The Bible Has The Answers For All Of Life’s Issues… Issues Caused By Sexual Immorality

Morality is an issue or conversation that we tend to avoid.  We do so because there is a clash of ideas about what is moral vs. what is immoral.  We now live in a world where sexual freedom and sexual expression has no limits.  We feel that we ought to be free to express ourselves and to not be confined by traditional or biblical values.  Our world frowns on limiting someone’s ability to express how they feel.  The clothing fashions over the last twenty-five years are geared towards making us more attractive and sexier.   “Eye candy” is the going thing.  I would like to offer a biblical answer to the many issues that overwhelms us that have their roots in sexual immorality.  First of all the bible encourages sex and romance in its proper context.  We read these words in the Song of Solomon in 1:13-14.   My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh that lies between my breasts. 14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi. This is real romance and a poetic version of a sexual encounter between a husband and his wife.  She also said this in Song 2:4-6 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. 5 Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples,  for I am sick with love. 6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me! Sex is a God given gift but to be enjoyed only in the context of marriage.  Immorality is any sexual act outside the context of marriage that God does not authorize.  Immorality takes what God setup as good and distorts its use with devastating effects to our society.  Sex outside of the biblical context of marriage works like a fire in our home outside its proper context, a fireplace.  A fire within a fireplace brings warmth, beauty, and comfort to a home.  If we take that same fire and place it in the middle of the room it will burn the house down.  So let’s examine the biblical context for sexual expression.  Genesis 2:24-25 states, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. God gave to humanity the institution of marriage through which sexual expression is to be enjoyed to the fullest.    The context is two people coming together in a binding covenant relationship called marriage whereby they fulfill God’s purpose of replenishing the earth, not just with children but children who would glorify God wherever they lived on earth.  Let’s cite a few of the issues in our society that have their roots in sexual immorality. 

1.    The United States has the highest rate of children in single parent-households than any nation in the world. Most are born to unwed mothers.

2.   Fatherless families are 4x more likely to live in poverty than that for married-couple families. Poverty is an issue.

3.   Fatherless children are more likely to abuse drugs and show signs of delinquent behavior. These are societal issues.

4.   Fatherless children are more likely to suffer from psychosocial development issues, live in poverty, drop out of school, engage in school violence, abuse substances, and enter the juvenile justice system.

5.   Some data suggests 72 percent of adolescent murderers and 70 percent of long-term prison inmates come from fatherless homes.

6.   70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions come from single-parent homes.

7.   Individuals from father-absent homes are 279% more likely to carry guns and deal drugs than their peers.

8.   Most adolescents who enter the justice system have suffered from parental abandonment, substance abuse, or a dysfunctional household.

These are only a few statistics associated with fatherless homes and single parenting.  The question that we must ask is how did these homes become fatherless?  The answer is through sex outside the context of marriage.  In 1980 only 18% of women giving birth were unmarried.  Today over 40% of all babies born in America are born to unwed mothers.  Among African Americans the percentage of unwed mothers is over 70%.  With an increase in immorality comes the increase of births to unwed mothers.  Our society magnifies sexual expression of any kind on the one hand and then wrestle to fix or mitigate the many ills that are the fruit of immoral behavior.  Some people will say that the bible is antiquated.  They will also say that times have changed.  On that statement, times have changed they are correct in that we live in a more immoral society than thirty or forty years ago.  The ills we experience today are far greater and more severe than forty or fifty years ago.  Single parenting and the issues that spring from it such as poverty, gang involvement, underperforming schools, gun violence, etc. all have their origin in an act of sexual expression different than the standard given us in the bible.  If we choose to embrace God’s standard for sexual expression, we can begin seeing a large decrease of the ills caused by immorality.  Everything God created was good.  He created sex to be enjoyed but only in the context He set forth.  All our efforts put forth to decrease these ills fare futile, unless we embrace God’s standard for sexual expression.  The bible indeed has the answer for all of life’s issues.  We still have time to make changes that will be effective for years to come, but those changes must be biblical. They must be in accordance with the standard God set for moral behavior.

Respectfully

Lawrence Robinson