Source: Jakob Owens via Unsplash
I read an article this morning about Gandhi and how his personal views on sex actually harmed family members. It got me thinking about how sex has been twisted and manipulated into something that it absolutely was not intended to be. The results of that manipulation are literally destroying humanity. Here are my thoughts and I’m sure they’ll be controversial but the truth usually is…
As a Christian, I believe that God is made up of “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” This is called the Trinity. Christians believe that the Trinity is “the greatest revealed mystery of the Christian faith.” It is the belief that the God of the Bible is the communion of three divine Persons in one divine nature. This can be a difficult concept to grasp and so I always think of the human family when trying to understand or explain the Trinity. Father, mother, and child are three separate people, but make up one united family. A family is one unit just as God is one God.
In the book of Genesis, we read “Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness.” (Gen 1:26). The next verse goes on to say “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Gen 1:27).
A small but important detail in the first verse is key: the use of the word “our.” Who is God talking to? It is a clue that leads to the understanding of the Trinity. If God is three divine persons in one divine nature and we are made in the “image and likeness” of that nature, the human family is a true reflection of God.
God is the great Creator. We see the creation story twice in the book of Genesis. We can look all around us and see evidence of His creation. The wonder of it… the vastness of it… the mystery of it!
1 John 4:8 tells us that “God is love.” We see now that Scripture tells us that God is Trinity, God is Creator, and God is Love. God, Himself says that of all of His creation, humanity is the greatest creation because He has made us in His image and likeness and we were given dominion over all the earth. Thus we are meant to be a family, we are meant to create, and we are meant to love. If we follow these principles and the very nature of what our physical and spiritual selves are capable of, the result is relationship with others and the creation of life.
However, when you look around the world, it is evident that this intention that God has for His creation is under attack. The laws of nature cannot be changed. Human beings were created male and female. This is not meant to be an attack on anyone, it is just the truth. We live in a culture that changes the definition of things all the time, but ultimately it’s just semantics. We can play with words all we want. It doesn’t change the truth.
When male and female come together in sexual union, new life can be created. This is just biology. Again, not an attack, just a scientific fact. It does, however bring me to another point. New life is created all the time outside the confines of marriage and outside the confines of love. Human beings are not perfect and often give in to more basic desires. The result can be life.
The goal here is that we go back to our model of love which is God. Our model of love shows us that love is a choice, love is a sacrifice, love involves self-discipline, the list goes on… The famous bible verse that is read at so many wedding ceremonies reads, “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–8)
It’s a beautiful verse that people don’t really dig into. Replace “love” with “I am” and you will have an entirely new perspective on it. It becomes less “fluffy” and more “challenging.”
I’m about to get really controversial…If you do not “seek your own interests” you would welcome new life, even when it is not a part of your plan. Choosing to end a life has massive repercussions. You won’t find this out in the mainstream but talk to people who have done it. It’s tragic. Women have physical and mental consequences from this choice that can be devastating. Having children is a lot of work and it definitely involves sacrifice, but, at the end of the day, there is no loving relationship like that of a parent and child. Don’t immediately reject this idea, let it marinate.
Here’s another controversial idea: How many reading this have ever felt used after sex? Even within your marriage. The culture encourages sex without parameters. This leads to men using women which leads to an array of bad stuff. Shame, feelings of worthlessness, disease, unplanned pregnancy, etc…It’s a snowball effect of bad stuff. If sex only happened between man and woman within the confines of a loving marriage, it would be more revered.
I know these ideas are completely contrary to popular culture but take a look at the world and ask yourself how things are going wrong. Ideas that seem radical to the current status quo are not so radical when you look at the times and places where they worked. Contraception was widely rejected up until the early 1900s. As more churches allowed it, culture began to deteriorate.
When man and woman come together as “one flesh,” that expression of love can have a physical manifestation as a child. This directly reflects the relationship of the Trinity. A family and the expression of that love that makes manifest a physical creation.
God is calling His greatest creation to more. Challenge yourself to be more!