The Sacredness Of Sex.

That title is probably going to draw a few in. Haha. A bit of a different topic from my usual, for today.

There's somewhat of a perception that the majority of non-Christians have (and even some Christians, depending on age and denomination) that Christianity can be a bit of a "fun police".

Particularly when it comes to sex.

"Aw, come on, no sex before marriage? You've got to be kidding me!"

Particularly in today's society, this idea is often seen as pretty ludicrous. The majority of couples will now live together before getting married; many often having had sex before then, with other partners. (I'll admit, I have not researched this extensively. But I'm relatively confident that research would bear that out.) And, of course, you get some Christians doing this as well. (We're not perfect, folks. Shock horror.) It can feel like a bit of a 'dirty secret' that nobody talks about, sometimes. It's just shuffled off to the side, and we hope that nobody notices....yeah, that'll totally work.

But in today's culture, there has grown a celebration of sex and sexuality. You can see it pretty much anywhere you turn - but particularly in art, and various creative mediums. In the language we use; and just the openness of it all. And the perception is that Christians think that sex is this terrible, dirty thing that we shouldn't talk about or see - hide the kiddies precious eyes so they don't see this disgusting thing! - that's what people think. But actually, that couldn't be further from the truth. And it really rather annoys me. So I thought I'd set the record straight.

Part of Christianity is that we see the act of sex as profoundly sacred. Not dirty. Not disgusting. Sacred. Precious. Insanely valuable and special. It is the ultimate demonstration of two people becoming one - their union and intermingling. (Yes, you're probably doing fun things with that phrase right about now. I'll just wait here for you.) And as such, it's also the ultimate representation of our union and intermingling with God - how we are united, by having his Spirit within us. As such, it is extremely sacred. And so we say, don't have sex until you're married. Don't take this profoundly sacred thing - and just use it in a casual way. Think of it like using a bone china tea set for a kid's tea set to play with. Or for them playing in the mud, or to build sand castles with at the beach. That's the sort of distance we're talking about, multiplied by a hundredfold or so.

We don't see sex as a dirty, terrible, or disgusting thing. We see its misuse, its casual treatment by so many, as terrible, and often disgusting. It is taking something that is extremely precious - and throwing it around like it's worth nothing. You might not feel like that's what you're doing, and perhaps it isn't always that extreme - but very often, it is not treated as sacred. It is not treated as precious. It's just thought of as fun, enjoyable, a release, a connection - and while these aren't incorrect, in a sense, they are not all that sex is.

This is why we get so riled up about how sex is portrayed in today's society. The sexualisation of so many things, in so many places - why pornography is so terrible. Because it is taking one of God's most precious gifts, and twisting it to serve lust, rather than love. Sex was meant to be the ultimate expression of love - not an outpouring of lust.

Think that's it for now. Not much else I can really say. But yeah. This is something that I'm rather passionate about. And it saddens me - it really, really saddens me - that this is so often lost in today's world, and even some Christians don't seem to understand this. But again - none of us are perfect.