Sermon: Shall Not Commit Adultery
Scripture Text: Exodus 20:1-14
Quotes for Reflection
Ann Voskamp
Your naked body deserves the honor of being shared only with someone who is covenanted to never stop loving your naked soul.
Preston Sprinkle, “What is Marriage”
Is marriage the union between two consensual adults—who fall in love and are committed to each other? Or, is marriage the union between two sexually different persons? I would suggest that the Bible says the latter. Marriage is the union between two sexually different persons. It’s not as if marriage is between two people, and oh, by the way, we Christians have always believed that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Even that doesn’t capture the historically Christian view. It’s not as if sex difference (male/female) is an arbitrary add-on to a Christian view of marriage. Rather, sex difference is an essential part of what marriage is. Marriage by definition is the union between two sexually different persons and not simply the union between two humans regardless of sex difference.
Kevin D. Young, The Ten Commandments
The relationship between Christ and the church is a paradigm for the relationship between a husband and a wife. The mystery is that the union of Christ and the church finds expression in a man and a woman becoming one flesh in Christian marriage. God designed for a Christian husband and wife to come together in such a way that this union of Christ and the church can be symbolized.
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
We use a most unfortunate idiom when we say, of a lustful man prowling the streets, that he ‘wants a woman.’ Strictly speaking, a woman is just what he does not want. He wants a pleasure for which a woman happens to be the necessary piece of apparatus.
Application Questions
1. Why does Scripture celebrate sex, and how does this biblical vision compare to how sex was understood and discussed in your upbringing?
2. How can emotional self-awareness shape a godly vision for sex and intimacy?
3. How can sex, according to God’s vision, be a life-giving and spiritually enriching part of your life this week?