Category: Abstinence

Sex and Death: the Appalling Irony

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live . . .
-Deuteronomy 30:19

I used to be a substance abuse counselor.  We frequently had training on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.

I remember a discussion we had about the means of HIV transmission.  One of the lecturers said something that struck me to the core.  HIV, she said, was transmitted through fluids we associate with life (blood and sexual fluids).  “Whoa!” I thought to myself.  Intentionally or not, she had said something remarkably profound—so profound that I remember it years later.

I had never thought about it this way—maybe you haven’t either.  We’ve taken that which should create life and used it to cause death! 

Consider these HIV/AIDS statistics:

*Every 24 hours, 8,000 people die of AIDS.
*There are now over 30 million people infected with HIV.
*More than 25 million people have died from AIDS since the disease’s discovery.
*Africa has over 11 million “AIDS orphans”—children whose parents died due to the disease.

This tragic reality doesn’t stop with HIV.  Just consider the silent holocaust of abortion—the millions of children who are murdered before they are allowed to take their first breath:

*Approximately 42 million abortions happen every year worldwide—115,000 per day.
*Over 400,000 abortions per year happen in the Philippines.
*In the United States, approximately 43% of all women will have at least one abortion before age 45.
*Repeat abortions by teenage girls have gone up almost 70% since 1991.

Like the Apostle Paul said, we “invent ways of doing evil” (Romans 1:30).

All of this because we won’t obey God.  All of this because we’ve decided we’re smarter than He is when it comes to the gift of sex.

Beloved readers, this is why sexual purity is so important.  It isn’t just a matter of guilt, shame or emotional baggage—it’s a matter of life and death!  When we lose respect for the process that creates life, we inevitably lose respect for life itself.

Choose purity.  Choose Life.

Purity: Pendulum vs Plumb Line

As you probably know, a pendulum is a weight that swings back and forth from a fixed point.  Unfortunately, the pendulum symbolizes the way we’ve treated the gift of sex—going from one non-biblical extreme to another.

As I’ve mentioned before, religion has an unfortunate history of treating sex as something dirty and shameful.   Even now, those of us who advocate purity must carefully guard against legalism.

Then there’s the other extreme—a “liberated” mentality in which anything goes and all modesty is lost.  When society allows the pendulum to swing in this direction, the results are incredibly destructive.

I don’t want to be like a pendulum.  I don’t want to react (and overreact) to the problems I see around me.  There’s another way, and another symbol: the plumb line.

A plumb line is a pointed weight on the end of a string.  This tool produces a straight line every time—gravity ensures it.  The Lord Himself used the plumb line as a symbol of His perfect, unchanging standards.

When it comes to sex, God’s “plumb line” runs consistently through the Bible.  It begins in Genesis 2:24, where He describes the beautiful, mysterious “one flesh” union between husband and wife.  Jesus quoted this very passage when teaching about marital fidelity (Matthew 19:5).  Paul quoted it in making his case against sexual promiscuity (1 Corinthians 6:16).  God designed sex to be experienced only within marriage–His mind hasn’t changed.  

I pray that we will act as plumb lines, not pendulums.  Let’s continue to present God’s standard: no more, no less.