The Bible is widely known as the defining source of moral truth.

But in today's world, few people consult the Bible on personal ethics.

As such, the bold lines that define moral boundaries have become terribly blurred.

Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindall presents another message in his topical series called

Strengthening Your Grip.

In this next study, we're giving our complete attention to the matter of sexual purity,

and in particular, how to cultivate self-control in a world that tends to oppose

Christian boundaries. Chuck titled today's message, Strengthening Your Grip on Purity.

When we pick up our New Testament and turn from letter to letter, we don't turn from a

puritanical scene to a prudish one. We look into the very world in which we live.

Blatent, unashamed. But there was one difference. The church was pure. The church was pure. Oh, it didn't mean that

there were only perfect people there. There have never been perfect people, only Jesus Christ.

But what it means is that the church maintained a sense of purity, a hard-line position that the church will be distinct as it exists, in fact, survives in a society that is bent on hell itself.

And so we shouldn't be surprised when we pick up a letter like the letter to the Thessalonians

written by Paul after only six weeks in their presence and read strong words about sexual purity.

We shouldn't be surprised when we find in his own writings that what he said should now be underscored. They should not only

do it, but they should excel in it. Otherwise, who's to tell the difference between the church and the

world? Turn to First Thessalonians chapter four, please. Paul has had time to think over what he said.

He had instructed them faithfully as a good teacher.

He was a fine expositor of the truth. He was a gifted, gifted apostle.

And as God spokesman to a decadent world, Paul had given his soul to the Thessalonians,

a Grecian city, north of Athens, north of Corinth, and as he had time to think over in the

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