Why Sexual Sin is a Worship Problem

To characterize 2017 as a “revelatory” year would be an understatement. We’ve been witness to the very public demise of so many of America’s most prominent figures. The spotlight has been brightly focused on the Hollywood elite (actors, producers, etc.) and politicians (left and right). It appears that for some, the impressive power and influence they wield has a dark side effect. They say that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and with seemingly every news cycle, that statement bears more truth. Rape and sexual assault are no longer crimes we associate with the average low-life criminal, but with our nation’s most influential people.

If you’re like me, you want to know why.

Why would someone use their influence for such evil? Why would someone in a position to help so many, hurt so many instead? Why would someone willingly risk losing everything they’ve worked for?

To begin to answer those questions, I’m convinced that we need to zoom up to gain some context in terms of how humanity was created and our now fallen nature. Being created in God’s image means we’re knit together with God. Once, He was our only object of worship, and we continuously worshipped in perfect relationship with Him (while in the Garden). Fast forward a bit and sin enters the picture. Sin ruined that perfect relationship — but it didn’t change the continual worship.

The problem now is that we no longer give our continual worship only to God. Deep down, every single one of us knows something is broken, missing and not what it was intended to be. Sin robbed us of our perfect satisfaction in God alone, so we’re after a cure, something to fix what we know is shattered and incomplete. As a result, our worship becomes poorly aimed. It’s misguided. In fact, idolatry is nothing more than worship gone askew. It’s worship that’s locked onto a different target, and the target can be anything — in this case, sexual satisfaction at all costs.

This video is the best visual representation I’ve seen of how our misguided worship is ultimately a search for our Creator. Our frantic looking for completion is truly a looking for Him.

So is there any real hope for our politicians and Hollywood heroes? Is there hope for us?

There is hope beyond hope. We’ve worshipped our way into sin, and we must worship our way out. By putting our faith in Christ, we’ve effectively re-aimed our scattered worship. The fading light of our idols will become “strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace,” until one day, those idols are no more.

So look at Him. Behold the wonder of His birth this Christmas season, ponder His life and death, rejoice in His resurrection, and as a result you’ll find the only one who can bear the weight of worship and satisfy the searching.

His name is Jesus.