Sexuality and the Knowledge of God

In a culture where, “God is dead”, sex is a god that enslaves. In a culture where “god is love”, sex is an expression of one’s freedom for the glory of self. In a culture where god is known but as a god of the churches own making, sex is perfunctory and misused. However in the Kingdom where God is known and loved through the gospel as he reveals himself in his Word, sex is a beautiful gift of God enjoyed in the context of marriage for the knowledge and enjoyment of God.

In the next several weeks in our exposition of 1 Corinthians 6 and 7 we will be faced with the uncomfortable reality of thinking about sex. It is one thing to think about sex in the privacy of your own home, but God brings this topic into the context of corporate worship where he speaks to his own from his Word, and I think this brings the issue of sex into it’s proper perspective, Soli Deo Gloria, for the glory of God. Living in a sex crazed culture the church has lost its ability to think and talk rightly about sex. But the Scriptures are not silent on the subject. Therefore the church should think and speak clearly about this subject in a culture that is in rebellion to God who created sex for the good of his children and the glory of his name.

Sex outside of marriage is a misuse of God’s gift. Sex in the context of marriage is designed for our knowledge and enjoyment of him and the protection of his creatures. Sexual immorality is described in the Scriptures as porneia. To the prophets and apostles this includes using the gift of sex outside of the context of marriage. It is a misuse of sex in adultery, fornication, lust, pornography, prostitution, homosexuality, rape etc.. These kinds of sexual sin are the result of suppressing the knowledge of God. The apostle Paul seeks to lead the Corinthian church out of sexual sin through an understanding of God and his salvation in the doctrines of the resurrection of Christ, union with Christ and redemption in Christ (1Cor.6:12-20). Paul also writes in the book of Romans that it is the suppression of the knowledge of God that leads men and women to a debased mind and the doing of what they should not do (Rom.1:28). He says in the same chapter that the exchanging of the glory of God in worship to worship the glory of the creature and creation leads to the impure sexual life (Rom.1:23-24). In Ephesians 4 we see Paul connect impurity to not knowing God when he says, “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!” (Eph.4:19-20). Sexual immorality is practiced with the mind, the heart or the life where God is not being known, trusted and loved in Christ Jesus.

At this someone may object and say, “Look at all the sexual immorality in the church and by the leaders of the church!” However, because people are in the visible church or leading the visible church does not mean that they are knowing, trusting and loving God in Christ as he reveals himself in his Word. This is why the apostle confronts the sexual immorality in the church not by only telling them to stop doing something (1Cor.6:18), but by founding that command in the knowledge of God in Christ (1Cor.6:14, 15-17, 18-20). Therefore if sexual immorality is the result of suppressing the knowledge of God, then the way to sexual purity is through the knowledge of God in Christ. If we are going to see God turn the tables on a sexual revolution that is destroying culture, then the true knowledge of God in Jesus Christ must necessarily be revealed and applied. Jesus told his disciples that it is the truth that will set them free and it is in abiding in Christ’s word that his disciples know that truth, that setting free truth (Jn.8:31-32). Sexual impurity is not an expression of freedom. It does not matter of the mutual consent of the parties involved or the supposed love between the two people. Sexual impurity is sin. And sin is slavery. Knowing God in Christ truly through his Word revealed by the Spirit is God’s design to guard his own from sexual immorality and guide them in sexual purity in the context of marriage. Growing in the knowledge and enjoyment of God in Christ is very practical right down to our own sexuality.