Boaz - The moral challenge

"Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to redeem, good; let him redeem. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning." Ruth 3:13 NIV.

The passage above was Boaz's response to what we may call Ruth's 'marriage proposal' to him. There are many things we can learn from the life of Boaz which I believe is a challenge to us as Christians today. Ruth was there alone with him in the field, in the middle of the night, but he did not touch her. He was a rich man and was qualified to claim Ruth to himself, but he exercised self-control. He had been showing favour to Ruth since the harvest started. She had gleaned from his field severally, but he did not exploit the situation as it presented itself. To say it in our modern words today, he helped Ruth and Naomi to have something to eat. He helped her to have something to do temporarily. However, he did not allow these to make him to exploit the vulnerable woman. "Lie here until morning", he told her but never touched her.

Many people have thrown morality to the winds. Many men can no longer be trusted with the opposite sex no matter who the woman is to them. We have had cases of people sleeping with their best friend's wife or fiance. What of those who sleep with maids who serve them in the house? We seem to see every woman as a sexual figure without considering the stories behind these figures we see. We have a generation that has bought into the worldly deception that sex is the high point of happiness. Sex is now a god. Everyday, sex is being advertised and sold to us through the means of the TV, Print Media and the Internet as if you are missing the whole world if you do not engage in it. If a girl says that she is a virgin today, her friends will squirm and make her feel very awkward.

The churches are not a 'safer place' any more. A lot of stories of pastors abusing the privilege God gave to them abound. Every now and then, you hear stories of one moral failure or the other among church leaders. We are indeed in a big moral crises. Our children are confused because we do not model purity to them and cannot answer the questions they are asking based on the sensual information they are exposed to.

But, is it possible to live a holy life today? YES IT IS! Is it possible to show the kind of moral strength Boaz exhibited in the passage above? YES IT IS! That moral strength is what we need today.Boaz was a man of honour and integrity.

This is not meant to condemn or discourage anyone struggling to come out of a moral failure. Don't give up. Fight and win because your purity is God's will. You can make it. This is meant to encourage all men to pursue excellence and purity in their relationships; pursue purity in their thoughts and conducts. We can win; we can overcome if we believe, no matter what is going on around us today. We once shared A Letter to Christian Men by the wife of Tim Challis on this website and we still think that every man should think seriously about it. We can be different from the world. We can make a covenant to be the Boazs of today.


Write me if you were blessed or have any need for counselling. Drop a comment. God bless you.

A Letter to Christian Men

I find this Letter by the wife of Tim Challis very encouraging and timely. My belief is that it is possible to fight sexual sins and win. It is possible to live in victory. Read and be blessed.

My Wife's Plea to Christian Men

Over the weekend I could see that Aileen had something on her mind. We spoke and she told me about reading the news, about seeing more Christian men fall into scandal, and, in the face of it all, her confusion, her despair, the crumbling of her hope. I asked if she would write about it. Here is what she said. —Tim Challies

How long ago was it now? Was it ten years? Twelve? How long has it been since I faced it for the first time? It was a whispered rumor here, a shaded suggestion there. Then it was the devastated wife weeping in my basement as I tried desperately to draw on some wisdom, some biblical truth, that would help her. Little did I know, all those years ago, that this was simply the tip of the iceberg. But I had hope.

Six years ago, Tim wrote Sexual Detox, and I followed up with False Messages. The number of letters we received shocked us—heart-breaking, soul-crushing emails from guilty men and women married to unfaithful husbands. I wrestled and fought to understand it all from a biblical perspective. Why do so many men, and even so many Christian men, have such weakness when it comes to sexual sin? But even then I still had hope, hope in the truth of the gospel, hope in the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the years since, I have listened to more stories of more Christian men falling, wept with more women, and prayed a whole lot. I have tried to explain to women how their husbands think about sex: Your husband doesn’t just want it, he wantsyou. I’ve tried to tell them that sex is a good gift that God gives as a means of grace in marriage, a means of bonding a husband and wife together. I have counseled single young women to pursue purity. I have been teaching all the right stuff. And I have believed it all. I had hope.

Then came Ashley Madison and the suggestion that hundreds of pastors would have to resign after being caught with accounts on this website that glorifies adultery. And it’s not just pastors—hundreds of other Christian men, both single and married, have been caught up in the scandal. Now there are more broken homes, more devastated churches, more weeping wives, more mocking of God. And I have to tell you, this week, today, I am struggling to find hope.

I have fought to understand the struggle men face. I have fought to have compassion. I have encouraged wives to extend forgiveness, to willingly and joyfully give themselves to their husbands. But you know what? I just don’t know how I can keep doing it. Not when so many husbands are deceptively defiling the marriage bed. Not when so many young, single men are recklessly defiling the future marriage bed. Not when so many men seem just plain unwilling to change.

Men, you are supposed to be modeling holiness before the world (Titus 2:6-8). You are supposed to be cherishing your wives as Christ cherishes his church (Ephesians 5:25). You are supposed to be abstaining from all sexual immorality (1 Thessalonians 4:3). You are supposed to be fleeing youthful passions (2 Timothy 2:22). Why are so many of you failing at these basic tasks? Is it really that difficult? You would almost think that this one sin is beyond the power of the Holy Spirit.

You who keep choosing to sin, you who keep visiting those websites, you who have secret lives you keep hidden from your friends and your wives: Why won’t you stop? You know that God loves to give victory over every sin. You know that God calls you to pursue sanctification. You know that the Holy Spirit equips you to succeed. God has given you everything you need in the gospel. So why do you keep failing? The only conclusion I can come to is that you are so consumed with self-gratification that you are not willing to fight, and I mean really willing to fight, this sin. If it’s not that you can’t, it must be that you won’t.

I plead with you. I plead with you on behalf of your wives, on behalf of your future wives, on behalf of Christian women everywhere: Stop. Just stop.

Stop believing that this is a special sin that women just can’t understand—we do understand sin. This isn’t a special sin, it is just sin: God-belittling, Christ-mocking, Spirit-despising sin. Stop pretending like there are no future consequences to your actions. Stop putting your selfish desires first. Stop engaging in activities that bring shame on the gospel. Stop doing things that leave us picking up the pieces of your devastated wife. Stop indulging in your sin, and start thinking and acting like a God-honoring, Christ-praising, Spirit-glorifying man. For the love of God and his church, stop.