Christians and Sexual Issues: Speak Now or Forever Hold your Peace?

Controversy for its own sake is a sin, but controversy for the sake of the truth is a divine mandate.
-Dr. Walter Martin

In light of last weekend’s tragedy in Orlando, some commentators are claiming that Christian teachings on sexuality somehow inspire people to hate, then harm, homosexuals. Some suggest we should be silenced altogether; others say we’re majoring in minors when we hold fast to Biblical sexual standards, and that we should preach and teach on other more pressing issues.

Tomorrow we’ll look at the “hate” charge. But today, let’s visit the question of sexuality itself as a doctrinal point. Is homosexuality an important enough topic for the modern church to take, then express, a position on? Is it an essential subject for the pulpit, critical enough to enforce in congregational life? And outside the congregation, should it even be discussed in secular settings?

Because if it doesn’t matter to God, then it shouldn’t matter to us. Yet even if it does matter to Him, does it matter a lot, like murder? Or just a little, like
nail-biting?

There are, after all, plenty of other topics for a Christian to get excited about. ISIS looms; human trafficking is a growing blight around the world; the economy’s off life support but still far from mobile. So in light of terrorism, poverty, violence, and corruption at every level,  it’s easy to consider sexual morality a secondary matter.

And even if we do see it as something worth fighting for, the most commonly practiced sexual sins, such as consensual sex apart from marriage, homosexuality, the use of porn, or visiting strip clubs, might seem tame next to others. Compare lust to abortion – the taking of an innocent life – or to teen pregnancy, with its tragic repercussions; or to the wounds inflicted by molestation; or to the glaring evil of forced prostitution. Next to these, private erotic pleasures, practiced by adults, can seem mild. Wrong, maybe, but not worth action or outrage. So if someone’s falling short in this area, what’s the big deal?

A few points about the concept of created intent come to mind.

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

If we weren’t created, and therefore answered to no creator, then it makes sense to 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 by 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.”

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

This is pretty plainly spelled out 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. That’s what the concept of Created Intent is all about.

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

It’s good to remember 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 then 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. So sure, we regard all sin as serious, but sexual sin carries a severity in both its nature and its consequences. Worse than mass murder? Surely not. But since when does a comparison between two wrongs make either of them less wrong?

None of which implies we’re called to coerce others into obedience to Biblical sexual standards. But while we’re surely not commissioned to be the morality police, we are commissioned to express God’s heart and mind on relevant topics, make disciples (an impossibility without clear moral guidelines) and, most importantly, live within those guidelines ourselves. Expressing a position on morality is a far cry from imposing that position, a point I wish more people
could grasp.

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

And it should matter to us. Living today in purity, holding to sound doctrine regarding our Creator’s intentions for our sexuality, then encouraging others to do the same, aren’t doctrinal abstracts. They’re essentials.