Several years ago I was eating with a man who showed me his chicken coop. He told me of a time when he did not completely close the door and some of the chickens decided to escape to “freedom.” The next morning he found the chickens that left the coop dead all over his yard.

Often God tells us things that from our perspective restrain us and limit our freedom. However, these “restraints” may be lovingly imposed boundaries that if heeded will keep us from much harm and eventual destruction.

There may be no area where it seems more true to young people that the boundaries God has given restrict our freedom than His boundaries on sexual behavior. Does God prohibit fornication, adultery, or homosexual activity because He wants to prevent us from having a good time, as Satan suggests in Genesis 3:4-5? Could it be that God knows that these are not in our best interest and He is lovingly trying to prevent us from pursuing the wrong path with our life? There are few or no areas of life where failing to listen to God will lead us more quickly to slavery than failing to listen to Him in matters of sexual purity.