No man today can deny that sex plays an important role in human life. Yet when the subject of sex is under consideration, there are those who ask whether the Christian Church has any right to involve itself with such a topic. There are those who, in all sincerity, insist that the domain of religion in restricted to consideration of the mysteries of God and the universe. But the Christian faith is not a nebulous abstraction, detached from the world in which we are living. If the Christian faith is not relevant to man’s everyday life, it is not relevant to man at all.
The basic Christian doctrine of creation has implications for sex education. The Book of Genesis is a profound theological treatise which declares that everything was made by God and was very good. Man, the crown of creation, is described as being made “in the image of God.” How strikingly beautiful is the description of man’s creation: God took the dust of the earth and breathed into it the breath of life. Man is not, and was never intended to be, merely a biological specimen of the highest order. He is created in God’s image.
In light of this truth the Christian Church must be ready to assert that sex is not just a physiological phenomenon. If man were but an animal with sex as a seasonal instinct, there would be no reason why he should not play the game of musical beds in his neighbors’ boudoirs. But when any man exploits another human being as an object for self-gratification, he is living on the animal level.
Another factor that can be culled from the creation narrative is the thought that man was not made to be alone. Companionship is part of the divine plan for God’s highest creation. So it is that man has his friends, his communities, his nations. But more profound is the suggestion in the Bible that at least part of man’s incompleteness is sexual. Does not the biblical account imply that sex was established by God to be the ultimate in fellowship between people who were not designed to live alone, physically, psychologically, or spiritually? Sex needs to be seen in this light by modern man. Is it not an opportunity, even a responsibility, of the Church to guide him into a proper understanding of the sexual relationship? Sex is not and must not be considered as something unclean.
With this understanding of man, one must then turn to ask what the biblical teaching is about the relationship between these persons created by God. The Christion tradition teaches clearly that marriage is the bond entered into by two people, each responsible to the other and both responsible for the children who may be born as a result of their sexual relationship. Three striking terms are used in the Bible to describe marriage. If these can be made clear by the Christian Church, there will be a decrease in problems within marriage.
The first of these terms is love. As is well known, the Bible uses several words all of which are translated as love. One of these is the Greek word eros, which generally refers to the sexual love of a husband and a wife. The other Greek word is agape, which generally refers to the love of one for the sake of the other, without any concern for self-gratification. This is the word, for example, used by Jesus when he told his followers that they are to love their enemies and their neighbors. The Christian Church needs to make clear that on the basis of biblical teaching it is possible, yea, even necessary, for everyone, whether married or unmarried, to practice agape love. All too often, however, the Church has failed to emphasize that when Paul commanded husbands to love their wives, he used the same term, agape. He wrote to the Ephesians, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (5:25, RSV). Husband and wife are to love each other not simply for the gratification each derives from the other but because of the desire to want to offer one’s best to one’s beloved.
The second term used for the marriage relationship is know. This usage is especially familiar to those who study the King James Version of the Bible. When the word knowledge or know is used, it can be taken in two ways. It is possible to gain knowledge about a certain subject—nuclear physics, or the preparation of apple pies—by reading a book. As a result, one might become a better physicist or a better cook. But there is a more profound meaning implied in the biblical term. This is the knowledge by identity, by person-to-person relationship, illustrated in the bodily contact of the sexual act. Matthew’s account of Mary and Joseph illustrates this. When Joseph awoke from his vision, he knew Mary not until she had borne her son.
The Church needs to make clear that nothing is more fallacious than the modern suggestion that the best way to learn about sex is to experiment with various partners. The Church should be quick to declare that promiscuous sex relations are wrong and that those who engage in them know, in fact, nothing of the deep and meaningful experience of sexual love between husband and wife.
The third term applied to marriage is mystery. St. Paul wrote, “… a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one. This is a great mystery …” (Eph. 5:31, 32). The Christian Church needs to declare unashamedly that there is an enchanting secret reserved for married life, disclosed only in that moment of ecstasy when for the first time a man and a woman are made aware of their mutual dependence. In this physical union the mystery of man is revealed. This revelation must not be debased by illicit relations entered into apart from marriage.
These words of the Apostle strikingly suggest an underlying spiritual union of the husband and the wife that is symbolized by the physical union. If two have become truly one, this union is essentially beyond dissolution apart from the death of one of the partners. Is there, then, any place for divorce in a Christian marriage?
In this day characterized by many unhappy marriages, promiscuity, adultery, and divorce, the Christian Church has a real opportunity to utilize its scriptural basis in its teachings about a most vital part of human life in light of the will of God for men.
E. Herbert Nygren is chairman of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Emory and Henry College, Emory, Virginia. He holds the A.B. degree from Taylor University, the S.T.B. degree from Biblical Seminary, and the A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from New York University.
Suffering
If flowers reasoned, would they understand
Why suddenly the gardener’s lzand
Uproots,
Selects,
Transplants
To give their roots moye room, their leaves more air–
Would flowers misconstrue this care
As wrath,
Contempt,
Disdain?
Or be content to let their beauty show
His wisdom … or demand to know
His plan
Intent
Design?
JANE W. LAUBER
