Likewise with sin. I love to look at naked women - my wife included. But that sounds like sin. Looking down tops is hard to turn away from. Most other obvious sins don’t bother me (yet) so it doesn’t matter but I feel guilty as hell about the one I got. anonymous

I doubt there are too many of us guys who don’t enjoy the sight of naked women. Now, of course, I didn’t mean ME — I’m way too spiritual for that! Hahaha! Does your wife know that you love to look at her naked? If not, it would make a wonderful Christmas present to tell her so!!

I think our obsession with nudity is simply the result of a legal ingraining that forces us to view certain areas of the body as forbidden fruit. Heck, it’s not just the religious system that creates this condemnation because the porno industry thrives upon the thrill produced in bad little boys and girls who want what they’re not supposed to have. And the law does its work so that we hang around the tree all day, while pretending not to, in hopes that we’ll at least get a piece of the action.

Of course, there is never any real satisfaction in this vicious cycle, only a growing dissatisfaction. But that’s the nature of law. For even when we get what we wanted (or thought we wanted) we find it is never enough. We have been taught to seek fulfillment in that which can never bring it. Even our law-based perceptions insist that it’s out there to be had, but that perception also tells us God just doesn’t want us to enjoy it.

Anyway one of my issues was all this stuff about being holy, pursuing righteousness, not having a hint of sexual immorality. How does all this stuff fit into the grace message. anonymous

Holy is what we already are, for we have died to what we were and have been raised to new life in Christ. Hebrews 12:14 refers to the pursuing of sanctification which is the same word translated holy in other places. I had answered someone else’s question regarding that verse in the Q&A. Here is the link

Ironically, Paul wrote to the Romans (end of chapter 9) that the Jews pursued righteousness and yet did not find it, while the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness found it.

What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. Romans 9:30-32

It is this legal form of seeking after righteousness that is being preached by the religious system. Those who have been made alive in Christ only falter along with these lifeless religious counterparts when striving to gain something they are told they do not have! Those who have true righteousness are the very ones who truly desire it — and they are the same ones who find nothing but dissatisfaction in the futile attempts of the mentality of performance. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” is not a religious attempt at finding God, but a simple statement of reality ’ a contrast to the religious substitute.

not having a hint of sexual immorality anonymous

Is this possibly what’s behind so much of the hush-hush sexual abuse that taken place among many religious folks? Is this why we think we can’t even be honest about our struggles among those who are supposedly the truly spiritual? What does it mean to not have a hint of sexual immorality? Maybe we’ve been sabotaging ourselves in this respect!

Jim