Sex, God, and a Lasting Love

Sex, God, and a Lasting Love
by Ryan Duncan

An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. – Proverbs 31:10 

We live in a culture obsessed with sex, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone. From the moment we get up in the morning, to the second we fall back asleep, we are bombarded with images and slogans designed to generate our physical desires. Like many Christians, I grew up listening to sermons about the sin of premarital sex. Over and over I heard pastors talk about the sanctity of marriage, the spread of diseases through casual encounters, the risks of unwanted pregnancies, etc. While I took these warnings to heart and stayed celibate, another part of me was too embarrassed to admit that I just didn’t get it.

To me, most of the sermons just sounded like fear-mongering. As long as both people were careful and consenting adults, was it really that bad? For a long time I chose to ignore my questions, hoping the answers would eventually just come to me, and ironically enough, they did. I was working part-time at an amusement park with a bunch of other teens when I overheard a co-worker boasting about a girl he’d hooked up with the previous week. I was beginning to tune him out when a realization suddenly struck me.

He didn't care about this girl; and odds were she didn't care about him either. They didn't know each other's hopes and fears, or the character traits that defined their identities. They had both just used each other for their own gratification. To each other, they were both a disposable pleasure.

But look now at how the first marriage is described in Genesis 2,

"So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." – Genesis 2:21

God created sex, physical intimacy, to be a lasting love. Its purpose was to be the greatest connection between two people who knew one another, loved one another, and were loved in return. What our world offers in comparison is nothing more than a cheap knock-off. Be careful to guard your hearts and minds, and don't allow lust to gain a foothold in your life. Remember, God made us to be more than a disposable pleasure.

Intersecting Faith and Life: Consider your own heart and mind, are you pursing a lasting relationship?   

Further Reading
Song of Solomon 7:1-13