I read an
article the other day about a professing Christian minister who believes that
Christian singles can have sex outside of marriage as long as it is
“pleasurable” and “affirming” for both parties.
Yes, you
read that right.
The Reverend
Bromleigh McCleneghan is married, a mother and an associate pastor for ministry
with family in Illinois. This purported ambassador for Christ believes that
Christian singles can be faithful to Jesus while having sex outside of
marriage, and that it is unfair to ask the majority of people to practice
abstinence before marriage because men and women, “need sex”.
She also states,
"Plenty of women and men love sex, and need it — we need bodily pleasure,
remember — and the abundant life for them will involve seeking out
relationships of mutual pleasure.”
Is that how
far we’ve fallen as Christians? We are actually now defining ‘abundant life’ as
living in direct disobedience to Jesus?
How do we know that McCleneghan’s
teaching is completely contrary to Jesus’ way? We should only have to read what
Jesus said.
“You have heard that it was said,
‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a
woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” – Matthew 5:27-28
“The things that proceed out of the
mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” – Matthew 15:18-19
Jesus
spoke directly against all forms of fornication and adultery. You can about
them in Leviticus 18. That passage
is precisely what Jesus was referring to when He said in Matthew 15 that fornication defiles us. (It’s also one of the
several ways we know Jesus spoke out against homosexuality and absolutely
viewed it as a sin.)
But Jesus doesn’t simply call us to
avoid the various physical forms of fornication and adultery; He digs deeper.
He
commands us to stop ourselves long before physical actions take place. He tells
us to take adulterous thoughts captive and make them obedient to Him, because
adultery starts in the heart and mind.
And if
you keep on reading Jesus’ words, you’ll find that He says if your eye or hand
cause you to sin, you shouldn’t just say, “Hey, I need this in order to have a
fulfilled life.” You shouldn’t just say, “Hey, this is the way I’m wired.” No,
He says it would be better to cut off your hand or pluck out your eye than to
have two hands and two eyes, keep right on sinning unrepentantly, and go to
hell as a result.
However,
what if you’re speaking with a person who doesn’t believe the Bible should be
the ultimate authority on moral matters? (And no surprise, this supposed
minister of the Gospel doesn’t believe in the infallibility of the Scriptures.)
One
avenue that I’ve found helpful in discussions like these is looking at how the
earliest Christians lived out Jesus’ commands. Did they take Him seriously and
simply or not? If they took His words at face value and lived them out, there’s
an incredibly high probability that that is the same approach we should be
taking.
Justin
Martyr was a philosopher and evangelist living in the middle of the 2nd
century CE. He boldly ministered during a time when Christianity was outlawed
and Christians were widely persecuted due to many false rumors about them and
their practices. Though it endangered his life, Justin wrote an apology, an
address to the Roman Emperor, describing the beliefs and practices of Christians
around the entire known world. Here is an excerpt from that work concerning the
sexual habits of Christians in his day:
The teachings of Jesus have
transformed our lives. We who formerly delighted in fornication now embrace
chastity exclusively. … Concerning chastity, He taught us: “Whoever looks upon
a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart before
God.” And, “If your right eye causes you to sin, cut it out; for it is better
for you to enter into the kingdom of heaven with one eye than to be cast into
everlasting fire with two eyes.” … Many men and women who have been Christ’s
disciples from childhood remain pure at the age of sixty or seventy years. In
fact, I can produce such Christians from every race of mankind. Not only that,
but there are countless multitudes of those who used to live in debauchery but
have now changed their lustful habits and accepted these teachings. – Justin Martyr 160CE, Vol. 1., p.
254-255 [CD-ROM]
McCleneghan
says it’s fine for Christians to have sex outside of marriage as long as it’s
pleasurable and affirming for both people. Justin says NO WAY, and quoted the
Sermon on the Mount.
McCleneghan
says it’s unfair to ask Christian singles to practice abstinence before
marriage because men and women, “need sex”. Justin says that abstinence outside
of marriage was the norm for the early Christians because Jesus transforms
lives.
Which one of those sounds like a
sheep, and which one sounds like a wolf in sheep’s clothing?
The New
Testament authors told us these days would come. False teachers began to arise
within the Church even in their day, but clearly they are out in force in our
culture. Please, please cling to Jesus and His teachings tightly, and guard
your heart from the seductive and perverted teaching of the wolves.
Beware of the false prophets, who come to
you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. – Matthew
7:15
I know that after my departure
savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your
own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples
after them. – Acts 20:29-30
For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine; but wanting to
have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in
accordance to their own desires. – 2 Timothy 4:3
There will also be false teachers
among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies. … Many will follow
their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;
and in their greed they will
exploit you with false words. … The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from
temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of
judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. – 2 Peter 2:1-3, 9-10
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