Pure

We can know, through our study and application of the Scriptures, what pleases God and appropriate
the power to walk in that way. Paul teaches in 1st Thessalonians 4:
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.
7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.

We serve a holy God and He gives us the ability to adopt a holy lifestyle, based on our new identity in Christ.  We are no longer bound to surrender to human impulses that don't please Him, but we are called to reflect His glory.  We can make and follow through on decisions that are consistent with holiness and can reject the desires of the flesh as we walk in the Spirit.  We are no longer helpless to follow the world, but are empowered to follow Christ.

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Possessing a pure heart, which is possible through our redemption in Christ, can lead to pure thoughts and actions, as we release the power of the Spirit in and through us. 1st Corinthians 6 teaches:
(13) Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
14 And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released another snapshot on the behavior of teens and the findings are a mixed bag.  A ChristianHeadlines.com story by Michael Foust relates that the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey...

...found the percentage of high schoolers in the U.S. who have had sex plummeted, from 47.8 percent in 2007 to 39.5 percent in 2017. Additionally, the percentage of students who have had four or more partners also fell, from 15 percent to 10 percent.

The story notes that, "The percentage of teens having sex began declining after 2011, when it was 47.4 percent."  And, decline occurred among males and females.

A CBN story about the survey, written by Kayla Root, pointed out that illegal drug use was down - from 22 to 14 percent saying they had used drugs, other than marijuana, the use of which was about the same, at just over a third indicating they had tried it.  The story quotes Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health, who had told CNN: "Overall, I think youth are making better decisions, particularly about their sexual behavior and their drug use..."  The article also quotes her as saying:

"At the same time, the rate of violence and victimization they're experiencing hasn't gone down. Bullying hasn't decreased. The proportion of youth who have ever been physically forced to have sex has not decreased. We're seeing increases in experiences of persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness and suicide ideation and behaviors, and so that remains a great concern."

And, young people are trending toward more "beverages laden with sugar and caffeine."

At Christian Headlines, Faust also collated the new CDC data with a recent Gallup poll. He writes:

Ironically, the drop in teens having sex has paralleled a rise in the percentage of adults who approve of it. A record 42 percent of adults now believe that sex between teens is morally OK, according to Gallup. That number was 36 percent in 2017.

“Religiosity plays a significant role in Americans' views on teenage sex,” Gallup’s Justin McCarthy wrote. “A slight majority of U.S. adults who seldom or never go to church (54 percent) find sex between teens morally acceptable, while a much smaller 20 percent of weekly churchgoers agree. About one in three adults who attend church nearly weekly or monthly (34 percent) find teenage sex morally acceptable.”

This can cause us to consider a number of concepts.  First of all, is this decline representative of the state of the so-called "sexual revolution?"  Possibly, but 4 out of 10 teens engaging in sex is still way too high.  Perhaps there has been a greater awareness of some of the truths about premarital sex. And, we recognize that abstinence programs still offer a 100% success rate in preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the Biblical teaching is reaching the teens or the adults even - one-fifth of weekly churchgoers believe teen sex to be morally acceptable, and over half of adults who seldom, if ever, attend, are OK with it morally, it seems.

We have some work to do with respect to sexual purity.  The Bible teaches abstinence outside of marriage and fidelity within.  This is God's way, and it contributes to healthy relationships, inside and outside of marriage.

There is a responsibility of parents, of adults, to teach and model good decision-making, especially regarding destructive behaviors.  Even though the world might have different sexual ethic, we can still hold to the time-honored truths of the Scriptures.

The course of our lives are determined by our decisions, and so many of our decisions have long-term consequences.  And, although we don't have a crystal ball through which we can see the future, we do have the reliability of the Scriptures that teach us that wrong decisions can lead to wrong outcomes and seemingly small decisions made outside the will of God can result in our wandering from that will.  Pausing to consider what could come about, rather than getting caught up in human impulses, can serve us well as we seek to glorify God.