Sex Without God

At its simplest, we should have sex (or not) like people who know God. Paul says, “This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thessalonians 4:3–5).

The Gentiles — unbelievers, in the world and not in Christ — are involved in all kinds of sexual nonsense. They lose control of their lusts, dishonor their own and others’ bodies, and dive headlong into sexual immorality. None of that should surprise us too much because they don’t know God. We should expect them to go too far, and too fast — to fool around with the random person at the party, or sleep with their third or fourth person in a month, or move in with their boyfriend.

If God is out of the picture, sex can seem like as good a god as any. It will still fail them forever, but that doesn’t bother them, because they don’t believe in Jesus or sin, heaven or hell. They believe in now, in living it up here on earth as much as possible, and for as long as possible — until repentance is no longer possible.

Like We Know God

In Christ, we know better. We know that sin, death, and hell are as real as the roof over our heads, last month’s cell-phone bill, or the Grand Canyon. They’re not ideas flying around in our philosophy class. They’re realities hanging over every inch of our lives.

We live every moment in the shadow of a real Creator and a real judge, one who knows our every thought and move. We know that we deserve less than nothing because of our sin, that we’ve earned conscious, relentless, inescapable destruction for ourselves, and that “everyone who is sexually immoral or impure . . . has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Ephesians 5:3–5). And we know that Christ came to die — the crown of thorns, the whip filled with rocks, the nails in his hands and feet, the terrifying wrath of God — for our sin and to rescue us out of sin.

God made each of us and invented sex — why would we act like we know better than him? God warns us that sexual immorality leads to pain, shame, slavery, and ultimately judgment — why would we risk so much for a little pleasure now? God bought our forgiveness, freedom, and purity with the blood of his own Son — an infinite cost — why would we heap more sin on his shoulders and drive the nails even deeper? God waits with open arms to welcome us into a never-ending adventure of peace and happiness with him — why would we trade it away for a few seconds of satisfaction?