How to do church Part 11: guidelines on sex and marriage
To: All Members <allmembers@mychurch.com>
From: Concerned Friend <ConcernedFriend@gmail.com> Scandal
Dear friends,
What a world we live in! I look around at all the influences in society that are giving all of us, including our young people, such a distorted view of sex and relationships and I despair.
If we stay quiet, this is what they will believe is the truth, the right way to do relationship in the modern world. LOVE ISLAND will become the guidelines on what love is and how to love. We can’t let this happen, can we? We need to speak out.
I’ve attached below a list of guidelines on healthy, happy sex and healthy, happy relationships. Please feel free to print them out and display them or distribute them to any you think might find them useful.
If you are as horrified at the messages about love and sex that are being circulated out there as I am, then join me in speaking out the truth of how God intended love to be experienced and demonstrated.
Yours sincerely,
A concerned friend from across the water
Guidelines on sex and marriage
- Good sex within a good marriage is a wonderful thing
- A sex drive is strong and can get you into all sorts of trouble, but a strong marriage is a strong enough framework to contain all these strong sexual desires
- It is possible to have a balanced and fulfilling sexual life in this world of sexual craziness
- Sex must come from a place of mutuality—each partner seeking to satisfy the other. The needs of one are not more important than the needs of the other
- Marriage is about serving the other out of love, whether in bed or out
- If you have to or decide to give up sex for a while, keep in mind how that can lead to the temptation to look elsewhere for satisfaction
- Staying single is so much less complicated, but it isn’t for everyone
- If you are married, do all that you can to stay married. In getting married, you made a commitment and that commitment is not to be taken lightly
- Being married to someone with different beliefs to you can be tough and each situation is different. Do your best
- Don’t spend all your time wishing you were somewhere else with someone else. This is God’s place for you right now (although no one is called to stay with an abusive partner).
- Don’t slip into doing sex and relationships the way everyone around you in the world and media is doing sex and relationships. Model a better way
- So whether you stay single or get married, just know that God is there with you in it. Make your own decision. Don’t let anyone pressurise you into anything. It’s not that one is better before God than the other in any way
- Keep it simple – in your relationships, daily routines etc – and don’t seek out drama. Marriage is a huge commitment and takes a lot of time and energy, so don’t go into it lightly and don’t do it if you’re not prepared to put the effort in
- Marriage is for life. Do everything you can to make it work before giving up on it (although sometimes walking away from a marriage really does become the only option)
This message for us as church today was based on 1 Corinthians 7
