“I Don’t Want Him To Think I’m A Prude!”

     I read an article recently about a Christian girl who had a non-Christian boyfriend and – since she was a Christian – she wouldn’t have sex with him.  But that worried her.  She said, “I don’t want him to think I’m a prude.”

     That statement saddened me.  It always saddens me when I hear Christians say they don’t want to be prudes.  I always want to ask, “Why not?”  The word “prude” was originally a French word that meant to be virtuous and wise.  It comes from a Latin root meaning to be good.  So, why don’t Christians want to be virtuous, wise, and good?

     I fully realize that non-Christians try to insult Christians by calling them “prudes,” and by accusing them of being “holier-than-thou.”  But, Christians are supposed to be holier than other people.  Thus, such insults are actually complements in disguise.  Yet, this girl’s worry about her boyfriend reveals something else.  It reveals that she’s reluctant to let other people know that she’s trying to be holy.  But, again I would ask, “Why?”  The early Christians taught that Christians are supposed to be holy because God is holy.

     In the First Century, the word “holy” meant to be morally pure and clean.  Today, we don’t hear much about being morally pure and clean.  But in the First Century, that’s what made Christians different.  That’s the reason Christianity turned the world upside down Spiritually in only 70 years.  So this girl has a big decision to make.  She has to decide the extent to which she’s willing to reject non-Christian behavior, and to live the holy lifestyle that Christians are supposed to live … regardless of what her boyfriend says and does.

     Paul, the early Christian apostle, prophet, and teacher said it best.  He said that his prayer was for all Christians everywhere to be pure, blameless, and filled with goodness.  Maybe if more Christians lived that way, the decline of Christian influence in America would slow down or even reverse itself.  To paraphrase an old saying:  When Christians don’t stand for something, they fall for everything.  What about your family and friends?  Are they willing to be Christian prudes?