by ProfDave, ©2021
(Jan. 27, 2021) — Talking turkey. When’s the last time you did that in church? Is “sin” even still in the dictionary? Even I tend to talk about brokenness and alienation – secular words for the same thing. But sin is the Biblical word. True, we sin because we are broken and separated from God and sin in turn breaks us and separates us from God. Which comes first? It is an unbroken chain all the way back to our first ancestors.
What is sin? The one thing that “brokenness” and “alienation” language misses is our will, our choice. Either we say to God, “thy will be done” or God says to us “OK, have it your way.” His way or our way. Right or wrong. We have many ways of deceiving ourselves, excusing, justifying and evading. But God calls wrongdoing sin. “Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” And the wages, the consequences, of sin is destruction. Nothing vindictive on His part, just cause and effect that He has fully warned us about.
First century Corinth was a combination of Las Vegas and San Francisco, with temple prostitution thrown in for good measure. In his letters, a large part of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul always emphasized grace, the distinctive Christian message. God is reaching out to reconcile us to himself, to make us good, instead of us trying to be good in order to reconcile ourselves to God. In I Corinthians 6, Paul reminds us that goodness does matter. We cannot earn our way into the kingdom, but in verses 9-11 he tells us that wrongdoers are excluded and gives us a list of examples.
The Bible is far from naïve about the existence of evil in our world and acknowledges that some of that evil is sexual. The practice of evil excludes us from the presence of an infinitely good God. Paul’s list of those excluded includes, you guessed it, “the sexually immoral, . . . adulterers, . . . male prostitutes . . . homosexual offenders . . . .” Four out of ten on the list are sexual. Pretty clear. “And such were some of you, but you were washed clean, and you were consecrated and you were justified . . . .” We cannot clean ourselves up, but we must be cleaned up. Living like Corinthians, the way we were, is not an option.
Note, sexual orientation is a modern concept not found in the Bible and same-sex – or opposite sex – attraction is called temptation therein. What is addressed here is sexual practice, not desire. Desire is not what makes you immoral, but your capitulation to it – then what it does to you when it masters you.
You may object, with the Corinthians, that “everything is permissible” (I Corinthians 6:12). Christians are not required to earn God’s approval by living up to the law of Moses. The laws of Corinth and America are pretty much indifferent. Our new “constitutional” right to privacy shields the unimaginable. OK, but not everything is “beneficial.” Legal does not make it right.
“As long as it doesn’t hurt anybody?” You’ve got to be kidding. At best you hurt yourself and everyone who loves and depends on you. At worst, you leave generations of broken hearts and lives in your wake.
“I will not be mastered by anything,” says the Apostle. Forty years of modern neuro- and social science tells us what Paul already knew: sex is highly addictive – as powerful as any drug on the street. It is supposed to bind you to your spouse for life, but when misused commits you to an endless downward spiral that never quite satisfies. It will take over your life. Kiss your marriage, your family, your sons and daughters, your grandchildren, your friendships, your God, your career, even your sexual fulfillment goodbye! Sexual sin has consequences.
After all, we have needs. “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food.” Right? So what are reproductive organs for? Reproduction, perhaps? Does purpose define right and wrong? What are women for? Men? St. Paul’s answer: “the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (I Corinthians 6:13). What is the purpose of your life on this planet?
Animal behavior is determined by instinct, written in their DNA and expressed in their biochemistry. A dog acts like a dog during mating season (unless it has been “fixed”). It has no choice. People have choices. We can do right or wrong, exercising control over our natural (or unnatural) impulses, behaving better or worse than an animal. With sentience comes responsibility. A dog cannot commit adultery or abstain; a man can. Jesus-followers realize that both food and stomach, digestion and sex, are feeble things of the moment. But the power that raised Christ from the dead goes on forever. In the light of that power, we believe that relationships are more important than appetites – although we don’t always act like it. And it is possible, through a Power beyond ourselves – to choose what is right.
But, you and the Corinthians may protest – vehemently – it is my body and what I do with my body is my business and nobody else’s! Where did you get your body? Did you just pop into existence out of nowhere all by yourself as a result of a miniature big bang (the big pop?)? Did a heterosexual act – a man’s desire and a woman’s choice – have nothing to do with it? But I digress.
