Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Sexual Ethics”
Our Bible verse for today: “”Haven’t you read, He replied, “that He who created them in the beginning made them male and female,” and He also said: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not separate.” Matthew 19:4-6 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “In the Garden of Eden God established the norm for human sexuality.”
In the pre-sin world of Eden, God established His divinely ordained sexual ethic for the human race. He created them male and female. He then instructed that the man and woman should come together as one flesh, and thereby procreate. In the beginning, this was the standard and there was no other. Every other expression of human sexuality outside of the male/female relationship of husband and wife came about after the fall and as a result of sin. And, notably, every other sexual expression which humans have experimented with since then is described by the Bible as being sinful.
In Matthew 19:4-6, in the middle of a discourse to the Pharisees which pertained largely to the issue of divorce, Jesus affirmed the Biblical standard for sexual ethics as being between a man and a woman within the bonds of holy matrimony. Nowhere in this passage or in any other do the words of Jesus, or the words of any Biblical writer anywhere in the Bible, allow for any other expression of human sexuality. God could have provided us with examples of other forms of sexual expression which are approved by Him, but He didn’t.
This is instructive for us. The Bible provides a complete theology of human sexuality, often in uncomfortable detail. It addresses the full range of possibilities including heterosexual relationship between a husband and wife; sex outside of the bond of marriage; adultery; group sex; incest; bestiality; homosexuality; masturbation; and more. In all cases the teaching is based upon and derived from the core sexual ethic established by God in the beginning. And in all cases any deviation from that core ethic is labeled as sin.
We cannot understand or attempt to apply the teachings of Moses, Jesus, Paul, or any of the Biblical writers on this issue of sexual ethics, without relating it back to Genesis chapter two. The beginning chapters of Genesis are the source from which all the rest of Scripture flows. It is the standard upon which Moses, Jesus, and Paul based their teaching on the subject. The only sexual pairing portrayed in the Bible as being from God and approved by God, is that of a man and a woman within the bonds of marriage. Every other expression of human sexuality is labeled as being sinful and outside of the will of God.
Since most of the heated debate in our society today revolves around the issue of homosexuality, that is the issue we will spend a large part of the month considering. Not only will be look at what the Bible actually says, but we will also attempt to address some of the most confusing and divisive questions facing Christians today. Tomorrow we will take a look at three Old Testament passages which address this issue.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 