Lasciviousness! It is a Bible Word- appearing in the New Testament six times. It was mentioned by Christ, Paul, Peter, and Jude.
It is a Big Word- 14 letters long. It is a Bad Word- spoken of with great condemnation in the Word of God.
Today many women professing to be believers in the Lord are carrying themselves in a lascivious way, mostly by ignorance. Over two thousand years ago, believing women fell into the same trap.
Notice what happened, as described in I Timothy 2:9-10- In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.
These ladies were professing godliness, but not practicing it. Their clothing and jewelry was not pleasing to God. The ways of the women of the world were slowly infiltrating the church.
What is lasciviousness? According to Webster's Dictionary, Lascivious means loose, wanton, lewd, lustful, a tendency to excite lust and promote irregular indulgences. According to the Barnhart & Thorndike Dictionary, it is simply defined feeling lust, showing lust, causing lust.
Today I could shorten these definitions down to one four-letter word: sexy.
Being sexy or trying to be sexy is a sin. We are not taught to be sexy, but to be holy both in body [physically] and in spirit [emotionally and mentally]. Read I Corinthians 6:19-20; 7:34- What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not our own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. There is a difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
Marriage is the place for physical intimacy. Showing or causing lust outside of marriage is wrong. It is lascivious.
Women and teen ladies must realize that their anatomy can cause lust in men. By dressing incorrectly, or immodestly, a woman can trigger lustful thoughts in a man.
Consider David's sin. II Samuel 11:2-5- And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house. And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.
What's the big deal? Since the sexual revolution blossomed in the 1960's, our country has slid down a deep decline into a moral abyss characterized by nakedness and nudity. Immodest clothing and a sexy demeanor have become the normal of women today.
In 1960 the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta reported five major Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD's) in America. In 1999 they reported thirty. Some of these are incurable and fatal. No one can tell outwardly who has these diseases. A very handsome, muscular young man could be diseased. A very attractive, young lady could be diseased.
Sixty percent of all teens say they have fornicated by the age of 18. Almost 1.5 million teen girls become pregnant every year. Half of these teen girls abort their babies. Ninety seven percent of single mothers live in poverty the rest of their lives. Not many of them find a good man who wants to marry them.
Here is one of the saddest facts: one out of three teen girls who becomes pregnant is impregnated by an adult man. What does this teach us? Adult men can be stimulated by teen girls.
It is atrocious the way teen girls dress today. It is not uncommon to see them with tight shorts, bare legs, bare mid-rifts, bare shoulders, and low cut tops. This causes lust. This is lasciviousness. Most teen girls do not have a clue of what today's fashions do to men.
Men are instructed in Proverbs 6:25- Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.
Matthew 5:28- But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
This is a difficult command for men to obey today. Men are over-stimulated today by lasciviousness. It seems that everywhere a man turns there is an improperly dressed woman or a picture of an improperly dressed woman. No Christian woman should dress, look, or act in a lascivious way.
Consider these Scriptures:
Mark 7:20-23- And he [Jesus] said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, Lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Ephesians 4:19- Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Lascivious people are described as being past feeling. Some ladies who say they are believers in the Lord have no shame, guilt, or conviction about dressing or acting improperly. Are they past feeling?
Galatians 5:19-21- Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Lasciviousness is a work of the flesh that could cause a person to lose some or all of their eternal inheritance.
I Peter 4:2-3- That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:
Lasciviousness may have been something we did in our past, but we should not in our present.
II Corinthians 12:21- And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.
Lasciviousness should be repented of. It is sin. It shows lust and causes lust. It causes people to be carnal, fleshly, and worldly minded. Life is too short to waste it on lust. Repent for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Romans 8:8- So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
How should a Christian lady act? Consider these instructions:
Titus 2:4-5- That they may teach the young women to be sober, to live their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
Proverbs 31:30- Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
- Pastor Kohl
