Frank Talk About Marriage, Sex, Singleness, and Divorce

For whoever was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed person belonging to the Lord, just as whoever was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of human masters. In whatever condition you were called, brothers and sisters, there remain with God. (1 Corinthians 7:22-24)

Today, we bring to a conclusion three messages from 1 Corinthians chapter six and seven, dealing in some ways directly and in other ways peripherally with the topic of human sexuality.

Advertisement

Let's face it — it's the topic of the day, and it always has been. Can any of us resist being fascinated with the latest chapter in the lives of Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie? Tabloid headlines shout out the latest tidbits of information, and our heads turn to read them whether they are true or not.

And now into the mix of our age-old fascination with heterosexual activity comes our newfound preoccupation with gay and lesbian activity, as it is manifested in the cultural bombardment with information about the Oscar-nominated Brokeback Mountain.

Some would prefer pastors never address these topics. I wouldn't if the Bible didn't. However, the Bible makes it clear that our God is the One who created our human sexuality. It's meant for our very best. As fallen, broken people living in a fallen, broken world, we see all kinds of distortions of this beautiful God-given gift. Part of our fascination with the topic is that we ourselves live with these distortions, confused and even attracted in our fantasies to the very actions we condemn in others.

I like the way John Ortberg, the teaching pastor of the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, addresses this topic. He says: “The desire to appear sexually attractive makes people jump through all kinds of hoops. It makes people buy more clothes, try out more ab machines, go through more elective surgery than anything else. It makes young girls in our society starve themselves, sometimes to death. The prospect of a few moments of sexual gratification has the power to make powerful people — politicians, pastors, church leaders, university presidents, CEOs — trash their reputations, ditch their marriages, capsize their families, and lose their careers. The prospect of a few moments of sexual excitement makes some of the smartest guys in the world act like they have a lower IQ than Cookie Monster. Why?

“There's two ways you can take this question. One is: Why would people pay that kind of price for sexual gratification or excitement or fulfillment? Why would they pursue it with such desperate, unflagging urgency? The other way you could ask this question is: Why do we make such a big deal about it? Why do we use loaded terms such as betrayal or molestation or abuse or sexual immorality? Why do we use moral language around it, when, physically speaking, it's just a simple act? It's just body parts and nerve endings. It only involves the expression of inevitable biological urges. Why does it have this power to create longing and desire, folly and regret, guilt and shame, hope and joy or remorse like no other activity on Earth?