What does First B Jackson teach about sexual immorality?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First Baptist Jackson, the teaching on sexual immorality starts with who the Christian already is. Whether working through Ephesians 5, Colossians 3, or 1 Corinthians, the pastors here have consistently placed sexual immorality inside a longer list of sins, and they have been equally consistent that the list is addressed to Christians, not to the surrounding culture. The point is never that the church is clean and the world is dirty. The point is that people who have been rescued from one way of life are called to live out what is already true of them in Christ.
The specific terms have been taught carefully. Porneia, translated sexual immorality, has been presented as primarily premarital sexual relations, distinguished from moikea, which is adultery. Akatharsia, impurity, has been described as the more degrading expressions of sexuality, with Romans 1 brought in as the passage that most directly defines it. Covetousness in this context has been read as the restless, addictive appetite for what one does not have, a form of idolatry because it displaces God. When 1 Corinthians 5 was the text, Pastor John worked through what Paul actually prescribes when sexual sin is open and unrepentant inside a congregation: not condemnation, but a process aimed entirely at restoration, because the goal stated in the text is that the person's spirit may be saved. And when 1 Corinthians 6 and 7 were the text, Pastor Ray showed how Paul steers between two opposite errors, the hedonism that calls everything lawful and the asceticism that denies the body everything, landing instead on the principle that the body belongs to God and matters to Him.
Against the whole list of sexual sins, the pastors here have returned more than once to the same unexpected antidote Paul offers: thanksgiving. The argument is that most of what drives these sins is a posture of discontent, always wanting what one does not have, always craving more. Gratitude redirects the heart in a way that a bare command not to sin cannot. The person who genuinely wants what they already have is not hunting for more. That is the direction the teaching points, not toward self-improvement, but toward a reorientation of desire rooted in what God has already given.
Taught from Ephesians 5:3 · 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 · 1 Corinthians 6:18 · Colossians 3:1-11 · Romans 1:24-27
The passage taught · Ephesians 4:29
29 Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for building others up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- May 17, 2026 Awake Sleeper and Rise from the Dead Ephesians 5 calls Christians out of darkness and into light, which means leaving behind corrupting speech, sexual immorality, greed, and foolish talk to walk as saints.
- May 17, 2026 Awake, Sleeper, and Rise from the Dead A verse-by-verse look at Ephesians 5:3-14 on corrupt speech, sexual immorality, greed, and what it means to walk as a child of light rather than darkness.
- September 10, 2017 Gratitude, Not Gratification Ephesians 5:3-16 contrasts six sins Paul names for Christians, sexual, verbal, and otherwise, with the one response he calls for: gratitude toward God.
- September 10, 2017 Six Don'ts and One Do Ephesians 5:3-16 examined plainly: six behaviors Paul says have no place among believers, and why gratitude is the one thing set against them all.
- March 5, 2017 Christ Hits the Center Every Time Colossians 3:1-11 examined as a word to Christians about their own sin, not the world's, and what it means to put on the new self in Christ.
- September 14, 2014 Stay Out of the Ditches A Wyoming pastor walks through 1 Corinthians 6-7, tracing a path between sexual license and rigid asceticism, and calling married and single believers to faithfulness where they are.
- August 24, 2014 Expel the Wicked Person From Among You The pastor walks through 1 Corinthians 5, showing why church discipline is an act of mercy toward the individual and an act of faithfulness for the whole congregation.
Mentioned along the way
- May 19, 2019 Your Path Is a Reckless One The pastor walks through the story of Balaam in Numbers 22-24, showing how greed and persistence against God's clear "no" led to devastating consequences for God's people.
- June 24, 2018 Flee, Pursue, and Take Hold A Wyoming pastor walks through 1 Timothy 6, calling his church to flee materialism, sexual immorality, and idolatry, and to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and gentleness.
- October 19, 2014 God Really Does Love You Ray walks through 1 Corinthians 10:1-22, using Old Testament examples to address ignorance, sexual immorality, and idolatry, with a close look at verse 13.