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For a heavenly text, the Bible can get quite raw in places. Yet, behind all the sex and violence in the Bible are two underlying principles:
- 1. Sex is sacred.
- 2. Life is sacred.
Sex is Sacred
Despite such idiomatic expressions as, “to know [someone]”, “to come at”, “to lie with”, or “to uncover nakedness,” the Bible is quite frank about sex. Yet, the word “sex” appears only once in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible--describing women as “the weaker sex.” (1 Peter 3:7). Older translations use a plethora of alternative terms, like unchastity, adultery, immorality, fornication, uncleanness, chambering, whoredom and lasciviousness, to convey sexual misbehavior. The New International Version breaks free to use “sex” and “sexual” over fifty times.
Fresh Bible readers squirm over Lot offering his virgin daughters to the violent males of Sodom. Later, those daughters got their father drunk and were impregnated by him (Genesis 19). Keep reading. Jacob’s son Judah picks up a harlot only to learn later that she was his own daughter-in-law (Genesis 38).
Samson was a weakling when it came to sex. A visit with a harlot nearly gets him ambushed and a deceiver named Delilah led to his downfall (Judges 16). Later, a Levite offers his faithless concubine to the perverts of Gibeah who rape her (Judges 19). Then he cuts her into twelve pieces and sends them throughout the territories. Ouch!
That’s not all. Sex and violence proved a deadly combination when King David snuffed out Uriah to get Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife. From then on, bloodshed and sexual chaos wreaked havoc in David’s family. His son Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3).
So where’s the sacred part?
First, sex is God’s holy gift, given on purpose. Our sexual nature and needs are rooted in God’s desire for both our joy and survival. It’s a win-win, or so it was intended.
Second, sexual chaos distorts God’s glorious purpose for this gift and He is not amused, then or now. God meant His command, “You shall not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14). In Leviticus. prostitution is seen as "defiling" and "disgraceful." (19:29 and 21:7-10). It is wicked because sexual fidelity is not only for married folk. The “indecent acts” Paul described in Romans (chapter one) were homosexual acts, resulting in perversion, depravity and worse, distance from God. Elsewhere, Paul wrote, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” (1 Corinthians 6:13). He used the word “porneia” which means fornication, sexual immorality or sexual chaos. Paul added. “…your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:19).
In our present age of condom glorification, rampant illegitimacy, pornography, serial infidelity, homosexual activism and moral nihilism, sex is commonly robbed of the sacredness God intended for it.
Third, God invented marriage to invest sex with a sacred purpose higher than itself. Sex for its own sake renders it no more special than other bodily functions. Sex within marriage is about fellowship, commitment, mutual hope, love and family. Gary Thomas has written a fine book titled Sacred Marriage. His subtitle is a question: “What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?” Back to Paul, “For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.” (1 Thessalonians 4:7).
The phrase "one flesh" is used in the Bible for sex and marriage. Both Jesus and Paul quoted that phrase from Genesis (2:24) to express the unity in sex. God meant for sex to be bonding behavior and marriage is the name for that bond.
Fourth, sex expresses and enhances love. It yields life and the hope of a future for the human race. It bonds hearts together, provided that those hearts are not jaded by a previous mistreatment of this sacred gift. It is spiritual glue and it breaks God’s heart to see us come unglued. So He invented marriage. Marriage teaches unselfishness and generosity. It takes the individual off the pedestal and teaches us to belong to each other. Those who call marriage a suppressive institution are partly correct. It suppresses open lust, chaos, selfishness, independence and loneliness.
Life is Sacred
During creation, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). When God saw all that He had made, He pronounced it “very good” (1:31). Our status as creatures made in God’s image is why murder is wrong. It is an affront to God‘s handiwork: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God, He made man” (Genesis 9:6). Later, Jesus went behind murder to warn us against the “anger” that tears up relationships and leads to violence.
Many Bible stories drip with blood. Prince Shechem, the Hivite, raped Dinah and her brothers, Simeon and Levi, defended her honor by slaughtering a city full of newly circumcised men (Genesis 34). In Exodus, God fights for His people (14:14) and the Egyptian army is wiped out as walls of water collapse.
In Joshua, Israel took the promised land over a lot of dead bodies. God was keeping a promise and judging sin at the same time. In Judges, Sisera fled to the tent of Jael who gave him some milk, tucked him in and drove a tent peg through his temple. Remember when the women of Israel sang; “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.“ (1 Samuel 18:7)? Elijah slew hundreds of Baal’s prophets down by the riverside (1 Kings 18) and Elisha watched 42 kids get torn apart by bears (2 Kings 2:24). When the Chaldeans captured King Zedekiah, they slaughtered his sons just before plucking his eyes out (2 Kings 25:7). In Esther, after Haman’s plot to exterminate Jews failed, he and his ten sons were hanged on gallows he had made for Mordecai. The Jews then killed 75,000 of their enemies (Esther 9:16). Much later, when a king was reduced to blissful stupidity by a dancing girl (Mark 6), John the Baptist lost his head.
In describing flawed lives in an imperfect world, the Bible pulls no punches.
We also live flawed lives. Forgiveness is our greatest need. In the end, any hope we have hinges on a brutal act of violence that God planned all along. Our hope hinges on the fact that Jesus came “to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45). I am one of the “many." Peter preached that Jesus died “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:24). Yet, that violence did not stand. Peter continued, “This Jesus God raised up again” (2:32). Mission accomplished.
For a related article, see “The Bible and the Koran: What’s the Difference?”
Joel Mark Solliday , B.A., M.Div., is the editor of Campus CrossWalk and the pulpit minister of the Brooklyn Center Church of Christ in Minnesota. A Pepperdine graduate, he later worked in their Campus Life Office and at ACU as a Missionary in Residence. He earned his M.Div. at Fuller Theological Seminary.
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