Readings for the day: 1 Corinthians 5-8
Homer’s Iliad. The poetry of Sappho and Ovid. Pindar’s Odes. Plato’s Symposium. The Sacred Band of Thebes. Horace’s Odes. Without a doubt the Greek and Roman world was a highly eroticized one. Sexuality in all its forms was celebrated and embraced. Men were encouraged to build homoerotic relationships with young protégés. Homosexuality and lesbianism was known and commonly practiced. Temple prostitution was normalized as farmers slept with high priestesses to ensure the fertility of their crops for the coming year. Sexual promiscuity and adultery were not seen as taboo. Sexuality was a widespread theme permeating art, comedy, poetry, and philosophy. Sex was even used to bond men together in some of the great militaries of the period.
By contrast, Jews and Christians practiced sexual restraint. They saw sex as a sacred act that bonded one man with one woman for a lifetime. Created to symbolize the “one flesh” God intended for man and woman to experience with each other, Jews and Christians maintained a healthy respect for its power. This is why they established strong taboos against any sexual activity outside the bonds of covenant marriage. They recognized that sex was not purely physical but bonded people emotionally and spiritually as well. To disregard the depth of the sexual experience or share it with more than one partner was to commit a sin against one’s own body which itself was a temple of the Holy Spirit. Sexual promiscuity was therefore intimately tied to ritual purity which is why transgressions took on a more serious tone.
The Apostle Paul was steeped in the Judeo-Christian world of sexual restraint. The Corinthian Christians were coming out of the Greco-Roman culture of sexual promiscuity. You can easily see where these two worlds would clash. Paul confronts the Corinthian believers with some of his strongest language yet. Calling for the excommunication of a man who slept with his father’s wife. Commanding the Corinthians not to associate with the sexually immoral. Most certainly they should avail themselves of the temple prostitutes and local fertility cults! At the same time, husbands should not deprive their wives of sex nor should wives do the same to their husbands. Celibacy is not God’s design for marriage. I truly see this as Paul at his pastoral best. Applying the gospel to the complex social and cultural realities that existed in this particular part of the world.
So what about us? Do these same principles hold true for us today? Absolutely. The Bible is univocal from Old to New Testaments about the sanctity of the sexual relationship. It is to be shared between one man and one woman within the covenant of marriage over the course of a lifetime. Certainly one could point to deviations from this pattern throughout the Scriptures like the polygamy of the patriarchs. But those exceptions only serve to prove the rule. As Christians, we are called to sexual purity. We are called to sexual holiness. We are called to honor the sexual act as one of God’s great gifts and thereby exercise it under His divine authority. We are witnessing one of the greatest moral shifts in history. Western culture is becoming increasing hyper-sexualized as it reverts back to pagan, Greco-Roman sexual norms. Sexual promiscuity has been on the rise since the so-called sexual revolution of the 1960’s. Serial divorce is rampant. Same-sex relationships are celebrated. The concept of “throuples” is quickly being embraced as definitions of marriage shift and change. The impact of all this rapid change is devastating. Sexually transmitted disease. Unwanted pregnancies. Broken relationships. The objectification of the human body. Pornography. Harassment. Abuse. Violence. Depression. Anxiety. Fear. These are a lot of the reasons the Greco-Roman world embraced the Judeo-Christian sexual ethic in the first place! They could clearly see the positive impact on families and communities who committed to practicing Biblical sexual restraint. Sadly, our world has no such examples as Christians themselves do not seem committed to practicing sexual purity.
As our world rapidly plunges into sexual chaos, it has become imperative for Christians to follow Paul’s words to the Thessalonians, “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...” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5) Lust is defined biblically as those emotions/passions that drive one to behavior outside the will of God. In the area of sexuality this means any sexual activity outside the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman. It is true that most human beings experience sexual desires that tempt them to act outside this bond. Heterosexuals, bi-sexuals, and homosexuals alike all suffer from the same disordered loves. These have been present within us since birth but they are a result of the Fall not the good and perfect creation of God. They contradict what God has clearly revealed in His Word and therefore the only appropriate response is self-denial not self-indulgence. Surely this is what Paul means when he writes, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1-2)