Thread: Men, How Are We Viewing Women? How Are We Viewing One Another?
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Men, How Are We Viewing Women? How Are We Viewing One Another?
Posted : 19 Apr, 2011 06:06 AM
In light of the recent posts in the forums,
Men, How Are We Viewing Women? How Are We Viewing One Another?
To spiritually love our wives. What a beautiful thing! To understand their physical bodies in light of their spiritual reality! What significance might a woman�s bre asts have spiritually? How can we truly come to see our wives in this way? How can we come to love our wives in spirit and in truth? The way they deserve to be seen as bearers of the image of God.
Anyone is able to love someone in the physical, focusing only on the physical reality of the person they are with, while the person they are focusing on remains in a state of spiritual death and decay. But if the "flesh counts for nothing", and yet Jesus calls us to love one another, then is He calling us to love one another in what does not count (the flesh)?
When we come together with our wives, are we to only be focusing on that in our wives and enjoying that in our wives that counts for nothing? That, which will not last, but is going to eventually perish (the flesh)? Absolutely not. It is appropriate to enjoy the physical aspects of our wives, but the emphasis needs to be placed on Christ within them. HE needs to be the focus of our affections. Otherwise we set ourselves up to be able to enjoy the physical aspects of anyone and anything whether Christ is a part of those things or not. We set our wives up as well to respond favorably to this type of affection - which can come from anyone.
How many mothers focus only on the physical aspects of their children in the name of love and do exceptional jobs of raising perfectly healthy children who are spiritually starving to death and in a state of spiritual decay? How many husbands focus only on the physical aspects of their wives in the name of love and do exceptional jobs of leading a perfectly healthy woman who is spiritually starving to death and in a state of spiritual decay?
When most Mothers raise their children they are focused only on the physical state of their children instead of their children�s spiritual reality. When most couples engage in physical intimacy they are focused only on the physical state of their intimacy (themselves) instead of each other�s spiritual reality (Christ within each of them). When people view pornography, they too are focused on the physical and not on Christ in themselves or in the people or persons they are viewing � and yes, this �would� include mental images one may think of while fantasizing (mental pornography is what it is). And whenever anyone focuses only on the physical, they are able to enjoy the person they are focusing on regardless of that person�s spiritual condition (reality). They are able to �in the name of love� show no concern whatsoever (true love) for the starving spiritual condition of the person they are essentially using. We do not mean to do this to ourselves or to others. Adam and Eve did not mean to do this to each other either. But nonetheless, in both cases it is what it is. And somehow we are disconnected from the truth (reality) of what we are to be focused on.
Are we attracted to physically dead, decaying people? Not at all. Have you seen a coke advertisement using a rotting corpse lately? Probably not. How can we become reconnected to the �meaning� that is truly there? Someone�s or something�s spiritual reality. Remembering that the flesh counts for nothing.
It was Jehovah God that the Israelites were to enjoy in the richness of the Promise Land (spiritual). Not just the Promise Land itself (the physical). But because the Israelites failed to see this, they failed completely.
If attraction, arousal and intimacy were seen for what they are, for what they must be, for someone�s spiritual condition, and we weren�t so focused on what counts for nothing (the flesh), then it would not be so easy to be tempted by pornography. Adultery would be seen for what it is. Countless television shows would lose their appeal and be canceled, and on and on and on.
We are viewing each other with eyes that will one day rot and decay. We are not viewing the reality of what is around us, which can only be seen with our minds. And because of this, we are being deceived. Appearance seldom equals reality. Just because someone is nice or physically appealing does not mean that they�re good.
Why would someone want to have children with a dead person? Why would someone want a dead person to kiss them, make love to them, raise and teach their children? Can spiritually dead people make God feel good? Are they able to please God? Should spiritually dead people be able to make us feel good? In movies, music, as friends and even family. Who were Christ's mothers, brothers and sisters? Which reality was HE focused on? Remember, that it is His image that we bear.
All of the above has everything to do with the "soil" of untruth that enables pornography and pornographic thoughts to take root and grow. =
There are basic untruths needed in order for pornography / pornographic thoughts to be enticing to anyone.
As we come to know the truth of our own sexuality and of God's original blueprints for intimacy, pornography (a major untruth) will automatically begin to lose its grip within a person's life (being renewed with the mind of Christ). = As we come to know God's truth (Light), the untruth in us (darkness) is automatically driven back. And we begin to be set free.
Men, How Are We Viewing Women? How Are We Viewing One Another?
Posted : 19 Apr, 2011 06:43 PM
Dgrimater,
"My view of a woman - is a lady who behaves in a respectable manner. respectable is having Godly wisdom.
wisdom is a rare gift. it makes a lady attractive."
Exactly! Worldly wisdom should actually NOT be attractive to us. Someone's strength in the world developed apart from God should not be attractive either.
But wisdom imparted to a man or woman by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit - and that by that person having surrendered his / her life to follow Christ IS and should be the essence of what attracts us to someone!
Men, How Are We Viewing Women? How Are We Viewing One Another?
Posted : 19 Apr, 2011 07:41 PM
Soluvable,
People around us act as mirrors through which we see ourselves - much of what we believe about ourselves has come through our interaction with others.
The problem is that the presence of Christ or lack of Christ in someone, will ALWAYS govern how truthful an image they reflect back to us of ourselves.
As mirrors, people without Christ are very twisted indeed, as is the image of ourselves we may see in them..."What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted." Ecclesiastes 1:15
Praise God that you are now meeting men renewed in Christ ;) By God's grace, you'll come to know yourself through God's children in an entirely new way :)
Men, How Are We Viewing Women? How Are We Viewing One Another?
Posted : 20 Apr, 2011 09:55 AM
For years I've been saying this " A womans' true beauty is on the inside& her physical beauty on the outside is a gift from God",but sadly,a lot of women have argued with me even saying that! Thanks for posting this brother!:glow:
