Content note: this sermon discusses sex, consent, coercion and abuse in relationships, and church teaching about sexuality that has harmed people.
"The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does." Plenty of us heard that half of 1 Corinthians 7:4 used as a weapon. Paul keeps going: "Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does." In Corinth, that second half was almost unheard of.
Closing a three-week Hot Takes trilogy on 1 Corinthians 5–7, Pastor Anthony reads chapter 7 by theme and lays three foundation stones for relationships after purity culture: mutuality, peace, and covenant. He looks at why Paul grades his own advice five times, how Roman law let married men off the hook, how church law turned a mutual gift into a debt men collected, why leaving abuse is not sin, why celibacy is a gift and never a sentence, and what to say to people who are single and don't want to be. The sermon draws on Rev. Tonetta Landis-Aina's Affirmation Guide for Sexuality & Spirituality and its nine criteria for faithful relationships.
Love runs both ways, and God calls us to peace. The only thing we owe one another is love.
If this sermon touches your story:
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788
DC Victim Hotline, 24/7: 1-844-443-5732
DC Rape Crisis Center, 24/7: (202) 333-7273
RAINN, 24/7: 800-656-4673
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988
To report misconduct at The Table Church, use the link at the bottom of thetablechurch.org. Reports go to all the elders at once, bypassing Pastors Anthony and Tonetta.
