I need help. I keep returning to prostitutes

Question:

Hello,

I was a good, clever boy when l was growing up and l do remember that my life was very good. God gave me everything l wanted. But in the spring of last year l had sex with a prostitute. l felt very bad. Once home l asked my mother to pray for me, but l did not tell her that l had sex. l did my best to forget that and get God's mercy but that fall l had sex with a prostitute again. Everything l did that year was a failure. l decided to totally change my life.

Everything was going well until l fell again with another prostitute.

Please help me. l know that what is happening to my life is not what l want. l really want Jesus in my life. l want him to get back in my life because l feel desperate without him. My visa to travel abroad was rejected without reason. After l got back home, l understood that the reason was my sins. l want Jesus back in my life, not for a visa, l want him back because he is my all.

Help me.

Answer:

"Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two," He says, "shall become one flesh." But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (I Corinthians 6:15-17).

Paul warned earlier in I Corinthians 6 that sexual sins are a serious matter. "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God" (I Corinthians 6:9-10). They can keep you out of heaven. It doesn't have to remain that way. Among the Corinthians were former sinners who had addressed their sins by becoming Christians. "And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God" (I Corinthians 6:11).

Just because you can have sex, it doesn't mean you should have sex. Just because you strongly desire to have sex, it doesn't mean it is the right thing to do. "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any" (I Corinthians 6:12). Notice how you presented this problem with prostitutes as if this was something you could not help. You are allowing your desire for sex to control your life.

Some people justify sin by arguing that if you can do something, then it is always right. Paul tells us differently, "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful" (I Corinthians 6:12). The word translated as "helpful" in the New King James Version is the Greek word sumphero. It refers to actions that are ultimately for good, though they may not appear to be good at the present time.

As an example in Matthew 5:29-30, Jesus stated, "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell." "More profitable" in these two verses is the Greek word sumphero. Though Jesus is not literally advocating the removal of an eye or limb, the point is that a limitation in this life that allows us to enter heaven is far more preferable than full freedom in this life and hell awaiting us in the next. Hence, Jesus stated it is more profitable for a man to become celibate for the kingdom's sake than to insist on full sexual freedom (Matthew 19:10). This fully punctures the common argument, "God wouldn't want me to be unhappy." It is better to take on a limitation of no sexual relations than to commit adultery and lose your right to heaven.

Sex is lawful, but only within the confines of marriage. "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge" (Hebrews 13:4). When we are talking about judgment, we aren't talking about not succeeding in this world. We are talking about far more important matters -- reaching heaven. This life is short, heaven is eternal.

The damage you are doing to yourself can include physical damage, but it is the spiritual damage that is more costly. "Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; he who does so destroys his own soul. Wounds and dishonor he will get, and his reproach will not be wiped away" (Proverbs 6:32-33). Yes, sex is a physical act, but it has spiritual consequences. "Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body" (I Corinthians 6:18). Fornication is a sin you do with someone, but it isn't a sin against the other person since they are consenting. Each person is sinning against himself or herself.

Thus, it is taking the physical body that God has you and trashing it. It is taking the gift of salvation that Jesus died to give you and treating it as if it has no meaning. "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (I Corinthians 6:19-20).

Until you admit to yourself why you find it more desirable to pay a woman to allow you to use her for sex than to serve the living and holy God, you'll keep dropping your pants until you destroy yourself completely. That is the one element you left out in your note -- you never admit to why you pay women to have sex with them.

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