SEX. That is not a common topic that comes up among Christians today, unfortunately. Sex has become taboo in a lot of churches, and it has had some unfortunate consequences on our society, as well as our theology. My parents and I were talking about the issue of sex before marriage recently; most people are familiar with the commandment "Thou shalt not commit adultery." But, while many of us KNOW about this commandment and claim to follow Jesus, it seems that adultery is one of those sins that society has deemed as "permissible." Did you know that by the age of 19, the CDC has said that 80% of men and 75% of women have lost their virginity? This is obviously a HUGE issue in our society! And yet, the Church a lot of times will simply tell people "Don't do it until you're married." But when it comes to offering a reason, many Christians don't know what to say; they can only offer the cliche "Because God said so." But its got to be more than that! Saving sex for marriage made God's Top Ten- it wasn't just a whim that He had. He made sex to be AWESOME; He must have a reason for adding stipulations to when we can have it, and who we can have it with.
After talking about it briefly with my parents, I really felt led to share with them what God has been showing me over the past few years concerning this particular commandment. As a college student, obviously sex before marriage is a pretty big issue for my demographic. I sent my mom an email a few days ago, and my dad asked me to post it to the blog. So, here you go friends. Hopefully this will be encouraging, edifying, and most importantly, glorifying to God.
First, I wanted to fully explain why I think God would tell us to guard the sanctity of marriage. If you look at the way that God designed marriage, He designed it to be a metaphor for our relationship with Him. He frequently calls us “His bride” through out Scripture. Ezekiel 16, Hosea, and Song of Songs are excellent
examples of this. Because of this, we are supposed to hold marriage in high regard. Additionally, marriage is a covenant relationship. It is one of the only covenants that we, as humans, can enter in to. Most covenants are initiated by God, not man. However, God is still a huge part of the marital covenant. Wives are called to be submissive to husbands (as the church is to Christ), and husbands are called to be the head of the household (like Christ is the head of the church).
But, Christ is to be the head of the man, and the center of the marriage, too. It’s the whole idea of the “cord of three strands” mentioned in Ecclesiastes 4:12, and a nice parallel to the Trinity. If Christ is the center and the foundation of a marriage, then the marriage will not be shaken. Christ is immovable, unshakable, and
unchanging.
However, since this is a marital covenant, there is always a sign of the covenant (Noaic Covenant- rainbow; Abrahamic Covenant- circumcision, etc). The sign of this covenant is sex. It “consummates” the covenant and makes it official. When we share the sign of this covenant with people other than people who are partakers
of the covenant- that’s a problem. It is not good, and it shows a blatant disregard for the covenant. It belittles the covenant. That is why it is so serious to have sex before marriage, to have gay marriage, divorce, adultery, etc- it isn’t just us being close minded. It is that marriage is a covenant relationship that we enter in to; we make the commitment to God to love that person, to honor God together, and to represent the relationship between Christ and the Church through our marriage. We bear that image in a marriage. That is NOT a small responsibility, and it is not something to be shrugged off and belittled.
Additionally, we are told in Genesis that we were created in God’s image- that makes us His image-bearers. In our bodies, we bear the very image of God, the same “invisible God” that is mentioned in Colossians 1:15. On top of that, out bodies are also temples of the living God. Again- BIG DEAL. If you’ve studied the Old Testament, you’ve seen how much detail God put in to the construction of His Temple. He specified the materials to be used, the dimensions, even who was allowed to go where. Well- He has some input on similar issues for our body. (That’s why gluttony, drunkenness, etc. are considered sinful or unwise at best- it’s a blatant disregard for the Temple of God; its also one of the reasons why He had so many regulations in the Mosaic law about what people were allowed to eat, and all of their purification rituals. It was sanitary and prevented infections). Paul points it out very clearly in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 that all other sins are committed outside the body; but sexual immorality- that is committed against the body. Against the image of God; against the temple of God. Double whammy. When you add in the factor about it violating the covenant- yikes. Definitely displays deeper theological issues.
While it is beneficial to know WHAT God has commanded, I think it is extremely important to build a foundation for WHY God gives a command, too. If you don’t know why you’re supposed to do something, you are much less likely to do it when it is seriously questioned.
I hope that helped to shed some light on what I was talking about
Saturday. I haven’t heard many people actually talk about this issue; but again, this is typically the type of issue that would be addressed in a discipleship/small
group atmosphere, not from a pulpit. Discretion is essential. But, God has been gracious in opening my eyes to the truths that He has plainly revealed in Scripture.
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