The Price of Purity?

Posting about controversial issues is not something that I intend to do. At least not on a regular basis. But ever since reading a news article last night, there is a question that keeps coursing wildly through my mind and compels me to write: 

"What is the price of purity?"

According to news forums around the world, on October 24th, a twenty year Brazilian student sold her virginity through an online auction. After a fierce competition, the winning bid went to a Japanese man for the sum of $780,000. 

The seller will be "delivered" to the buyer somewhere in flight between the U.S. and Australia to evade charges of prostitution. According to multiple sources, the young woman who has voluntarily chosen to auction off her virginity under claims to raise money for charity, also does not believe that what she is doing is prostitution. To quote: "For me, it's not prostitution. When someone does something once in his or her life, this is not considered a profession. If you take a picture and it comes out good, you are not a photographer because of it." 

With that logic, I suppose robbing a bank just once in your life does not make you a thief, nor does shooting just one person to death make you a murderer. After all, it's not a profession.

As disturbing as I find this young woman's outrageous choice, I also feel compassion for her. To think that she would take the most sacred gift God gave her as a woman and auction it off for the pleasure of a complete stranger. The irony of it all is the price tag that is attached. 

$780,000. Over three-quarters of a million dollars. That is quite a tidy sum. 

While we gasp at an astronomical bundle of cash like that, there are young girls in the karaoke bars of Cambodia being sold to customers to be used at their disposal, but with a small price. An hour with the girl and a couple of drinks? According to the receipt, the beer is the most expensive purchase of the night. 

$780,000 or $5. 

Which one is a truer indicator of the price of purity? Who or what decides 

what that price should be?

This Brazilian young lady chose to sell her virginity. What of the millions of young girls who have no choice? What of those who have had their innocence stolen from them by those whom they trusted most? What of those women suffering in silent shame because they thought he really loved them and believed that keeping his love required giving of the most precious, intimate part of themselves, only to be left broken and alone? What of those women, young and old alike, who are barraged with psychological and visual messages from our sex-crazed society that your only worth is your sexuality? 

$780,000.  $5. Or free for the taking. 

Who determines the price of purity, the price of sexuality, the price of intimacy? 

 I know that the subject of sexuality is one that we as conservative Christians tend to avoid. It feels awkward, so we become hush-hush about it. But in our chosen ignorance, we blind ourselves to the countless women who are silently screaming because someone placed a price tag on them. Probably none of them were priced at the sum of $780,000 like the Brazilian woman who headlined the news. Most of them had a price tag slapped on them that said "free for the taking." Yet whether by choice or by force, each one of these women have experienced a marring of a very holy part of who they were created to be. 

No man, no online bidder, no sensational news story, no customer in a red-light district, no boyfriend offering elusive promises of love, no predatory uncle, no media advertisement can ever come close to placing a 

price tag on virginity or sexuality.

That is because God is the Giver of purity. He is the Author of sexuality, the Designer of intimacy. What He creates, He calls good. He never intended for purity to have a price tag placed on it because He created it

 to be price-less. 

The treasure is too sacred to be purchased. It can only be given. 

The beauty in realizing that God is both the Creator as well as the Giver of purity and intimacy is that even when the Enemy steals what was never his to have, there is hope. God can restore that marred treasure. He can bind up what was broken, recover what was lost, and bring healing to what was wounded. There is no tainted beauty, no second-hand sacredness, and no cheapening of priceless worth in a purity that has been restored by the Creator Himself. This is the glory and grace of redemption.

Purity goes so much deeper than our physical virginity. It is purity of our heart, of our mind, of our spirit, of our actions, and of our lifestyle. Purity is an essence of God Himself, divinely imparted to each one of us as a holy gift. Purity is a pearl of great worth, not a commodity to be purchased by any earthly monetary sum. 

Dare to go against the onslaught of mockery and lies that our society bombards us with on every hand ~ 

Cherish Purity for the Priceless Gift that it is.