1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 – For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God…
The Bible is not anti-sex. The Bible is pro-marriage and pro-sex within marriage.
If you want to learn more about what the Bible says about sex, my wife Grace and I wrote a book called Real Romance: Sex in the Song of Songs that you can find, along with a sermon series at RealFaith.com. In that book, we explain that people see sex in one of three ways:
- Sex as god – For some people, they lack sexual boundaries and control and their sexual urges rule over them like their functional god – what they sacrifice their body and energy to as a form of worship. In this section of 1 Thessalonians, Paul is explaining this very sin.
- Sex as gross – For some people, because of prudish, unhealthy Bible teaching, an overly conservative upbringing, and/or sexual addiction or abuse, sex is seen as something gross, off putting, and base.
- Sex as gift – According to the Bible, sex is a gift from God to be enjoyed by a married couple within the confines of the Scriptures and limits of their conscience.
This gift of heterosexual married sex was given by God for six reasons:
- Pleasure (Song of Songs)
- Children (Genesis 1:28)
- Oneness (Genesis 2:24)
- Knowledge (Genesis 4:1)
- Protection (1 Corinthians 7:2-5)
- Comfort (2 Samuel 12:24)
Imagine if this lesson were not heeded? These new Christians would be living together before marriage, having children out of wedlock, committing adultery, and living lives of sexual addiction and brokenness. In our day, the cultural avalanche against most any restriction on sexuality has created a completely broken culture with people who are suffering because of everything from sexual addiction to sexual abuse.
Consider for a moment that if everyone on the earth obeyed the Bible just in their sexuality, we would have no more sexual assault, no more sexual addiction, no more out of wedlock pregnancies, no more need for widespread abortion, no pornography, no sex trafficking, and no more adultery. This kind of rebellion is inexcusable for God’s people, as Paul tells the Thessalonians “whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you” (4:8).
Look up the verses or references attached to each of the six reasons God gifted married couples heterosexual sex.
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