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Sexual Purity is not Celibacy, and,
Celibacy is not Sexual Purity.
Why?
An individual can be celibate yet sexually immoral. This is why someone professing to be celibate can still be secretly engaging in "solo sexual immoral acts" like LUST, MASTURBATION, WATCHING PORNOGRAPHY/SEXUAL IMMORAL IMAGES ON THE INTERNET/X-RATED MOVIES, or even engaging in non-sexual immoral acts with the opposite sex or same-sex.
Furthermore, Celibacy deals solely with the physical body; avoiding sexual intercourse, and applies only to those who are unmarried or widowed.
While Sexual Purity on the other hand deals with the body, mind and spirit of a person, and applies to both the unmarried and the married.
Celibacy is defined as the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons.
But Sexual Purity is purity of the mind, purity of the body, and purity of the spirit. It is abstaining from anything immoral (especially of a sexual nature) that will pollute, corrupt or defile your mind, body and spirit.
God's express command in the Bible to us His children is to be sexually pure, not celibate. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 says, "For God wants you to be holy and pure and to keep clear of all sexual sin so that each of you will marry in holiness and honor— not in lustful passion as the heathen do, in their ignorance of God and his ways.
And this also is God’s will: that you never cheat in this matter by taking another man’s wife because the Lord will punish you terribly for this, as we have solemnly told you before. For God has not called us to be dirty-minded and full of lust but to be holy and clean. If anyone refuses to live by these rules, he is not disobeying the rules of men but of God who gives his Holy Spirit to you." Living Bible (TLB)
If celibacy has been your practice hitherto, now that you know what God really wants and commands, it is time to aim at sexual purity and embrace it as a child of God.
You can live a sexually pure life (as a married or unmarried Christian) with the help and power of the Holy Spirit. Ask the Holy Spirit for help.
Shalom🤎
~Precious Victor Akah