This week Pastor Luke continued on with our 1 Corinthians series with Chapter 7: talking about marriage, sex, and singleness.
The big point is that both sex and sinlessness is a gift.
Point One: Sex is a gift.
Paul is giving a renewed vision for sex inside of marriage to the Corinthian church. Historically, sex has been viewed as two opposite extremes, either animalistic and sinful, or angelic and off limits. Neither of these views is correct, and every generation seems to miss it in some way when it comes to sexuality.
Instead, we need to see sex through a Biblical lens, understanding that it is a good gift to be expressed and experienced within the safe context of a marriage covenant.
If you are not willing to be completely vulnerable with somebody legally, consistently, emotionally, mentally and covenantally, you should not be naked and vulnerable with them sexually. Sex doesn’t create intimacy, it comes from intimacy.
From that point, Pastor Luke gave five application points for married couples:
Don’t withhold sex from one another, as mutual submission within marriage is key.
Your spouse is your standard of beauty. If you start looking in any other direction you will run into porneia (sexual immorality).
Sex takes work, but practice often and fight for it. It’s important to have healthy expectations and understand that God is in the business of restoration.
Sex should never be used as a punishment or reward.
The only time not to have regular sex with your spouse is to set aside time to pray. Not having regular sex opens couples up to temptation, and it’s important to fight for a healthy sex life. Don’t settle in this area. God created sex too good for it to be stolen.
Point two: Singleness is a gift.
In church culture, we haven’t always a done a great job with celebrating singleness, and we need to have a renewed vision for the gift and calling that it is.
Paul had a celibate lifestyle, and calls others to do the same because single people can devote themselves to God in a way that married people can not.
In your singleness, it’s important to guard yourself against porneia as a great sex life starts when you are single.
Sex and singleness are both gifts, but it’s always, always about the giver – and dedicating ourselves most fully to Jesus.
