Put Sex in its Place!

1 Corinthians 7:1-16

"But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband." 1 Corinthians 7:2

Paul is addressing one of the most sexually driven societies of history. The Greek and Roman legacy of uninhibited sexual conquest is well known. Sex was a way to make money for those that were slaves. Sex was a form of worship that was expressed through temple prostitutes as a sacrifice to the idols of fertility. 

In short, sex was a money making enterprise. Sex was big business, and business was good.

The natural response to becoming Christian for these Corinthians was to refrain from sex. If sex was the problem then the problem could be eliminated. Some of them decided to simply stop having sex. Yet, Paul does not approve of this response. Sex is a problem. More pointedly, the desire for sex, unabated, is a problem. To remove sex from the marriage was not a way to solve the problem. In fact, it made the problem worse. If the man and wife were to withhold sex from the other it could increase the temptation to fall back into previous ways of obtaining sexual satisfaction. Paul says, keep sex in marriage. But he means, keep having sex in marriage.

We face a society that sells sex. Here, sex is big business and business is good. Our kids are taught to relent to their desires for whatever they want. We are sold a lie. So that we will buy the result of that lie. This is not enlightenment. It is indulgence. Indulgence leads to becoming inconsequential. As a person. As a nation. As a culture.

Sex belongs.

But it does not belong in public.

It does not belong outside of marriage.

It does not make me a better person to have control over my sexual desires.

But those that have control over their sexual desires (including the ones that share them with their spouse) are more consequential people.