Purity: Why All The Fuss?

Every Wednesday we’ll post something to do with doctrine and recovery. Hope it helps.

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Purity: Why All the Fuss?

“It is a mark of great people to treat trifles as trifles, and important matters as important.” – Doris Lessing

If something doesn’t matter to God, then it needn’t matter to us.

There are, after all, countless issues for Christians to be concerned about. So in an age marred by terrorism, poverty, violence, and corruption at every level, some would assume that sexual morality is, by its nature, a secondary matter. In fact, I’m often asked why so many Christians and their churches are concerned about the moral state of both the Church and the Culture. What, they ask, is the rationale for so much concern?

A few points on the Bible and its approach to human sexuality are useful in response. They help explain the reasons we celebrate human sexuality, even as we’re concerned about the millions who misuse it.

1. We are created beings (Genesis 2:7; Revelation 4:11)

If we weren’t created, and therefore answered to no creator, we might judge the rightness or wrongness of our behavior by its rightness or wrongness in our own eyes. But if we, as created beings, will finally answer to our Maker, then it matters less what seems right and natural to us, and more what is deemed right and natural to Him. Christian apologist and radio host Gregory Koukle states it plainly:

“But if God is there (which is what the Christian says), it doesn’t matter what is preferred. It only matters what is true.” Transcript from 1994 broadcast on Stand to Reason titled “Preference or Truth?”

2. Our Creator has specific intentions for our existence and behavior, which are spelled out in scripture.

This is seen most noticeably in the Mosaic Law, the Psalms and Proverbs, the Prophetic Books, the Gospels and the Epistles, all of which are brimming with instructions, prohibitions and warnings, testifying to a God who is not passive or unconcerned about His creation. We were fashioned with specific purposes in mind, purposes we’ll refer to as Created Intent.

3. These intentions are extended to our relationships in general and to our sexual relationships in particular.

It should be noted that not only did our Maker create us as human beings, but as sexual beings as well. He authored our gender distinctives and our capacity for erotic response, then looked on all He created (human sexuality included) and said, “That’s good!” (Genesis 1: 26-30) Far from being prudish or anti-sexual, then, God is the author and original celebrator of sex. Understanding this is important when approaching the next point.

4. Sexual behaviors falling short of created intent are regarded by the Creator as being serious enough to warrant public rebuke (Matthew 14:3-4) and church discipline (I Corinthians 5:1-5 ), and are considered detrimental in ways that are unique and severe. (I Corinthians 6:18) 

God finds sexual sin so abhorrent precisely because He views healthy sex as being so exquisite and meaningful . So John the Baptist risked and lost his life for taking a stand against King Herod’s immorality; the first recorded case of church discipline occurred after the Corinthian church was rebuked for allowing open immorality to be practiced in the congregation; and Paul described sexual sin as having particularly heinous impact on the person practicing it. (See scriptures listed in Point 4 above.) While we regard all sin as serious, sexual sin carries a severity in both its nature and its consequences.

If, then, we are created with and for specific intentions; if sexual sin falls short in ways that especially offend our Creator and wreak havoc in our lives; then it clearly matters. It matters to God, it matters to the church, it matters to the culture, and it should, more than ever, matter to us.