The devil’s perspective of the human body is completely opposite of God’s. The devil seeks to defile the human body. God seeks to purify human heart.
Next time you watch a movie or look up the news on the internet, ask yourself, is this woman or this man I am seeing devoted to God, to spouse, to children? If not, why I am inviting her or him into my life? Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. So, when you see a person always look past their outward appearance into their heart. How is that heart influencing my heart?
God designed us in His image. Within the Triune God there is harmony, love, joy, and peace. God delights to bring men and women together in holy matrimony and to grace them with children to parent. Loving relations achieved within a family unit is a taste of what life within the Trinity and within heaven is like.
God is glorified in husbands and wives love each other in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer until death does them part. Spouses who love one another and shun lustful looks at others are enjoying a blessing from God.
The devil is the enemy of committed marriages between one man and one woman. He hates those who dress modestly and reserve their bodies for their spouse. He urges people to steal the hearts of others by flaunting their skin before them. He knows that if he can destroy families, he can destroy the human race. The devil delights in robbing people of pure relationships that God had intended for them.
“When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.” [1]
Godly men chose women according to their outward appearance instead of by their hearts. They sang songs about the flesh’s beauty. They lavished fame and fortune on immodest beauties. They talked about them. They worshipped them. Godly men stopped choosing godly women. If a woman wanted a man, she had to focus her attention on being outwardly beautiful and neglect the development of the inward beauty that comes from God. Marital and familial intimacy suffered because everyone was focused on outward pleasures rather than relational ones.
“Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.’” [2]
People defied God. They rejected His counsel. They were carnally minded.
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” [3]
They were heroes of rebels against God. They loved the praise of men. They lived for sinful pleasure.
“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that He had made human beings on the earth, and His heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.’” [4]
This great wickedness began with a shift from committed family relationships to a focus on pleasing self. If they had patterned their lives after the intimacy that exists within the Trinity, they would have enjoyed spiritual blessings from the Lord. They would have enjoyed divine intimacy with God and one another.
“Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” He was faithful to God and his family. He focused on inward godliness rather than outward beauty. He was committed to his wife and children. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.” [5]
If it weren’t for Noah, the whole race would have been wiped out. What about our generation today? Is God finding among us people who walk faithfully with Him? Are we more like Noah and his family?
Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” [6]
Jesus could return at any moment. We should live circumspectly. May the Lord help us to do so.
[1] Genesis 6:1-2
[2] Genesis 6:3
[3] Genesis 6:4
[4] Genesis 6:5-7
[5] Genesis 6:8-9
[6] Matthew 24:37
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