Paying the Price for Moral Integrity

And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, "Lie with me." But he refused and said to his master's wife, "Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her. (Genesis 39:7-10, ESV)
Moral integrity is certainly one of the things most noticeably missing in the political leadership of many countries around the world. But it is not just the political leaders who seem to lack good moral sense; leaders in business, medicine and other professions, education, and sadly enough, even in our churches, often wander when tempted. That this has become a blight on the social landscape seems to be mostly ignored by those who should be quick to point to our God-given commands that call for purity in our lives.
But this isn’t anything new. The temptation to be unfaithful to a wife or husband or to take advantage of others by tempting them to break their vows to their mates and to God is accepted as part of our society. Have you heard a good sermon lately about how we should conduct our lives in regards to sexual morals? Or rather, haven't you heard sermons about how we shouldn’t do some things in worship? Have your heard lessons about giving to the Lord, from your pocketbook, but no lessons from the Lord about how you should honor the Lord with your body by keeping it pure, by keeping your marriage bed “undefiled,” as the writer of Hebrews puts it? In our age, even some school teachers, men and women, those wonderful people we entrust our children to for so many hours every day, every week, for the greater part of the year, are caught defiling children, the innocent young who will be the leaders of our society tomorrow. Pornography is so rampant, partly as a result of the internet, that even pubescent children are addicted to it, not realizing that they will be sexual cripples as adults, unable to build lasting, loving relationships with the opposite sex. But sadly enough, there is no real outrage or indignation on the part of the populace as a whole. No outcry for a stop to the insanity of pornography that hides under the guise of freedom of speech has been heard from the people. No demand for strict punishment of those who prey on the innocent children has been called for. People have become numb to what sexual immorality is doing to our lives, to our nations.
Joseph should be the role model for every Christian man or woman. Here was a handsome young man, sold into slavery by his brothers, who finds himself managing a man’s home, with everything under his control except the man’s wife. And she, seeing how handsome and viral he is, tries daily to tempt Joseph to sleep with her. But Joseph is a man of high moral standards. Joseph believes that to betray his master by sleeping with his wife would be sin against God. He calls it a “great wickedness.” Not a momentary moral lapse. Not something that “goes with the territory.” Now, Potiphar’s wife would probably have accused Joseph of rape had he slept with her; this was truly a “lose-lose” situation. Nevertheless, because Joseph holds to his high moral standards, he refuses to succumb to the pleasures of the moment and he pays for it dearly. For this one little thing, rebuffing his master's wife's advances, Joseph languishes in prison for years, spending more time in prison for this stand against sin than many rapists spend for their violent offences. Think about it.
In I Corinthians, we are told that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (I Corinthians 6:18-20, ESV)
We will never see the church of Jesus Christ really attract sinners until we take a stand against every sort of sexual immorality that is known to man. And we will never live our lives “incarnadine,” blood colored, until we are willing to pay the high price for living up to the standards that God has set for us. Jesus held to the high standards and so did Joseph. It’s time to get over milk sop Christianity and begin living our faith with a true sense of dying to self. Only then will we begin to have a faith that moves mountains.