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God created man and woman with the capacity to procreate life, through sexuality, as part of the marriage covenant made by God between a man and a woman, sealed before God and men: « And God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. Further, God blessed them and God said to them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth”” (Genesis 1:27,28). When God united the first couple, Adam and Eve, by asking them to have children, they had to have sex. Thus, the forbidden fruit, mentioned in Genesis 2:17, did not represent the sexual relations, allowed by God, within the framework of the marriage between a man and a woman.
The Bible describes the sexuality with both a great deal of frankness and delicacy. It describes the first stage of seduction between a man and a woman. For example, when God presented Eve to her husband Adam, before so much beauty, he spoke a poem to define her: “Then the man said: “This is at last bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh. This one will be called Woman, Because from man this one was taken »” (Genesis 2:23). Verses 24 and 25 define the law of marriage between a man and a woman as a sacred relationship, and as the most intimate in human relationship: “That is why a man will leave his father and his mother and he must stick to his wife and they must become one flesh. And both of them continued to be naked, the man and his wife, and yet they did not become ashamed” (Genesis 2:24,25).
The book of the Song of Solomon, describes the preliminary love, before marriage, between a young man shepherd in love with the Shulamite, herself, at the same time in love with him. This preliminary love can be sealed by an engagement which represents a promise of marriage, but which does not allow sexual relations. Here is part of the poetic and romantic dialogue between the Shulamite and her shepherd bridegroom: “A black girl I am, but comely, O you daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Keʹdar, yet like the tent cloths of Solʹomon. Do not you look at me because I am swarthy, because the sun has caught sight of me. The sons of my own mother grew angry with me; they appointed me the keeper of the vineyards, although my vineyard, one that was mine, I did not keep. “Do tell me, O you whom my soul has loved, where you do shepherding, where you make the flock lie down at midday. Just why should I become like a woman wrapped in mourning among the droves of your partners?” “If you do not know for yourself, O you most beautiful one among women, go out yourself in the footprints of the flock and pasture your kids of the goats alongside the tabernacles of the shepherds.” “To a mare of mine in the chariots of Pharʹaoh I have likened you, O girl companion of mine. Your cheeks are comely among the hair braids, your neck in a string of beads. Circlets of gold we shall make for you, along with studs of silver.” “As long as the king is at his round table my own spikenard has given out its fragrance. As a bag of myrrh my dear one is to me; between my breasts he will spend the night. As a cluster of henna my dear one is to me, among the vineyards of En-geʹdi.” “Look! You are beautiful, O girl companion of mine. Look! You are beautiful. Your eyes are those of doves.” “Look! You are beautiful, my dear one, also pleasant. Our divan also is one of foliage. The beams of our grand house are cedars, our rafters juniper trees” (Song of Solomon 1:5-17).
The Song of Solomon is an excellent description of this preliminary love, which overwhelms man and woman into a form of ecstasy which they cannot imagine will not be eternal. Obviously, this relationship evolves, solidifies with the engagement, through a greater complicity, a friendship, which they wish, through the force of mutual love, to materialize through the permanent pact of marriage.
Once married, Jehovah God, the Creator of marriage, allows them to rejoice one another: “Drink water out of your own cistern, and tricklings out of the midst of your own well. Should your springs be scattered out of doors, your streams of water in the public squares themselves? Let them prove to be for you alone, and not for strangers with you. Let your water source prove to be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth, a lovable hind and a charming mountain goat. Let her own breasts intoxicate you at all times. With her love may you be in an ecstasy constantly” (Proverbs 5:15-19).
The apostle Paul, exhorted the married couples who wish to protect their marriage, not to deprive themselves of this intimacy, always in common agreement: “Yet, because of prevalence of fornication, let each man have his own wife and each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife her due; but let the wife also do likewise to her husband. The wife does not exercise authority over her own body, but her husband does; likewise, also, the husband does not exercise authority over his own body, but his wife does. Do not be depriving each other of it, except by mutual consent for an appointed time, that you may devote time to prayer and may come together again, that Satan may not keep tempting you for your lack of self-regulation” (1 Corinthians 7:2-5). This text shows that sexuality within a married couple, imbued with love, understanding, communication and self-giving, can prove to be a source of protection concerning the permanence of the marriage covenant (particularly for the one who has a lack of self-control).
However, it is obvious that sexuality is only one condiment of the whole relationship between man and woman. Still, the apostle Paul summed up what this general balanced relationship between a man and a woman should be in marriage: “Be in subjection to one another in fear of Christ. Let wives be in subjection to their husbands as to the Lord, because a husband is head of his wife as the Christ also is head of the congregation, he being a savior of this body. In fact, as the congregation is in subjection to the Christ, so let wives also be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, continue loving your wives, just as the Christ also loved the congregation and delivered up himself for it, that he might sanctify it, cleansing it with the bath of water by means of the word, that he might present the congregation to himself in its splendor, not having a spot or a wrinkle or any of such things, but that it should be holy and without blemish. In this way husbands ought to be loving their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no man ever hated his own flesh; but he feeds and cherishes it, as the Christ also does the congregation, because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and he will stick to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This sacred secret is great. Now I am speaking with respect to Christ and the congregation. Nevertheless, also, let each one of you individually so love his wife as he does himself; on the other hand, the wife should have deep respect for her husband” (Ephesians 5:21-33).
