Christian Sexual Ethics

(1 Corinthians 6: 9-11, 15-20)

Shocking find

Discovered by archaeologists while excavating a Roman bathhouse in Ashkelon, 1990

‘Christianity brought a new conception of humanity to a world saturated with capricious cruelty’

Gender imbalance in the Roman Empire

 131 males to 100 females in the city of Rome  140 males to 100 females in Italy, Asia Minor and North Africa  ‘By prohibiting all forms of infanticide and abortion, Christians removed major causes of the gender imbalance that existed among pagans’ (Rodney Stark)

The status of women in the Roman world

 Many girls were married at puberty and often before  Girls received little or no education  A woman was the legal property of some man at all stages of her life  Men could divorce a woman simply by ordering her out of the house

Low sexual mores were reinforced by a male culture that held marriage in low esteem  Men often resorted to prostitutes  Female prostitutes were common  There were many male prostitutes, as bisexuality and homosexuality were widespread

Revolutionary impact of the Judaeo-Christian ethic

 It raised the status of women  It gave value to human life  It bestowed on marriage qualities of friendship and equality  It condemned promiscuity in men and women equally  It stressed the mutual obligations of husbands and wives  It transformed marriage into a love relationship

Christianity and paganism

 Sexual ethics became a pressing issue as soon as Christianity moved out of the Jewish world into the pagan environment of the Roman Empire  The Jerusalem Council (AD 49) considered what standards of behaviour should be required of Gentile converts  Among the few minimal requirements it laid down is that Gentile Christians should ‘abstain from porneia’ (Acts 15: 20, 29) – from ‘sexual immorality’ (NIV) or ‘sexual wrongdoing’ (William Loader)

Porneia refers to any sexual intercourse outside of heterosexual marriage

 Sexual intercourse should only be within its proper context of heterosexual marriage  Single people should be celibate, abstain from sexual intercourse  Couples should not have sexual intercourse till they get married  It’s not OK to have sex with someone you’re not married to  Sex between people of the same sex is wrong

Two New Testament examples

 ‘It is God’s will that you be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality (porneia); that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honourable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no-one should take advantage of a brother or sister…. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.’ (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7)  ‘Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.’ (Hebrews 13:4)

A sex-saturated city

 Corinth was a byword for sexual depravity  ‘To Corinthianise’ was common slang for corrupting a person’s morals or being sexually promiscuous  The temple of Aphrodite, goddess of love (shown here), was serviced by more than 1,000 cult prostitutes

Many members of the Corinthian church had been converted out of this immoral lifestyle (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)  The ‘sexually immoral’ (pornoi)  ‘Idolaters’ – including those who took part in temple prostitution  ‘Adulterers’ – married persons who had had sexual intercourse with someone other than their spouse  ‘Passive homosexuals’ (malakoi, literally ‘effeminates’) – those who allow themselves to be penetrated in receptive homosexual intercourse  ‘Active homosexuals’ or ‘sodomites’ (arsenokoitai) – those who penetrate someone anally or practice insertive anal sex  ‘Rapists’ – harpax is the Greek term for a ‘rapist’

Paul’s ‘theology of the body’

‘Don’t be immoral in matters of sex. That is a sin against your own body in a way that no other sin is. You surely know that your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives. The Spirit is in you and is a gift from God. You are no longer your own. God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honour God.’ (1 Corinthians 6: 18 20, CEV)

The gift of singleness

 Jesus shows that it is possible to be single and celibate  With Christianity comes a new freedom not to marry  Being single is ‘beautiful’ or ‘praiseworthy’: ‘It is good (kalon, literally ‘beautiful’) for a man not to marry.’(7:1)  If you can’t be celibate you should marry! ‘If you don’t have enough self-control, then go ahead and get married.’ (7:8-9)  A single person is free from the hassles of marriage and family life. ‘A married man has more worries.’ (7:32-34)

The joy of singleness

Testimony of Liz Hodgkinson

‘Although a life of celibacy is popularly imagined to be one of misery, deprivation and continual frustration and repression, it can be the very opposite, and provide a wonderful opportunity to get to know yourself…. It can also allow you to develop hitherto undiscovered talents…. It means you can truly reclaim yourself, and become free from the sexual demands of your own body and also the sexual desires of other people….’

Testimony of Brenda McKillop

‘Playboy is more than a pornographic magazine with pictures of naked women. It is a philosophy that enticed me to throw aside my Judaeo-Christian ethic of no pre marital sex and no adultery and to practice recreational sex with no commitments…. There is no way I can describe the beauty, joy, fulfilment, and peace of having sex within the bonds of my loving marriage. Since my decision… to commit my life to the Lord, I have never had to seek psychiatric help and I have never been suicidal again.’