Idolatry as adultery is not an accidental image. Our relationship with God is the most fundamental fellowship we humans are capable of experiencing. From the Genesis 2 creation account it is obvious that we are not created to be alone (separated from God or one another). Husband and wife are to complement and complete one another.

True intimacy is never about “me” – it is always about “the other.” It takes the kind of love described in 1 Cor. 13 to form any relationship of lasting value. Contrary to contemporary romanticism agape love is not a feeling over which we have no control. Rather it is made up of a thousand little daily choices to live in and express God’s love.

The power of unconditional love is vital for the church (local and universal); Jesus says that our love for one another is to model his love for us and is the great apologia for the fact that he was sent from God.

A Christian home is more than a dwelling where all profess personal faith in Christ. A truly Christian home is one where Christ is indeed Lord of all. Unconditional love is essential for Christian marriage and all other family relationships, deep friendships and even showing hospitality to strangers. We are created for a depth of relationship that our merely using one another as a means to temporary pleasures and selfish ends will not sustain.

Proclaim God’s Good News

In spite of all the cultural messages to the contrary, the locus of human identity is not fundamentally expressed in our sexuality. We are created for God and in God we live and move and have our being.

But God has created us as sexual beings. We are enjoined to “leave and cleave” in forming a Christian marriage. Yes, some aspects of Christian tradition have practiced an extreme asceticism that appears to deny this value. Efforts to allegorize the Song of Solomon, for example, demonstrate both Jewish and Christian interpretive uneasiness with this very powerful love poem celebrating sexual intimacy.

Jesus honored marriage by performing his first miracle at a wedding party. He also sought to discourage divorce in much stronger terms than traditional Jewish interpretation. He warns about the destructive effects of lust in the heart. But he also recognizes a temporal limit to the marriage relationship. Jesus was fully human – but his self-expression was unfallen. Hence women and men of varying moral and social backgrounds felt “welcomed” in his presence.

Paul’s teaching on marriage is sometimes misconstrued to reflect a preference for celibacy over marriage. His views outlined in 1 Cor. 7 indicate that “conjugal rights” are reserved for marriage. He even warns spouses “do not deprive one another” except by mutual agreement for specific times of religious devotion. He does indicate that singleness is preferred when one is able to exercise self-control. But even this admonition must be understood in the light of Paul’s expectation of the imminent return of the Lord.