Short-Sleeves in Baguio

It's a great Sunday morning with plenty of rain, and the temperature is a beautiful 26 Celsius. People are wearing jackets here. Me? I am wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt down the mountain from Baguio in the lowlands.

I don't miss Baguio like others do. Having lived there for three years near the Mansion House, I had the opportunity to visit and see almost everything the summer capital had to offer. It was cool, as far as doing and seeing things go, but eventually it grew old for me and I moved to Bonifacio Global City to a condo.

Also, as a DepEd teacher at a private school in the City of Pines, I wore long-sleeves because of my tattoos I had done while in the US Army. Other than school hours and some after hours tutoring, I didn't like being restrained by long-sleeves and unnecessary extra clothing.

Weather

No matter what the weather occasioned to be in Baguio, my preference was to wear a simple shirt, shorts and flip-flops. Meanwhile, Koreans and locals wore heavy coats suitable for an Ohio winter. It was interesting how the ladies always managed to show some cleavage, though. At any rate, cold weather is relative as far as I am concerned.

Ancient Greeks and Romans

Have you ever wondered how the ancient people lived 2,000 years ago during a real winter? I have. I knew from studying the Bible that it snowed in Israel, though notably the gospels make no mention of it. Only the Old Testament makes references to snow. Interesting, that.

Above image: Tondo from an Attic red-figure kylix dated to c. 500 BC depicting Achilleus seated on the chair wrapped tightly in a himation.

A himation was essentially a series or layers of cloaks or blankets made of wool. Inside one's home, walls were well insulated and fires provided warmth.

The winters in Greece could be exceptionally cold.

Even today many people in Rome and Greece do not have central air and heat in their homes. They make adjustments accordingly.

But the wealthy Romans had a crude form of central heat called a hypocaust. A wood furnace conducted heat into rooms underneath flooring and through pipes called caliducts. The Romans borrowed this system from the Greeks and improved on it. History is pretty cool.

Rest assured that the bigshots of the day had their share of, ahem, ladies and men to keep them warm. Sexual promiscuity was quite common back then, and perhaps more so today.

Sexual immorality

Hey, you flipped the script! Don't I always?

The summer of love began the sexual revolution in the USA in the 1960s. It was coined an expression of freedom, and sex with multiple partners was commonplace. It's no surprise that divorce rates rose exponentially during this same period. Their freedom was their bondage to sin.

So what is sexual immorality comprised of? Well, buckle up and get ready for the answer, because the truth is hard.

Sexual immorality consists of engaging in sexual relations or committing sexual acts that go against the grain of what was written in the Old and New Testaments. We have no right to pick and choose what sin is, as it is clearly defined in God's word. Marriage, too.

"Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral" (Hebrews 13:4, NIV).

Sexual immorality detailed

How about sleeping with one's stepmother? "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife" (1 Corinthians 5:1).

This was happening in a church in the first century, among professed believers!

Homosexuality is immorality. "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality.." (1 Corinthians 6:9).

Today the LGBTQ community wrongly believes that they were born the way they are. This is untrue.

Because people rejected what may be known about God through creation and one's conscience, "God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen."

"Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error" (Romans 1:24-27, NIV).

How about pornography? It's very common throughout the world. Sexting, images, and sexually explicit videos are freely available to all with or without an Internet connection. Sadly, even Christian pastors, priests and laypeople engage in it, even when attending a Christian conference!

Merriam-Webster.com defines pornography as “the depiction of erotic behavior intended to cause sexual excitement.” This includes images or even writing, such as the ever popular "Fifty Shades of Grey" and other erotic novels.

But what did Jesus say? "You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).

Oh, Jesus was just a man one might say. Actually, He was God in the flesh! (John 1:1).

Epilogue

Are you weathering the storms and temptations of sexual immorality in your life? Are you involved at present in any form of sexual immorality? On TikTok or Facebook, or in public places, is your clothing such that you revealing yourself in an immodest manner? Sleeping with someone of the same sex, perhaps? Watching porn online?

If so, there is a remedy at the cross. Repent of your sins and ask God for His forgiveness through Jesus Christ, who shed His blood as a sacrifice and died once for all who would believe on Him. Once saved, be baptized as a testament to your new life in Christ, deny yourself, and follow His commands, then endure to the end of your mortal life. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, your sins will become less, though you will never be sinless in this corrupt world.