Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shlemon - Is God a Sex Killjoy?

Episode Date: September 9, 2018

Alan addresses the concern some Christians have with God being so restrictive about sex. Download the mp3...

So I was recently vacationing in Italy for my 20th anniversary, or 20th wedding anniversary, that is, and decided to visit the Lamborghini factory. I've always loved Lamborghinis. I always loved their power, their looks, especially models like the Aventador, the Diablo, the Veneno, and, of course, several other models. Pablo, the Veneno, and of course, several other models. And so when I heard that you can actually tour the assembly line, I persuaded my wife. Again, we're on our 20th wedding anniversary in Italy, right? I persuaded her to allow us to drive up for a few hours for this rare opportunity to see firsthand how these beautiful machines are built. hand how these beautiful machines are built. Now, during the drive to and from Modena, which is where the Lamborghini factory is located, it was obviously no surprise to see several Lamborghinis being road tested on the roads leading up to that particular area. And as soon as I saw them,

I began to daydream about taking one of these out for a test spin, you know, feeling the G-force during acceleration and of course effortlessly cornering winding mountain roads. Well, what would it be like though to take one of these low-profile supercars off-road, right? Instead of humming along on a smooth asphalt street in Modena, imagine turning sharply onto a dirt road and then attempting to climb some mountain on a steep and rocky terrain. Well, it's obvious what would happen. Tears. Lots of tears, right? Because the Lamborghini would get damaged, right? The front spoiler would crack, the rims and the doors would dent, the car would high center on some bulging boulder, of course, rendering the car completely inoperable in a matter on some bulging boulder, of course, rendering the

car completely inoperable in a matter of seconds. The Lamborghini, of course, would incur tens of thousands of dollars of damage in an instant. Now, there's no sane owner that would ever do that. And the reason is because they know a Lamborghini is designed to function, and they understand what conditions it's made to handle. They know its limitations, right? No driving on sand, no driving on rocks, no driving through rivers, no driving off jumps, right? That's a lot of no. And Lamborghini owners don't regard the car's lack of off-road capability as a weakness though, right?

They certainly wouldn't name call the Lamborghini designers or think that they're killjoys. In fact, Lamborghini owners would consider the engineers heroes to be lauded for their innovation and automotive brilliance. And so when you drive a Lamborghini on the open highway or along a winding mountain road, you enjoy the engineering excellence of a high performance sports car, the way it was meant to be driven. And that's why I'm mystified by Christians who think that God is a killjoy, a sex killjoy, right? They wonder why God restricts sexual activity to a married man and a woman. That seems to leave out a lot of opportunities many people would reason,

right? No sex before marriage, we call that fornication. No sex outside of marriage, adultery. No sex with people of the same sex, homosexuality. No sex with animals, bestiality. No sex with close relatives, incest, right? That's a lot of no. But God isn't against sex. He's for sex, but according to the way he intended it. Right? The Bible paints a beautiful picture of what sex is supposed to be. Remember, it's God who made sex. This is taught, of course, in Genesis 1 and 2, chapters 1 and 2. Right?

But God is the one who made sex. Our culture didn't give us sex. God gave us sex. In fact, it was his idea to make it procreative, and it was his idea to make it pleasurable. And the sex act is a remarkable encounter that knits together a man and a woman physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It allows them to express their love within a safe and intimate confines of a marriage commitment.

their love within a safe and intimate confines of a marriage commitment. And that way both husband and wife can be vulnerable, expressive, and intimate while remaining safe and protected. Any deviation from that God-ordained design causes damage. It's not that God doesn't want us to have sex. It's that he doesn't want us to get hurt or to hurt others, which is what happens when we attempt to have sex in ways it was not designed to be enjoyed. He cares about us, in fact. And that's why he gives us these guidelines. And too often, though, I hear people say things like, well, I want to have sex on my own terms, not on God's terms, right?

They want to throw off the imagined shackles of religious rules that they think are holding them back from fun and pleasure. The problem, though, is that they're using sex in a way it was not designed to function. And so for example, they might get intimate with their partner and they become vulnerable with another person. They give themselves and they knit their soul to another, but because they're not married, there's no commitment and there's nothing keeping them together. So they break up and they experience pain and heartache because their partner has betrayed their trust. And this is just like driving a Lamborghini off-road.

That's not the way it was meant to be driven. The engineers made Lamborghinis to be driven and enjoyed on the road. And when you drive one on your own terms, as they say, you're not breaking free of the designer's restrictions. You're just breaking things. And God is like a Lamborghini engineer, right? He created something beautiful and amazing and special to be enjoyed in a specific way. And any deviation from his design is like wrecking a Lamborghini by driving it off-road.

Just about everything that's made is made to be enjoyed within certain limits. Lamborghini engineers aren't killjoys, and neither is God.