To abstain from fornication
(Acts 15)
The fornication is sexual practices condemned in the Bible, the Word of God: The adultery, the sexual relations without being married (Man and Woman), the masculine and feminine homosexuality, the bestiality: « Or do you not know that unrighteous people will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Do not be misled. Those who are sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who submit to homosexual acts, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, revilers, and extortioners will not inherit God’s Kingdom” (1 Corinthians 6:9,10). “Let marriage be honorable among all, and let the marriage bed be without defilement, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers” (Hebrews 13:4).
The Mosaic law is very detailed regarding what Jehovah God considers to be unacceptable sexual practices. We can consider that, reading Leviticus chapter 18, gives us a fairly complete overview of the matter. From verses 6 to 18, there is the list of sexual relations considered to be incestuous. By the way, this law against incest was a protection of children against pedophilia which unfortunately is widespread, even within families, but also in organized criminal networks, whether in Western countries or even around certain « tourist » destinations. The King Jesus Christ will punish with the utmost severity those criminals who prey on helpless children, at the great tribulation, which is fast approaching (Revelation 19:11-21). In addition, this incest law protected the people of Israel against consanguineous marriages. They could result in fathering children with genetic disabilities, such as blindness, deafness, mental retardation and many other disabilities, inherited, a genetic dysfunction at conception or during the gestation of the mother…
Verse 19 forbids sexual relations during a woman’s period. Verse 22 condemns same-sex relationships. Verse 23 condemns bestiality. In that same verse, Jehovah God adds: « It is a violation of what is natural » (Leviticus 18:23b). This very short sentence sums up very well all forms of deviant sexual practices; they are a « violation of what is natural » (that married couples, husbands and wives, exercise good discernment because God will judge even what is done in the greatest privacy (Hebrews 13: 4) « Let marriage be honorable in all, and that the marriage bed be without defilement, for God will judge fornicators and adulterers « ). And for those who would try to justify themselves by saying « we are no longer under the law »: these different aspects of sexual morality are permanent, because what Jehovah considered to be detestable under the Law, it remains so. Jehovah God has not changed and does not change, his way of thinking is stable over time, all the more so under the present law of Christ which takes over what constitutes the substance of the Law. This is what is written at Malachi 3:6: « For I am Jehovah; I have not changed ».
The Bible doesn’t allow polygamy, therefore, the man in this situation who wants to have God’s approval, will have to legalize his situation before God: He must remain only with one woman; the first with whom he gets married (1 Timothy 3:2 « a husband of one wife »). Perverted sexual practices and also masturbation are forbidden by the Bible: “Deaden, therefore, your body members that are on the earth as respects sexual immorality, uncleanness, uncontrolled sexual passion, hurtful desire, and greediness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5).
The whole forbidden situations by the Biblical Principles are not in this part of this biblical study. The Christian maturity based on the knowledge of the Bible, the Wisdom of God, will help us to know what is right and what is wrong: “But solid food belongs to mature people, to those who through use have their powers of discernment trained to distinguish both right and wrong” (Hebrews 5:14).
What Jesus Christ thinks about divorce and remarriage
(Matthew 19:3-9)
« And Pharisees came up to him, intent on tempting him and saying: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on every sort of ground?” In reply he said: “Did you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will stick to his wife, and the two will be one flesh’? So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has yoked together let no man put apart.” They said to him: “Why, then, did Moses prescribe giving a certificate of dismissal and divorcing her?” He said to them: “Moses, out of regard for your hardheartedness, made the concession to you of divorcing your wives, but such has not been the case from [the] beginning. I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except on the ground of fornication, and marries another commits adultery” » (Matthew 19:3-9).
Thus, the divorce and remarriage are only allowed on the grounds of fornication, that is, sexual practices that the Bible condemns, such as adultery, homosexuality and other perverse practices. What breaks up the bonds of marriage are the death of the spouse and fornication, usually adultery. Of course, in cases of adultery, divorce is not automatic. The offended spouse can forgive. In this case, by mutual agreement, married life can resume. In this situation, the previously offended spouse will not be able biblically to reverse his decision (and if this were to be the case (when there is no other finding of adultery), he could not remarry). In the case of a repeat offense with a finding of adultery, and this time the offended spouse does not forgive, he can divorce and remarry. For those who would make the perverse calculation of resorting to adultery, or manipulation to expose their spouse to adultery, to use the expression of Christ (by the sex strike, without any reason, in order to push the spouse into the need, to the fault), in order to break up the sacred bonds of marriage, then counting on the mercy of God to be forgiven, mislead themselves: « Let marriage be honorable among all, and the marriage bed be without defilement, for God will judge fornicators and adulterers » (Hebrews 13:4).
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The Basic Teachings of the Bible (Hebrews 6:1-3)
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