Spirituality and Sexuality: God's Purpose for Sex

Spirituality and Sexuality: God's Purpose for Sex

Intro:

3 Pagan Views about Sex

Sex as appetite.

Many of the ancient Greeks and Romans viewed sex as similar to any other bodily activity, such as eating or sleeping. This being the case, we are free to indulge however you please or don’t overdo it too often like with other things having to do with appetites.

While common today, this view has existed through the ages and we even find the Apostle Paul countering it in his first letter to the Corinthians. They used the slogan “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food” (1 Corinthians 6:13a) to reason that sex has no greater purpose than fulfilling bodily appetites and, therefore, sexual expression of any kind has no great moral bearing. To withhold sex from those who desire it is a moral evil akin to withholding food from a hungry child.

A version of this view can be found in public school sex education, is that we should understand the natural biological drive of sex, realize that if we are not careful sexual activity can have negative consequences, master it like any other skill, and be responsible.

Sex as animal passion.

One of the most influential branches of Hellenistic philosophy viewed the spirit as the highest good and the body as “lesser.” That is, the lower, physical, “animal” nature was seen as chaotic and dark, and the higher, more rational, “spiritual” nature was seen as civilized and noble. This led to viewing sex as a degrading, dirty thing, a necessary evil for the propagation of the human race. Premarital sex was forbidden because sex in general was dirty and was allowable only for the higher good of having children and building up the family name. Unfortunately, this view took root in many places in the Christian church. Truly spiritual people should refrain from sex, sex is allowable only if you are trying to have children, sexual pleasure is not appropriate for high- minded people.

Sex as affection

This view claims that sex is a foundationally an expression of mutual affection and, thus, feelings are the most legitimate grounds for having sex (and perhaps the only legitimate grounds). According to this view, any form of sex is acceptable as long as they are a genuine expression of feelings. Those who engage in these acts “could not help” but express their sexuality in this way. Some would go so far as to claim it is wrong for a married couple to stay together once they have “fallen out of love,” since feelings are the foundation for a sexual relationship.

The Romanticists thought that human beings in their unspoiled original state were brimming with natural goodness and creativity; it was society that stifled it. Goodness would be achieved by liberating the basic, primal instincts, which were in themselves pure. You should do what you feel.

Ex) Marvin Gaye sings in “Let’s Get It On” in the chorus:

“There’s nothing wrong with me loving you, baby no no. And giving yourself to me can never be wrong if the love is true.”

Sex as self-expression and self-fulfillment. It claims that sex is a way of finding ourselves and expressing who we are.

Tim Keller summarizes it in this way: “This … view sees sex as a critical form of self-expression, a way to ‘be yourself’ and ‘find yourself.’ In this view, the individual may wish to use sex within marriage and to build a family, but that is up to the individual. Sex is primarily for an individual’s fulfillment and self-realization, however he or she wishes to pursue it.” Thus, the morality of any sexual act depends only upon whether it produces happiness and self-realization for those who engage in it. Taken to its end, it makes chastity and monogamy immoral because they are expressions of self-denial instead of self-realization.

Ex) 40 year old virgin

THE CHRISTIAN VIEW

The Christian attitude toward sex differs quite radically from each of these threprominent views.

Contrary to the “sex-as-appetite” view, the Bible teaches that our sexual desires are broken and usually idolatrous. All by themselves, sexual appetites are not a safe guide, and we are instructed to flee our lusts (1 Cor. 6:18). Our sexual appetite does not operate the same as our other appetites. To illustrate this point, C. S. Lewis asks us to imagine a planet where people pay money to watch someone eat a mutton chop, where people ogle magazine pictures of food. If we landed on such a planet, we would think that the appetite of these people was seriously deranged. (1) Yet that is just how modern people approach sex.

Contrary to the Animal passion view, the Bible teaches that sex is very good (Gen. 1:31). God would not create and command something to be done in marriage (1 Cor. 7:3–5) that was not good. The Song of Solomon is filled with barefaced rejoicing in sexual pleasure. In fact, the Bible can be very uncomfortable for the prudish.

Contrary to the Affection view,

Contrary to the Self-Expression/ Self-Fulfillment view, the Bible teaches that love and sex are not primary for individual happiness. What the Bible says about sex and marriage “has a singularly foreign sound for those of us brought up on romantic notions of marriage and sex.

What, then, does the Bible say about Sex?

1 Cor 6: 12-17

12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

Paul is exhorting the Corinthian church on matters of how to live. He’s addressing things like lawsuits between people in the church, thievery, adultery etc.

Vs 12 He is having a theoretical conversation with a representative of this community that he’s been exhorting.

Sex is spiritual. Sex as sacrament; Sex as a sacred thing.

Sacred =

Wikipedia says that Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity;[1] is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a "sacred artifact" that is venerated and blessed), or places ("sacred ground").

French sociologist Émile Durkheim said that every society has a sense of what is sacred (set apart, highly valued) and the profane, which involves mundane, individual concerns. So “what you have for breakfast”— would be in the realm of profane (it’s not bad, it’s just not sacred). But what we eat at a really important feast might be considered sacred - really meaningful, treated with the utmost care, very special.

Ex) Mothers, land, texts, holidays, flags, foods, death

Ex) Tea — Philippa Perkin — What are you doing?

Every community, every family has things that you don’t mess with, or you mess with at your peril because that thing is a really, really, really important thing. It’s not just your thing to do whatever you please with it. It’s for a very special time and context.

What is that thing in your family? – basketball? Grandma’s tamale or pot sticker recipe? Honestly, these are actually traditions but even traditions can have an element of sacred. Very very special and only for certain times and places.

Sacred to God