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Sexuality is not incidental to who we are; it’s woven into the fabric of our personhood. Yet Christians have often struggled to speak about sexuality in a clear, biblical, and forthright manner. Many are hesitant to discuss the subject with their children or to address it in the church. But if we don’t teach a biblical theology of sexuality, the world will gladly fill the void. We can’t afford to act as if sex is merely a peripheral issue. It’s a crucial part of what it means to be human.
Of all people, Christians should recognize this. After all, God created humanity male and female, and He declared them “very good” (Gen. 1:31). He designed the human body intentionally, and in the garden, Adam and Eve stood before one another unashamed. Scripture speaks about the body—yes, even its most private aspects—far more openly than we often do. Consider circumcision, one of the most enduring signs of belonging to God’s covenant people. The word is so familiar that many avoid reflecting on its meaning: the removal of a part of the male reproductive organ. What kind of God would command such a sign? A God who is not bashful about the body but who designed sex itself as an instrument of His covenant purposes. Through Abraham’s union with Sarah, God would bring forth the promised child, and the mark on Abraham’s body would serve as a constant reminder that even human sexuality belongs to Him.
Today, we are bombarded with worldly messages about sex—its meaning, its pleasures, its supposed freedoms. In this, we are not unlike the early Christians, who found themselves regularly tempted by their culture to indulge in sexual immorality. Consequently, when Christianity first spread across the Mediterranean world, one of its most striking distinctions was its sexual ethic. Writing in AD 112, the Roman governor Pliny reported to Emperor Trajan that Christians gathered early in the morning to sing hymns to Christ and “to bind themselves by an oath—not to commit crime, but to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, and breach of faith.” From the earliest days of the church, believers have been marked by their moral integrity, and the pursuit of sexual purity has been a defining characteristic of their faith.
Some things never change. Christians today are called to the same ethic, even in a vastly different cultural moment. We are still commanded to honor God with our bodies (1 Cor. 6:19), to present them as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1), and to follow Christ in all things (Luke 9:23)—including our sexuality.