Dear Reader,
This post contains discussion about sexuality. My intention is to address the ever-growing number of questions I receive about issues women are afraid to ask their Pastor's wife, their Bible Study Leader, or their best friend. Please understand I am in no way glorifying any aspect of sexual immorality.
Sex is a wonderful gift from God but some of you don’t look at it that way. Some of you have been touched by sexual immorality. You may have been involved sexually before you were married with your spouse or someone else. You may have been someone’s victim; you may have developed lust issues through straight out pornography, romance novels, soap operas or an overactive thought life.
Your husband may be involved in pornography, or maybe YOU are.
Unless you live in a cave there are things you and I as Christian women are going to have to face. We live in a highly sexualized culture where women are often treated as objects of sexual gratification. I have seen the effects of this in my counseling office and among people I know and love.
Sexual sin is pervasive and invasive. If it were a person, it would not care about your income, race, color or creed. Sexual sin is a captor and it takes hostages.
God designed and “created” sex (Gen 2:18-25). Adam finds Eve and notices she is his perfect counterpart. She was created to be like him but different. There was no shame between them and there was no covering for their bodies. Their love before the fall was pure, and sweet and rapturous. They reveled in each others bodies and that is the way God intended it to be (Proverbs 5:18-19).
We only need a few verses in Song of Solomon to understand that what is being detailed for us is the intimate union of a man and woman. The sexual union is intended to represent the intimate relationship between Jesus Christ and the church, between God and mankind (Mark 10:7-9, Matt. 19:6, Eph. 5:25-33).
God repeatedly says two are one flesh. Our physical union is to reflect the oneness God and man are to have in Christ. God’s intention for sex: The sexual relationship is primarily for the creation of children (Gen 1:28) and yet humans are created with an ability to enjoy this act.
We are encouraged to participate in sex often and we are told in Scripture by God Himself that it is to be enjoyable (Prov. 5:19). God was apparently so determined to get that message across that He wrote an entire book of the Bible about it (Song of Solomon). In fact, God designed us so well that our desire for the pleasure of sex is to be met by our spouses frequently to avoid sinning!
The sexual union of a husband and wife is also the most beautiful representation of the relationship Christ has with His Bride, the Church (Eph 5:31, 32). This is one reason that Satan has made sex a primary target in Christian marriages. Anything he can do to spoil this most glorious and intimate picture is good for his purposes.
Enter: pornea- “illicit sex”, “sexual immorality” in English. Our enemy, the devil has taken the beautiful one flesh relationship and perverted it. His perversion of the sexual relationship is not accidental, it is intentional. He chose the most accurate and intimate portrayal of Christ and the church and has turned it into filth, smut and a mighty profitable business.
Pornography is the selling of sexually explicit pictures, writing, or other material whose purpose is to cause sexual arousal.
We have long known that pornography is a problem for many men. It used to be in a brown wrapper behind the counter. A man had to be willing to ask for it. Then it went to home delivery in a brown wrapper, and now it is practically at the check-out at the store. “Dirty movies” used to be shown in run down theaters on the wrong side of town, or in hole in the wall establishments. Now, places that sell pornographic movies have stand alone stores with cute names, and people walk into them in broad daylight- without shame.
Additionally, the internet has brought all into your home. You can view anything you want to see from your living room without a subscription. A person can download it, file share it, or use a portable device to view a pornographic movie.
Dirty movies are not just for men anymore either. A flood of new viewers have latched on to the porn bandwagon- and that group is women. Young and old, Christian and non-Christian, women are viewing pornography in record numbers.
We will look at that tomorrow.