Paul wrote about sex. Much of what he wrote cut across the grain of first-century pagan society. For the same reason, many people reject his teachings today. His 2000-year-old views are considered out-of-date and unworkable in today’s world.
Why should the opinions of a first-century Jewish rabbi influence how we conduct ourselves in the privacy of our own bedrooms? Because he speaks for Jesus. The Lord Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me” (John 13:20).
In this space, I have been writing about apostolic authority in the ministry of Paul. He taught and wrote like an inspired delegate of the Lord himself. His writings carried the authority of the Lord Jesus (Galatians 1:11-12). When he wrote about sex it was because sexual immorality was a problem that needed to be addressed in the churches he founded in the world of the Roman Empire.
What did Paul mean when he told Christians to avoid sexual immorality? The word he used, porneia, is an inclusive word denoting all sex outside of heterosexual marriage. This is a term which included prostitution (1 Corinthians 6:13-20), incest (1 Corinthians 5:1), and homosexual practice (1 Corinthians 6:9). It is easy to see why people today want to try to explain away, reinterpret, or discredit Paul’s teaching.
His influence is unpopular because American society is moving in the opposite direction of God’s moral law. Many people are embracing the practices and beliefs of those who do not know God. They are taking their cues from movies, TV, social media, and from a morally vacuous intellectual elite.
On the other hand, Paul writes about faithfulness in marriage in 1 Corinthians 7 because God upholds the sanctity of marriage. He writes about moral purity in 1 Thessalonians 4 because God wants his people to reflect his holy character. He writes about homosexual practice in Romans 1 because it is a violation of the natural order of God’s creation. Immoral practices are offensive to a holy God “who will punish all who commit such sins” (1 Thessalonians 4:6).
Paul instructs us “how to live in order to please God … It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans who do not know God” (1 Thessalonians 4:1, 3-5). Paul writes the way he does because he knows that God still has a say in this matter.
He added that “anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1:8). That statement reflects his authority as a spokesman for Jesus Christ.
Now for some questions.
Was Paul a prude? Was he against pleasure? Not at all. He always agreed with the Hebrew scriptures. The Old Testament said that marital intimacy was for pleasure as well as procreation (Genesis 18:12). The scriptures celebrate this in Proverbs 5:18-19 and Song of Solomon. Nothing Paul says contradicts this. In fact, he took a firm stand against asceticism and legalism in his writings (Colossians 2:16, 20-23, 1 Timothy 4:1-4). He consistently affirmed the beauty and mystery of human sexuality in marriage (1 Corinthians 7:36, Ephesians 5:31-33).
Did Paul hate homosexuals? To be sure, he condemned homosexual behavior (Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:10). It was the act or the practice of homosexuality against which he wrote so clearly. But the apostle who told us to speak the truth in love, did that very thing when he cared for the souls of all men and women saying, “God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy2:4). God does not hate homosexuals and neither did Paul.
He taught that sexual expression is for marriage, and, like Jesus (Mark 10:6-9), he taught that a true marriage is a union of a male and a female. This was established by the Creator when he instituted marriage (Genesis 1:27, 2:24). Gay marriage is not wrong because straight people feel that it is wrong. It is wrong because God’s Word says so. To agree with God’s Word is not bigotry or hatred. It is “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).
What did he mean by the term “flesh”? The physical flesh of the human body is not sinful. The word “flesh” is often used metaphorically to refer to the sinful nature in human beings. Paul is not saying that the body is evil or pleasure is wrong when he listed the sinful “works of the flesh” in Galatians 5:19-21. Sexual sins are included in the list but there are other offenses that are just as damaging, such as hatred, discord, jealousy, rage, selfishness, drunkenness, etc. Paul was not obsessed with sex. He was addressing specific problems in the Christian communities of the Greek and Roman world of the first century.
Shouldn’t these teachings on sex be interpreted in a culturally limited way? Admittedly, some of Paul’s instructions in the New Testament have a limited application to specific places and circumstances. Examples include eating foods sacrificed to idols, head coverings in worship services, certain spiritual gifts, and what Paul says, and doesn’t say, about slavery.
Paul’s teachings on sexual conduct for Christians are not limited to one place or time. The same teachings were written to churches in different locations all over the world. They were consistent with the teachings of the Old Testament and those of Jesus. They are rooted in God’s created order and as such are to be applied universally. His picture of monogamous, heterosexual marriage is a sublime illustration of Christ and his bride, the church.
When Paul wrote about sex, he did so to steer us away from the damage and penalties that follow a lifestyle of immorality. His teaching guides us into a life that aligns with God’s “good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12: 1-2).
