We’re charged with faithfully caring for the things God has entrusted to us. And this includes our sexuality. But sexual stewardship is not just about keeping ourselves from bad things. It’s also seeking the good as an act of warfare – cultivating the generative power God has given us while also actively resisting any attempts by evil to steal, kill, or destroy it.
Often we think about stewardship sexually just in terms of avoiding immoral behavior. We don’t want to be disobedient to God or hurt our loved ones due to our sinful actions. And these are not bad motivations. But the fear of simply avoiding the bad often causes us to play it safe. And we become like the wicked and lazy servant who buried his talents rather than risk losing on an investment.
Stewardship is a two-sided coin that includes fostering and celebrating the goodness of our embodied sexuality. But advancing this goodness is best seen in light of spiritual warfare, as it’s not merely the pursuit of our own happiness.
Our sexuality runs deep. We’re divine image bearers, which includes being crowned with generative power – the ability to conceive new life outside of ourselves. Of course, this involves the biological making of babies. But it also carries the idea of bringing more life and light throughout our work and relationships.
To be sure, this generative function is a core part of who God has called us to be, which is why sexual sins cut so deep. We’re no longer on the frontlines offering our life-giving strength when evil is allowed to disrupt and distort our sexuality, or to otherwise cause us to hold it back in shame.
Protecting ourselves against this castration is at the heart of sexual stewardship as much as guarding ourselves against moral failures. And in this way it is part of our spiritual warfare against evil.
In the end, sexual stewardship is far from merely becoming Mr. Nice Guy. It’s a battlefront – fighting to keep our generative powers intact to bring more life and goodness into the world.
