Talking
Dirty
Today's
Three-minute Bible Study
Print,
Study and Apply
Title:
Talking Dirty -----------------------------------
Date: 8/9/2000
Keywords:
"love" "speech"
Welcome
to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand
strong in the face of sexual temptation.
For the
next few days, the eXXit Bible studies will be
exploring the importance of love. In Corinthians 13,
the apostle Paul says that love is the one essential
ingredient without which nothing else
matters.
Passage:
1 Corinthians
13:1-8a*
1. If I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I
have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2. And if I have {the gift of}
prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge;
and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
3. And if I give all my
possessions to feed {the poor,} and if I deliver my
body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me
nothing.
4. Love is patient, love is
kind, {and} is not jealous; love does not brag {and}
is not arrogant,
5. does not act unbecomingly; it
does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take
into account a wrong {suffered,}
6. does not rejoice in
unrighteousness, but rejoices with the
truth;
7. bears all things, believes
all things, hopes all things, endures all
things.
8. Love never fails;
Questions
1. Pay special attention
to verses 4-8a to get a good picture of what love is
all about. Based on these verses, how would you
summarize the meaning of the word "love"?
2. Now, look at verse 1. The
apostle Paul says that love is better than something.
What is that "something"?
3. In the absence of love, what
is eloquent, flowery, persuasive speech
worth?
Practical
help
We consider sexual images
on the Internet "pornographic" not solely because of
the nature of the images but because of the impact of
those images on the viewer. As eXXit's definition of
pornography states, "It makes you think about having
sex with someone who's not your spouse." Do Paul's
words in 1 Corinthians 13:1 have anything to say to
the man or woman who uses words — eloquently or
crudely — in a sexual way with virtual strangers
in an Internet chat room?
At eXXit, we usually focus on
the damage and danger of viewing images. But chat
rooms, in which people engage in explicit sexual talk,
can be just as dangerous.
Now you have a weapon in your
arsenal to use the next time you are tempted to go to
that chat room: the weapon of love! You are called to
be a powerfully loving man or woman — and it is
simply not loving to engage in intimate, sexual talk
with someone other than your spouse.
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2000 by eXXit
*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD
BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960,
1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995.
Used by permission."