APR 19 - Genesis 1:27-28

So God created humankind in his image …

male and female he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them,

“Be fruitful and multiply …”

Genesis 1:27-28

“The purpose of sex is pleasure.”

I heard a pastor proclaim this recently. Indeed, I heard him proclaim this recently, boldly, and enthusiastically!

As a married father of three, I didn’t need the words of a pastor to connect the dots between sex and pleasure. Perhaps you’ve heard of a link between sex and pleasure too. (Indeed, you probably didn’t need this pastor to confirm or deny this rumor either.)

Sex is pleasurable! But pleasure is not the first and foremost purpose of sex.

God outlined the first and foremost purpose of sex on page one of the Bible. In creating males and females, God told us to “be fruitful and multiply.”

Procreation is the first and foremost purpose of sex.

That’s one of the primary reasons why sex has always and ideally been reserved for marriage. Since children (likely, probably, naturally, and eventually) come from the union of male and female, a committed marriage has always been the ideal context for sex.

This “rule” is not to keep us from having fun. Indeed, it was God himself who invented kind of fun! Yet God wants us to have fun for the long-term. Even more so, he wants the likely, probable, and eventual kids of our pleasurable unions to have fun for the long-term too. And this is where the ideal of married, committed, and loving families come in.

On another day, we’ll discuss how the invention of birth-control has changed our view of sex. While an obvious blessing and convenience in some ways, birth control has also radically skewed our understanding of this gift of sexuality in other ways. It has over-emphasized “pleasure,” it has deemphasized commitment, and it has led to more brokenness, divorce, loneliness, pornography, addictions, and single-parent homes than ever before.

Oops.

(Indeed, that’s been a bigger oops than the old-fashioned “oops.”)

Conclusion: The purpose of sex is … pleasure. Yes, I said it! But the pleasures that scripture repeatedly invites us to discover are the long-term pleasures of marriage, family, love, trust, and commitment. Indeed, the greatest, final, and culminating pleasure is drawing closer – over and over again – to the person who’s promised to be close to you forever.  

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who’ll gladly trade

short-term pleasures for

long-term treasures