The Church and Sex

It seems that every so often some church comes up with what they take to be a new gimmick to get people into its doors. The latest is this advertisement campaign boasting that: ‘Christians have the best sex!’ Others hold parenting seminars or economic forums in order to demonstrate how their faith will help you have a more pleasant family life or more money in your pocket for which to indulge yourself.

Now, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be a better parent or being more responsible with money. What is wrong with this approach is that it treats Christ as a means. One may continue to value the things they value apart from Christ (sex and money) and they may continue to seek after them and place them first in their lives. Christ is only valuable in that He is the most effective means to attain one’s ends.

But this is false. Christ is the end, the only End that lasts or matters. Only in Him do we become fully us. If we do not put Him first we will lose Him and all else. Think of the parable of the men with the talents. Those with much (Christ) will get even more; him without Christ will lose even the little that he has.

So instead of treating Christ as a frosting to which we add to our already sweet life, I would like to see Christians scorn at the things of the world in favor of Christ. Instead of a sermon that promotes better sex, I would like to see one entitled: ‘We live in a world that values sex and money above all else. REPENT! So long as you seek after things besides Christ you will never be satisfied and if you continue to persist you will ultimately forfeit your very self, your soul!’

The church should offer a true alternative to the world; not just what the world has to offer, but in a better way. Doing so will require that people repent and change their thinking. In this case it will require them to make Christ their Lord in the place of sex. The purpose of our faith is not to make our life more pleasant here; the purpose of our faith is to reconcile us with God so that we may know Him and spend eternity in bliss with Him. No matter how great our life is on this earth it is but a shadow of the True Life which is to come. As a church we should spend more of our time brining men into this True Life rather than aiding them in their quest to construct the best possible shadow (a task in which we often lose sight of the Light).