Introduction

Sexuality is an important part of life and there is no shortage of material available on the subject. The purpose of this page is not to cover everything there is to know about sex. Instead we want to do two key things:

• Give people who don’t know us a basic idea of what we teach about sexuality.
• Give our members and friends some clear and helpful guidelines.

Rules Can’t Make You Holy

The guidelines we advocate are based on God’s Word – The Bible. In approaching these guidelines it’s important to avoid a very common human tendency – attempting to gain God’s approval by “following rules”. One of the most important things that the Bible teaches us is that this doesn’t work! Rules – even God’s rules don’t sanctify us. We can’t earn God’s approval by keeping rules. Instead, we need to take advantage of the open door to a relationship with God that has been made possible through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. By spending time with God, we can actually experience transformation that enables us to “follow the rules”. We will have more to say about this in our Spiritual Growth Page (check back in mid-February).

Biblical Principles

Here then, are some key principles that guide our approach to sexuality at Life Church:

• God created sex! Our sexuality is a gift to us from our creator. Genesis 2:18-25
• God established a special context for the expression of human sexuality: marriage.
• The Bible teaches that it is possible to express sexuality in a way that displeases God. Two examples of this are:
  • Adultery (sex with someone else’s spouse or cheating on your own spouse)
  • Fornication or sexual immorality
• Jesus spoke out against adultery in the Sermon On The Mount – Matthew 5:27-30
• Jesus also spoke about sexual immorality. He described it as:
  • A potential reason for ending a marriage. Matthew 5:31-32; Matthew 19:1-9
  • One of many possible expressions of uncleanness that comes from human hearts. Matthew 15:1-20
• In order to understand what Jesus meant by sexual immorality we need to consider two things:
  • Old Testament passages that define improper sexuality (e.g. Leviticus 18:1-30). These are the scriptures that formed the context in which the Jews of Jesus’s day would have understood the term. Based on these passages, we understand that sexual immorality includes:
    • sex with close relatives
    • sex with someone else’s spouse
    • sex with animals
    • sex between people of the same gender
  • The Greek word “porneia” translated as “fornication” or “sexual immorality” in the New Teastament. We don’t have the space here to examine everything that has been written about this word. Instead let’s see what we can learn from a few key scriptures:
    • Believers should keep themselves from sexual immorality (porneia) – Acts 15:22-31
    • Marriage is an effective strategy for avoiding sexual immorality (porneia) – 1 Corinthians 6:9-20; 1 Corinthians 7:1-5

Guidelines

Based on these principals, at Life Church we recommend the following guidelines for sexuality:

• Unmarried followers of Jesus Christ should keep themselves from sexual activity with anyone else. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to:
  • sexual intercourse
  • genital contact
  • activity intended to produce sexual arousal
• Marriage between one man and one woman is God’s plan for human companionship and gratification of sexual needs. So called “homosexual marriage” or “gay marriage” is not something that God approves.
• A married follower of Jesus Christ must be committed to meeting the sexual needs of his/her spouse.
• A married follower of Jesus christ must avoid sexual activity with anyone other than his/her spouse

God Wants To Help You – And So Do We!

Sexuality is an area of struggle for many people both outside of the the Body of Christ and within. Nevertheless, God has given us some key resources that can help us experience victory in our sexual lives:

• He has given us himself – by spending time in prayer (talking to and listening to God) we experience God’s transforming presence.
• He has given us his Word – God’s Word renews our minds.
• He has given us his church – Spending time with other followers of Jesus Christ who are honest and open about their struggles provides a context in which we can safely be open and honest about our own struggles. God uses this to bring about change in our lives as well.

At Life Church we want to help followers of Jesus Christ experience victory in their sexuality and in every other area of their lives as well. Feel free to check us out.

Additional Resources

Here are some links to a number of resources that may be of interest to you. We maintain this list as a set of bookmarks in Delicious.com.
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