The Bible views sexual relationships as sacred and meant to be enjoyed within the bounds of marriage between a man and a woman, emphasizing fidelity, love, and mutual respect (Hebrews 13:4, Genesis 2:24). Sexual intimacy is portrayed as a profound union that reflects God’s covenant relationship with His people.
Scripture
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.
21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Biblical View on Sexual Relationships
The biblical perspective on sexual relationships establishes a framework that defines intimacy as not merely a physical act but a profound spiritual and emotional union. In Genesis 2:24, the notion of “one flesh” is introduced, signifying that the bond created through marriage is deep and transformative, reflecting God’s design for a covenantal relationship. Sexual intimacy is consequently seen as a gift from God intended to enhance the marital bond, fostering love and partnership as depicted in Song of Solomon, where the beauty of love and attraction is celebrated. The New Testament reinforces this concept, particularly in Hebrews 13:4, which affirms that marriage should be honored and its sexual expression kept pure, highlighting fidelity as central to this sacred relationship.
Furthermore, the Bible emphasizes that sexual relationships should embody love and mutual respect, serving both individuals spiritually and emotionally. In Ephesians 5:25-28, husbands are instructed to love their wives as Christ loved the Church, suggesting that love within a marital context is sacrificial and nurturing. This not only cultivates a healthy atmosphere for sexual intimacy but also aligns with the broader biblical narrative of God’s love for humanity. Thus, sexual relationships in the biblical context transcend the physical dimension, inviting couples to reflect the divine nature of covenantal love, where faithfulness, intimacy, and respect are foundational to both their union and their testimony of God’s love in the world.
The Bible provides a comprehensive understanding of sexual relationships within the context of marital commitment and divine purpose. An essential aspect of this perspective is the call to purity and holiness before God. While sexual intimacy is celebrated within marriage, the Scriptures also set clear boundaries regarding sexual conduct outside this covenant. Proverbs, for instance, frequently warns against sexual immorality and encourages fidelity by depicting the consequences of straying from one’s spouse. Such admonitions underscore the belief that sexual actions have both spiritual implications and earthly consequences, thereby reinforcing the sanctity of the marital relationship.
Additionally, the biblical narrative portrays sexual relationships as a means of experiencing God’s intended fullness for human connection. In the context of the marital union, the act of coming together sexually is an expression of love that goes beyond mere physical satisfaction; it is a way of honoring one another and fulfilling God’s purpose for companionship. The mutual vulnerability and trust required in such relationships invite both partners to grow closer, not only to each other but also in their relationship with God. This dynamic resonates with the view that marriage, and the sexual relationship within it, is a sacred covenant designed to reflect the intimate relationship between Christ and the Church. Therefore, the biblical framework encourages couples to see their sexual relationship as a profound spiritual journey, one that invites them to engage in a deeper understanding of love, commitment, and divine grace.
The Sanctity of Marriage
The Bible presents sexual relationships as a sacred act that is intended to occur within the confines of marriage. This perspective emphasizes the idea that sexual intimacy is not merely a physical act but a profound expression of love, commitment, and unity between partners. The sanctity of marriage serves as a protective framework that fosters trust, emotional connection, and spiritual growth, highlighting the importance of fidelity and mutual respect within the relationship.
The Call to Holiness
Another significant aspect of the biblical perspective on sexual relationships is the call to holiness and purity. The scriptures encourage individuals to approach sexuality with a sense of responsibility and moral integrity. This call to holiness underscores the belief that sexual relationships should reflect the character of God, promoting values such as love, respect, and self-control. It also warns against behaviors that can lead to harm, brokenness, or exploitation, advocating for a lifestyle that honors both oneself and one’s partner.
The Role of Love and Sacrifice
In the biblical context, sexual relationships are deeply intertwined with the concepts of love and sacrifice. The Bible teaches that true love is selfless and seeks the well-being of the other. This perspective encourages partners to prioritize each other’s needs and desires, fostering a relationship built on mutual care and support. The sacrificial nature of love is seen as essential for a healthy sexual relationship, where both individuals are committed to nurturing and uplifting one another, reflecting the divine love that is central to the Christian faith.
How to Embrace Holiness and Love in Faithfulness
Embracing holiness and love in our journey of faithfulness is a beautiful yet challenging endeavor that requires intentionality and grace. As we strive to reflect God’s character, we must first recognize that holiness is not merely about adhering to rules but about cultivating a heart that desires to be close to Him. This means immersing ourselves in prayer, scripture, and community, allowing His love to transform us from the inside out. Remember, holiness is intertwined with love; as we grow in our understanding of God’s unconditional love for us, we naturally begin to extend that love to others. It’s in the small, everyday choices—showing kindness, practicing forgiveness, and serving those around us—that we embody faithfulness. So, let’s commit to this journey together, leaning on the Holy Spirit for strength and guidance, and trusting that as we seek holiness, we will find a deeper, more authentic love that reflects Christ to the world.
Bible References to Sexual Relationships:
Leviticus 18:6-23: 6 “None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord.
7 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness.
8 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness.
9 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether brought up in the family or in another home.
10 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter or of your daughter’s daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness.
11 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, brought up in your father’s family, since she is your sister.
12 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s relative.
13 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s relative.
14 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother, that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt.
15 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness.
16 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.
17 You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, and you shall not take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are relatives; it is depravity.
18 And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.
19 “You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness.”
20 And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife and so make yourself unclean with her.
21 You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.
23 And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.
Leviticus 20:10-21: 10 “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
11 If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
12 If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them.
13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
14 If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you.
15 If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal.
16 If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
17 “If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity.
18 If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood.
19 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for that is to make naked one’s relative; they shall bear their iniquity.
20 If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.
21 If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.
Proverbs 5:15-20: 15 Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
16 Should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
Song of Solomon 4:1-16: 1 Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
2 Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost its young.
3 Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.
4 Your neck is like the tower of David, built in rows of stone; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors.
5 Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters.
6 Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will go away to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense.
7 You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.
8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; come with me from Lebanon. Depart from the peak of Amana, from the peak of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards.
9 You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.
10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils more than any spice!
11 Your lips drip nectar, O bride; honey and milk are under your tongue; and the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
12 A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a spring locked, a fountain sealed.
13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard,
14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the choicest spices.
15 A garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon.
16 Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its choicest fruits.
Matthew 5:27-30: 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’”
28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Matthew 19:4-6: 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Romans 1:24-27: 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;
27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
1 Corinthians 6:9-20: 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!
16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”
17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 7:1-9: 1 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”
2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.
4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
6 Now as a concession, not a command, I say this.
7 I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.
8 To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am.
9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
Ephesians 5:22-33: 22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,
30 because we are members of his body.
31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Colossians 3:5-7: 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-8: 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;
4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,
5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;
6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.
7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
Hebrews 13:4: 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
Reverend Ogunlade is a seasoned Church Minister with over three decades of experience in guiding and nurturing congregations. With profound wisdom and a serene approach, Reverend Ogunlade has carried out various pastoral duties, including delivering uplifting sermons, conducting religious ceremonies, and offering sage counsel to individuals seeking spiritual guidance. Their commitment to fostering harmony and righteousness within their community is exemplified through their compassionate nature, making them a beloved and trusted figure among the congregation.