1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV)

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love.  But the greatest of these is love.

Song of Songs 4:1-4 (NIV)

¹ How beautiful you are, my darling!  Oh, how beautiful!  Your eyes behind your veil are doves.  Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead.  ² Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing.  Each has its twin; not one of them is alone.  ³ Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; your mouth is lovely.  Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate.  ⁴ Your neck is like the tower of David, built with elegance; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors.

Today’s topic will be about sex, work, and death.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 (ESV)

³ For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴ that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor, ⁵ not in the passion of lust like the heathen who do not know God; ⁶ that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you.  ⁷ For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness.  ⁸ Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. 

The areas of sex, work, and death in Thessalonica was defined by different philosophies and operated differently than Christians.

Christians stood out in their community by having a different attitude in these areas – sex, work, and death.

When Christians were sentenced to death, they went into the stadium and were singing hymns before their death.  This attitude was strongly different from the pagans and non-Christians.

Christians also had a different view of sex and work than the culture in Thessalonica.

A Greek Christian apologist Diognetus shared in a letter about Christians.  “That they share their table, their food with anyone, but not their bed.”  The pagan belief was that they held money sacred and shared their beds with others and their food.

The Christians of that day was going against social norms.  The pagans’ approach to life and social norms was evil and was apparent to all.  Christian’s belief eventually became the norm of the Roman empire.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians and us not to forget what we have been taught.  So not to slip back to a view of the world with no distinction or to a pre-Christian standard.

The rest of the sermon today is going to talk about sex.

The goodness of sex, the context of sex and the purpose of sex.  The goodness of sex?  God wants us.  He created us to be holy, glorious and great.  He created us to reflect His character in each other.  God wants us to be an active participant in His Kingdom.  (We should note the text doesn’t say abstain from sex but from immorality.)

If we take a step back and understand what God is saying, if sex is used improperly, this will undermine your holiness and your sanctification, but if sex is used properly, it will be a way to become holy.

The Bible demystifies sex but then turns around and mystifies it again.  Let me explain.  The Bible never whispers about sex, it never glorifies sex, it is not part of worship.

Scripture tells us to be careful; sex can have power that can lead us away from God.  Sex can bring you to glory, it can sanctify us and make us holy.

This happens by understanding sex, using it, embracing it, you can be holy, sanctified.  This is how the Bible demystifies sex; this gets rid of any worship or glorification associated with sex.

“For this is the will of God, you are sanctified, that you abstain from sexual immorality; and each of you know how to take a wife.”  (So, there are the options; abstain or take a wife.)  Immorality is the misuse or twisting of sex.  To avoid immorality, you need to be married.  Sex within the marriage covenant.

Sexual ethic of monogamy has always been the ethic of Christianity.

“Brothers, abstain from immorality and take a wife.”  Paul is instructing men to do something unusual, something that undermines the power and privilege man had in society of that day.

The Biblical Christian ethics, we don’t separate body and soul, whole body commitment goes with whole life commitment.

Knowing God means a relationship with God.  With God always means intimacy means commitment.  If someone wants total intimacy, they need to make a total commitment.

Sex outside marriage violates the way God has told us to live because He knows what is best for us.

Just like we commit to our wife, we must commit to God.  He will have no other Gods before Him.  Our response to God must be that we are a living sacrifice.

To get married is because you see what God is doing in their life, and you want to be part of it.  You want to honor and build them up.

Sex is for honoring the other person.  In marriage it isn’t enough to be friends and not to be sexually responsive to one another.  It is also not enough to be sexually responsive and not to admire and build the other up.  We need the two to go together.

In the end, Jesus is the truest and best lover of our souls.  The best marriage is a foretaste of our relationship with Jesus in eternity.  Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and everything else you need will be added to you.

This week ponder and interact with your spouse around these Biblical pillars of faith.  God Bless.