Leaving behind our discretion

We are reaching an age in time when discretion has crept out the back door...or in some cases, just ran blatantly right out the front! With the wide open spaces of email, Facebook, blogging, and mySpace, we are free to expose whatever we want for the whole world to hear and see. In a time when Christ has been brought down to our level as a means of excusing sin, we have lost our discretion. We no longer blush at mentioning private matters in a very public manner. It's no wonder that women are no longer retaining their feminine virtues - we have been exposed to all kinds of perverse and unladylike manner of living. In fact, we are often eager to engage in such attitudes, speech and behavior. We parade photos of ourselves in swimsuits all across our Facebook profiles. We splash flirtatious words across the message boards of the Internet. We speak in vague ambiguities merely to stir up curiosity among our peers. What's worse, is that we have forgotten not only our discretion, but our call to discipleship amongst the covenant community. Scripture is clear that older men are to be "sober minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love and in steadfastness," and women are to be "reverent in behavior...to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands". Why? "So that the Word of God may not be reviled" (Titus 2). When we disregard these instructions and begin to interact and behave just as the world, our ability to influence others for Christ is not only discredited, it is mocked and reviled. I am not seeking to be legalistic in the sense of telling you what you can and cannot wear or what you can do with your "free time". What I am saying is that when you document it and publicize it in an arena where people have no understanding of the background or reasoning behind it, you cannot expect there to be no consequences. Posting photos that call attention to our physical beauty make it quite obvious what we are looking for. Writing about personal matters in a way that leaves much information left to the interpreter, or simply discourages them because we have made our complaints quite clear, has nothing to do with mutual accountability or fellowship within the body. By doing such things, we are provoking others to sin in one way or another. Each one of us is an older and younger woman in every relationship we encounter. Even as a young woman, we are an older woman to those girls we interact with. With each year that passes, we should become more and more of a wise and careful influence on those around us.

We have been warned about this godlessness in the last days. As Paul wrote to Timothy, "For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning but never able to arrive at the knowledge of truth." Does this apply to men and women? Of course, as does all of Scripture. But since I am a woman, I am speaking to women here. How is it that weak women are captured, especially if they are in their own homes, as they should be? Because they are not on guard, and they are not busy tending to the things of the Lord. It is quite possible to be a homemaker, never working outside the home, yet be dragged away by the evils of this world. How are we spending our time at home? Aimlessly clicking the remote? Wandering around on one another's profiles looking for juicy or exciting information? Are we using every opportunity - and I mean every - to exalt the name of Christ in one another's lives? It is this age when we are the most in danger, because everything has become so accessible. There are no restrictions any longer.

May we be always pursuing the righteous fruit of Christ. As Paul said to Titus, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works".