What Does the Bible Say About Human Sexuality?
Our gender and natural sexual desires are part of our God-given physical existence. As with all God’s gifts, he has designed them for a purpose. Human sexuality is created by God for his glory, the joy of his creatures and the propagation of the race. (Gen. 1:26, 27, 31; 2:18-25; 1 Tim. 4:4)
Moreover, for the Christian, the body is sacred, made holy by the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit and therefore to be used in a manner that glorifies God. (1 Cor. 6:15- 20; Rom 6:12-14)
How Has God Provided for Sexual Gratification?
The marital union of one man to one woman is ordained by God as the only moral expression of human sexual relationship. (Genesis 2.24; 1 Cor. 7:2-5; Hebrews 13:4) The concept of marriage is never used in the Bible to describe a union of any kind between people of the same gender. Thus, from a biblical standpoint, no other union may be considered marriage regardless of court rulings or state and federal laws.
Is Living Together Before Marriage Acceptable?
Men or women who are sexually active outside marriage, living together or not, are practicing a biblically immoral lifestyle dishonoring to God and destructive to their spiritual health and future marital life. (1 Cor. 6:9-11; 13-20; 10:8; 2 Cor. 12:21; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-5; Col. 3:5, 6; 1 Thess. 4:1-7; 1 Tim 1:8-11; Hebrews 12:15-17) Because of these Biblical imperatives our expectation is for unmarried couples to live apart and be sexually abstinent until marriage.
What About Same-Sex Relationships?
Though experiencing attraction to a person of one’s own gender is not a sin, those who experience same-sex attraction are never free biblically to become sexually active with someone of the same sex. (Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Rom. 1:24-28) Rather, they must seek God’s help and the support of trusted friends within the church to remain sexually abstinent. They may or may not reach a point at which they no longer feel attraction to members of their own gender. Notwithstanding, God’s calling for them, as for all believers regardless of gender, attraction or singleness, is to be obedient to the moral standards of Scripture either in abstinence outside marriage or sexual union within heterosexual marriage.
God’s Boundaries are Good
In all matters, extolling the honor and glory of God is always the highest value for the Christian. Sometimes this goal must be pursued with great, even life-long, struggle bolstered by the grace of God and the community of believers. Against the relentless pressure of a sex-saturated culture we must affirm and rejoice that the boundaries of God which accompany his gifts are given for our blessing whether in singleness or marriage.