When you examine the scriptures carefully, you discover that lust is always a distraction from a life of purpose.
The Temptation of Joseph
When Joseph was tempted by another man’s wife to have a clandestine affair, he aptly highlighted that the offer by Mrs Potiphar was antithetical to fulfilling his purpose.
Lust is always a distraction from a life of purpose.
Thus we read, “After a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:7-9).
Joseph’s response can be summarised like this, “Woman, I have work to do and I have a God to please. You are standing in the way of this! Kindly, move.”
Joseph recognises that an affair with Mrs Potiphar will have a twofold effect. It will:
- Distract him from the tasks he has at hand
- Separate him from his relationship with his Creator.
The Believer’s Life of Purpose
If we know anything about a life of purpose as believers, it is this: it involves us working with our hands and it involves us walking with our God. See how clearly Joseph discerned this and responds in Genesis 39:9, “Though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her” The older you get, the more you will realise that it is an act of maturity to abstain from that which destroys the work of your hands and the walk with your God. Nothing does this as effectively as lust.
A life devoid of purpose exposes us to a weak life of lust.
When David slept with Bathsheba, he was distracted from a life of purpose. 2 Samuel 11:1-2 says, “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful.”
David would have no access to a beautiful bathing naked woman if he was immersed in purpose. If he was at war with the other men, he would have had work to do with his hands and he would have a God to please. David’s story reveals that the opposite of this principle is true. That a life devoid of purpose exposes us to a weak life of lust. Whereas Joseph was inspired by purpose and he fled to avoid lust, David was devoid of purpose and ran into the arms of lust. There are two sides of the coin. Lust will kill purpose, and the absence of purpose will revive lust.
One of the Great Enemies to Faith
If you examine almost any scriptural narrative on lust, you will see that those that fell were intoxicated with pleasure at the expense of purpose. It was lustful pleasure that distracted the Israelites from the purpose of inheriting the promised land when they fornicated with the Moabite women (Numbers 25); a different kind of lustful pleasure distracted King Solomon from establishing a kingdom greater than his father’s; still another lustful pleasure distracted Samson from a purposeful life of being a judge to Israel (Judges 16); and lustful pleasure distracted Judah from fulfilling his mandate as a father-in-law (Genesis 38).
It’s lustful pleasure that distracts you from a life of purpose as you indulge your eyes with nudity.
It is lustful pleasure that distracts you from a life of purpose as you indulge your eyes on binge-watching entertainment filled with nudity and perversion. Too many men and women indulging in lust are crying for God to show them their purpose. You are not waiting on God. God is waiting on you.
“Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word” (Psalm 119:37).