The Apostle Paul had news for the Corinthians (I Corinthians 1:19-20) and for you, if you call yourself a Christian: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, who you received from God? You are not your own, you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” It isn’t your body!
So we are back to the original commitment thing: either we say to God, “thy will be done” or God says to us “OK, have it your way.” His way or our way. Right or wrong. There is such a thing as sexual sin.
If you don’t happen to be a Christian, you still face the same issue. Whose body is it? To whom or what you give your body, to them or it you belong. On one level, it is a matter of neurochemistry. With an appropriate spouse, it becomes part of a holistic intimacy that will nurture you and your family for a lifetime. With inappropriate, promiscuous, pictorial or even imaginary partners it wears away the very capacity for intimacy of all kinds. On the higher level, you need to ask yourself who or what you are living for. Your purpose defines your ethics.
Again, is there such a thing as sexual “sin”? Do you agree that there is such a thing as good and evil? Right and wrong? Then certainly some evils, some wrongs, may be sexual. Do you agree that, as sentient beings, we have a measure of control over our behavior – it isn’t all knee-jerk instinct? Are you and I are responsible for our behavior, sexual or otherwise? Then sexual sin is possible. The rest, as they say, is details.
What does sexual wrong do? It separates you from God. No matter how much you fight it, you feel guilt, like a low-grade toothache. You act like you have a toothache! No matter how devout you are, there is a curtain between you and God’s presence – that you may not recognize until it is gone. There is also a curtain between you and the opposite sex (or the same sex, if that is your inclination). It becomes harder and harder to relate to them as persons. The curtain becomes a wall. You feel shame.
You have a secret life. No matter how you try to hide it or defend it, it (the fantasies, the porn, the affair, the sexuality) becomes a distraction at work, at home, at play. If you are married, there are other people in your bed. It takes more and more to make you feel half-good. It becomes an obsession. Life becomes a distraction from sex and, incidentally, the sex gets worse and worse. You are a divided person. Life is out of control because your sexuality is out of your control. What you thought was freedom becomes slavery.
But there is hope. There are groups for that. There is a Higher Power for that. A way to break the chains, to turn slavery into freedom.
We have asked the question posed in an adult Bible study. Is there such a thing as sexual sin? Very likely, we concluded. Sex is just another way of doing the wrong thing and separating ourselves from a perfectly good God. If you do wrong in any area you are a wrongdoer, it doesn’t matter which one it is.
Why does God make a big deal about sex? Why did He make the creation male and female? Even garden hoses are male and female! Evidently He cares about humanity. We are made in His image. Human life is sacred. Both male and female are sacred. The union of male and female in marriage is sacred – two different sentient beings committed to each other, progressively knowing one another physically, emotionally and spiritually. Paul tells us this is an analogy of the relationship God wants with us. He is all about harmony and intimacy. The Bible is shot through with marriage analogies and heaven itself is pictured as a wedding banquet.
St. Paul gives two reasons in I Corinthians 6:14-19 why God cares. We are members of Christ and joining our bodies “with a harlot” (or a center-fold) is adultery against Him – not just our present or future spouse. Unless repented and miraculously healed, it spoils the spiritual intimacy we should have enjoyed with Him forever. Marriage is the model and boot-camp God has given for our relationships with Himself.
Secondly, sexual wrong is an offense against our own bodies in a way that other sins are not. Science is just discovering how sexual addiction changes brain chemistry permanently and how vulnerable promiscuity makes us to disease and dysfunction. The damage of sexual evil begins with us and spreads outward.
Today’s Word: “Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” I Thessalonians 5:22-23. Did you catch that? He will do it! Abstaining from all kinds of evil is something I can’t do. Setting myself apart to God is something I can’t do. Preserving myself blameless is something I can’t do. Faithful is what I am not. But He is and He can. I will depend on Him – and pray for you, too.
God bless!
David W. Heughins (“ProfDave”) is Adjunct Professor of History at Nazarene Bible College. He holds a BA from Eastern Nazarene College and a PhD in history from the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Holiness in 12 Steps (2020). He is a Vietnam veteran and is retired, living with his daughter and three grandchildren in Connecticut.
Well said. Biblical truth. Not taught in enough churches.