Lusts of the flesh

Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments^ of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments ^of righteousness. Romans 6:12-13 NRSV

My husband and I were having a discussion this morning at breakfast. I asked him two questions (because, not being a guy, I really don't know how things work for them).

(1) Can a man control his lusts when he sees a sexy woman?
(2) Once a man is aroused, can he control himself?

I mean, it seems to me that there's a lot of discussion about how women should dress modestly so as not to tempt men, but not a lot of discussion about how men need to have self-control. Now, I do agree that it's important as believers we not do things that would lead others into sin. But I believe certain passages of scripture as taken way out of context. One such passage is:

"But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.^ But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ." (1 Corinthians 8:9-12 NRSV)

Notice that, in this passage, Paul is talking about believers who are weaker. If this passage is used to say that women can lead men into temptation, then the conclusion must be that men are weaker in the faith than women. And that's just preposterous.

So, back to the two questions I asked my husband. His answer, of course, to both was "no." Of course men can control their emotions and responses, even when looking at a sexy woman. And, of course, men can control their actions, if they become sexually aroused.

So, am I advocating that Christian women don't pay attention to how they dress? Of course not. But I am saying that Christian men need to stop blaming women for their own lack of self-control.