A Biblical Sexual Ethic & The Beauty of the Gospel
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Main Idea: God cares about who we sleep with because sex is not just about sex, but a signpost to the gospel
I. The Beautiful Design of Sex
Wrong approaches toward sex:
Discount
Demonize
Deify
Instead of these approaches, sex is God’s good gift to his creation to be enjoyed in the context he created it for: a man & a woman within the covenant of marriage. God’s beautiful design for sex within this context includes:
1. Oneness: Unity & Diversity (Gen. 2:18; 2:24)
2. Intimacy: Joyful Self-Giving (Gen. 2:24-25. 1 Cor. 7:3-5)
1 Cor. 7:3-5: The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
3. Fruitfulness: Potential for Procreation (Gen. 1:26-28)
II. The Brokenness of Sexual Immorality
Sexual immorality distorts this beautiful design for sex:
It detaches sex from the covenant of marriage
“Sex is perhaps the most powerful God-created way to help you give your entire self to another human being. Sex is God’s appointed way for two people to reciprocally say to one another ‘I belong completely, permanently, and exclusively to you.’ You must not use sex to say anything less.” ~ Tim Keller
It uses sex as “self-serving” rather than “self-giving”
“Lust is a cheap thrill at the expense of another human being, but without any personal accountability or commitment to that human being.” ~ Scott Sauls
Matthew 5:27–28: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
“Jesus is saying that sexual integrity is so precious that it must not be violated, even in the privacy of someone else’s mind. Even if [the other person] were to never find out about it, [they] would have been greatly wronged by being thought about lustfully.” ~ Sam Allberry
1 Corinthians 6:18–19: Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
Paul reminds the church in Thessalonica that the Lord is an “avenger” in these things, which ought to comfort those who have been victims & humble all of us who are guilty of sexual sin.
Hebrews 13:4: Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
III. The Power Beyond Sex
For those who “know God” (4:5), they know:
1. There is grace, healing, and hope for our sexual sin & brokenness
“... and such were some of you” (1 Cor. 6:11)
“It’s not just that I’m hooked and need a fix, or that I’m overly dependent on external stimuli to try and achieve happiness. That can all be true yet still an inadequate diagnosis of what’s really going on if it doesn’t recognize the insatiability of my hunger isn’t a bug but a feature – a signal that I long for something infinite. Wanting more isn’t the problem; it’s where I keep looking for it.” ~ James K.A. Smith
2. The reason sex is so powerful is because it points to something far greater than itself
“The search for sexual excitement is not really men & women looking for biochemical sensations. We are not, ultimately, even looking for each other. We are looking for that to which sex points- something we know exists but just can’t identify. We are looking to be part of a love that is as strong a death (Song of Sol. 8:6), stronger in fact. We are looking, whether we know it or not, for a Christ and for a church.” ~ Russell Moore
