Some things are common and for general use, while other things are set apart and holy. This was a distinction the priests were originally charged with teaching God’s people. And it’s a lesson we learn now also through sexual discipleship.
On the one hand, we live in a culture that treats sex as merely a natural physical expression, with consent essentially being the only criteria. This approach brings much heartache and pain as it slowly erodes God’s order for our relationships with each other and our very bodies.
Not wanting to treat sex so casually, we then rightly reserve it for the covenant of marriage. And this is a huge step for many. It reminds us some things are indeed sacred, and there’s wisdom here far beyond the sex act itself. We’re called to be holy as God is holy, which means our very lives should be set apart for his glory. As we’re to reserve our body for our wife in marriage, so we’re to exclusively dedicate our life to God by faith.
All the same, many others still bring a faulty mindset into the right context. Some might treat sex as just an itch to scratch even in marriage, while for others the fear of perverting what’s holy causes them to avoid it altogether. Holiness is submitting to God’s order of things, which means we can neither do what we want nor avoid it in fear. Instead, we learn to take off our shoes as we approach because we’re walking on holy ground.
We serve as salt and light in the world as we’re able to make distinctions between what’s holy and what’s not. And how we approach sex gives us an opportunity to practice.
In the end, there’s a distinction between what’s common and what’s holy. We’ve been called to live holy lives, and how we approach sex helps us to learn this lesson.
Photo by Oziel Gómez on Unsplash
