Since the sexual revolution in the mid-20th century, the traditional understanding of sexuality has been put under the microscope. Many proponents of the sexual revolution saw monogamy as restrictive and vicious rather than a virtue. Likewise, when it came to other questions of acceptable sexual behavior, champions of the sexual revolution advocated for expanding the bounds of what is considered acceptable. Ever since the sexual revolution, the question has often been asked of Christians, “Why does God care who I sleep with at all?”
Placing the Sexual Revolution Under The Microscope
But before I address that question directly, it is useful to place the sexual revolution under the microscope as well. Vince Vitale wrote: “When I look at the last 50-plus years in the West, one of the conclusions that I come to is that when we experimented as a society with a sexual revolution that severed sex from any proper meaning and purpose and context, the results were largely and gravely antithetical to human flourishing. The results have included drastic rises in divorce, addiction to pornography, marital unfaithfulness, abortion, and sex trafficking, to name just a few.” This summarizes the history of sexual ethics in the last half-century. Ironically, it is this view of sex that is outdated. We tried it. It didn't work.
God Cares Because: God Created Sex
But that still leaves the question: Why does God care who I sleep with? First, God cares who we sleep with because God created sex. After creating Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:27, the first command God gives to them is, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” (Gen. 1:28). That is to say that God's first command to humankind was to procreate, have sex, and fill the world with his image bearers. God created sex for a purpose, and just like everything God created, it is important to steward it in a godly and healthy way.
Take, for example, money. Jesus spoke frequently about money and the dangers that can come when money controls our lives. That is why he said, “No one can serve two masters... You cannot serve both God and money” (Matt. 6:24). Jesus knew that anything created by God can be used by fallen human beings to replace God. These things can also make us think we know better than God and don't need God.
This is obvious in the case of money, which can control and consume people's lives. John D. Rockefeller once said that he would have enough money when he earned one dollar more. His point was that it's never enough. Money makes a false promise to satisfy us in a way that only God can.
Sex is similar. It can become the driving focus of a person's life and take the place of God in their hearts. It is helpful to remind ourselves what Augustine once said—that we should guard ourselves from loving the gifts of God more than God Himself. In other words, we should be on guard against loving creation—even good things like sex and money—more than the creator himself. To do so ultimately leads to our ruin.
God Cares Because: Our Bodies Matter
The second reason God cares about who we sleep with is because our bodies matter. God did not just make us embodied souls, but our bodies are actually so important to God that he sent his Son Jesus to live in a human body, die in a human body, and resurrect again in a human body. As we speak, Jesus is in heaven at the right hand of God the Father in a human body. Jesus is both God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever.
Some people believe that what we do with our bodies is incidental to our relationship with God, but Jesus shows us the exact opposite. When Jesus took on human flesh, he showed that God cares deeply about the human body and how we use our bodies in this world. God places prohibitions on gluttony and self-harm because he cares. So too, God places healthy and holy restrictions around our sexuality because our bodies are his creation and our bodies matter to him deeply.
God Cares Because: We are New Creations in Christ
Thirdly, God cares who we sleep with because we are new creations in Christ. God says that everyone who has faith in Jesus has been born again and has been fundamentally changed into a new creature. We are not made for this world or for eternal death in hell, but we have been fashioned and remade to be creatures who will one day inhabit God's kingdom in heaven. That is why Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, saying, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit of God.” (1 Cor. 6:9–11)
Paul was insistent on this point that sex outside of God's intended design was part of our old way of life. That is why he says to the Corinthians, whom he loves, “such were some of you.” He tells them that a new reality has broken in because of the grace of Jesus in their life. He says they were washed from their former sins. They have been sanctified and set apart from the world around them, and they have been justified, meaning they have been forgiven and received righteousness in the name of Jesus by the Spirit of God. This is an act of God’s grace to take us out of sin generally and sexual sin, specifically, and to set us apart for eternal life with him. Paul says this is not just a change in our way of thinking, but it is actually a fundamental change in who we are now before God.
We are new creatures and new creatures who have been saved by God, who no longer see God's prescriptions for sexuality as burdensome or oppressive. Rather, we experience them as life-giving and joyful prescriptions meant for our flourishing and good.
That is why asking, “Why does God care who I sleep with?” may actually be the wrong question. Instead, our question should be, “How can I serve God with my body and my sexual ethics? How can I submit my body to his loving guidance and care?”
