Why Do Christians Care So Much About Sex?

You’re in a conversation and someone says, “Christians are so hung up about sex. Why is it such a big deal to them?” What would you say? Before you can know what you should do with something, you have to know what that something is for. For example, I used to love to look at the tools in my grandpa’s garage. But he wouldn’t let me just play them however I wanted because he knew I might break them, or something else, or myself! He would explain to me what they did by describing what they were for. Everything that’s created has a purpose. Jackhammers are for breaking up rock or pavement, YouTube is for sharing and watching videos, a refrigerator is for keeping food cool. The same principle applies to sex. The only way for us to know how we should act sexually toward others, is to first answer the question, “What is sex for?” Once we know what sex is for, we can know how to experience it as God intended for it to be experienced. So the next time someone asks you why Christians care so much about sex, explain that it’s because God created sex for three important purposes: Number 1: God invented sex for procreation. Sex makes babies. Right at the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 1, God creates humans as male and female and tells them to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” This is both a blessing from God, and a command. That’s right – having sex and making babies is actually a command. Sex is a procreative act. This is true even when a child does not result. Some couples aren’t able to have kids. Yet, when they are sexually active, their bodies unite in a way that is oriented toward procreation, even if the woman doesn’t become pregnant in that act.   Because sex has the potential to create new life, it is one of the most powerful acts that human beings can do. This means that sex is a means to a greater end, it is not just an end in and of itself as it is often treated today. Number 2: God invented sex to create “one-ness” between two people. One of the most powerful aspects of sex is its ability to bond people together. Genesis 2:24 says that a man should “leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” When a couple has sex, something changes in their relationship. They have entered into a deeper unity that is not only spiritual, but also emotional, relational, and even biochemical. Even after the physical act of sex, there’s a degree of unity that remains, and it’s designed to be lifelong. God created sex to be both an expression of and a vehicle for giving the other person your whole self. It’s designed to help bond a man and woman together for life.   Number 3: God invented sex to point to the union we’ll have with Him in Heaven. In Ephesians 5, the Apostle Paul tells us that marriage has existed since Creation to point us to the union between Christ and the Church. At the very beginning of the Bible, there’s a wedding between Adam and Eve. And at the very end of the Bible, we’re told of a wedding that is going to happen between Christ, who is the groom, and the Church, who is the Bride. Human marriage was designed to be a signpost that points us to the greater union that Christians will have with God in Heaven. As we saw earlier, the “one-flesh” union of a man and woman is a bond that entails an emotional, relational, spiritual, and physical element. When people focus merely on the physical element, they miss the deeper unity—the intimate connection—that occurs between two people in the act of sex. It is this kind of holistic union that foreshadows the kind of greater union we will have with God in Heaven. As wonderful as it is, sex only anticipates the deeper fulfilment that all believers will experience with God in Heaven. It’s foreshadowing something far greater that’s still coming. So the purpose of sex is three-fold: God invented sex for procreation, to create “one-ness” between two people, and to point to the union we’ll have with Him in Heaven.   Understanding these truths and orienting our lives around them sets us free to experience love, sex, and relationships as God designed them to be experienced. This is why sex matters so much to Christians. For What Would You Say, I’m Brooke McIntire.

Thanks to Dr. Sean McDowell for helping us with this video! For further reading, see his book Chasing Love: Sex, Love, and Relationships in a Confused Culture.