did, but to ask ourselves what we can do so that at the end our lives, God can say to us, flawed though we be, “Well done.”

In my previous blog, I quoted from the detailed investigative report from a law firm which was commissioned by Ravi Zacharias International Ministry. In this blog, I want to address the responses to my article, which I think are very enlightening in evaluating our different views of the moral failures of Christian leaders.

There are certainly times when the world slanders the church and Christians by sharing reports that are not true or unjust. But the fact is, the sexual sin of SOME pastors in SOME churches is a reality (and sadly, it’s more than just a few pastors who are involved). This is at epidemic proportions, and epidemics are not solved by our saying, “This is just another attempt to make the church look bad.” 

If asked, what would you say is the opposite of homosexuality? The vast majority of us would answer that it’s heterosexuality. But as Christopher Yuan points out in the following article, the biblical answer is different: it’s holiness.

After hearing about several recent cases of sexual immorality involving Christian leaders, I’ve been rereading Proverbs.

The evangelical landscape is littered with the carcasses of lives and ministries decimated by sexual sin. For every well-known Christian television personality or evangelical leader who commits sexual immorality, there are any number of lesser-known local pastors, Bible teachers, and parachurch workers who quietly resign or are fired for the same. 

Someone wrote our ministry to ask, “Is it permissible for a Christian to occasionally enjoy erotic reading? (I'm not talking about anything violent.)" This person’s question was answered by Karen Coleman, an EPM staff member now with Jesus. I appreciate her wise and winsome response. 

We hope you find this free copy of Randy Alcorn's Sexual Temptation Booklet useful in your life and ministry. 

I was delighted to see the following message to youth leaders and workers by Dustin Brown with Crossings Ministries, where he shares points from the book on how to help and encourage teenagers to walk in sexual purity. 

In April 2017, Randy Alcorn taught a course at Veritas Evangelical Seminary on the subject of sexual purity.