An online survey for Match.com (https://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/2013/February/Singles-Survey-Reveals-Casual-Views-on-Sex/) demonstrates the need for moral leadership. The inclination may be to ask the Centers for Disease Control and the President of the United States to sound the alarm. Such action would be in line with the huge emphasis placed upon the need to get control of the spiraling cost of healthcare, but it might also be a subtle form of passing the buck. God’s people should not follow the lead of Adam in the Garden of Eden or Cain in his flippant response, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Christians should be motivated to answer the call for moral leadership. There is a clear correlation between the rise in casual sex (44% of women and 63% of men say they have had one night stands) and epidemic numbers of sexually transmitted diseases (19 million new cases every year, with half being young people between the ages of 15 and 24). The monetary cost of treating this problem is more than $16 billion per year, while the spiritual cost is far greater.
This is not the time for handwringing. The body of Christ must, instead, step through the open door of opportunity. First, dads and moms need to teach their children that sexual relations are a delightful gift from God that can only reach their full potential of enjoyment in marriage. “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4). Second, they need to hear that sexual relations outside of marriage are sinful and will prevent one from inheriting the kingdom of heaven (Galatians 5:19-21). Third, clear teaching must be done in our Bible classes and from the pulpit.
True moral leadership demands that we warn of sin and plead for people to put it away (Acts 2:38, 40). Our Savior said, “For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13). Warning of the dangers of sin is ineffective without proclaiming God’s plan for cleansing.
