In recent years we have been overwhelmed with a flood of sexual immorality in the church. The Roman Catholic Church has a long standing crisis with homosexual priests (see here, here, and here). Mainline Protestants have virtually surrendered the concept of a Christian sexual morality. Evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches struggle as well. Even as conservative churches half-heartedly promote a traditional sexual ethic it is being compromised from pulpit to pew.
Sexual morality is essential to Christian practice. In fact, as the Christian message spread throughout the pagan world, sexual ethics was a primary factor that distinguished the Christian way of life. Christians are to resist all forms of sexual immorality – pornography, pre-marital sex, extra-marital sex, serial divorce and remarriage, abortion, infanticide, and homosexuality (Acts 15:20, 29; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19ff; Ephesians 5:3, 5; Colossians 3:5). Jesus declared that Christian sexual morality is established in creation – one man and one woman for life (Matthew 19:1ff). The earliest extra-biblical text that explains Christian sexual ethics is found in the Didache (circa AD 96):
Are the teens in your church routinely viewing pornography? Most likely. In fact, some studies have suggested that young people have become so addicted to porn that they cannot function emotionally in a real relationship.
How many of the young people reared and discipled in your church have become unwedded fathers and mothers?
How many Christian weddings have been performed in your church in which the groom and bride are already expecting a child?
How many marriages have been performed in which groom and bride have previous failed marriages?
The culture of sexual immorality has become so pervasive in the church that it is normative. We now have multiple generations who do not remember a time that a Christian sexual ethic prevailed in the wider society. Did a time ever exist? Yes! Demographic studies demonstrate the exponential rise of various forms of sexual immorality since 1960 when only 5.3% of babies were born to unwed parents (CDC). Presently, the majority of babies in the USA are born to unwed parents, and in some communities the rate is more than 80%. Also, in 1960 the divorce rate for first time marriages in the USA was about 9%. By 2015 the divorce rate for first time marriages in the USA was more than 30%.
Christian leaders have abandoned a biblical sexual ethic. Few sermons about sexual morality are preached. There is no sense of wrong doing, no since of conviction, no repentance. Pastors and church leaders are not addressing the issue. Some are suggesting that teaching Christian sexual ethics will undermine church growth. In fact, the failure to teach a biblical sexual ethic is undermining the mission of the Church.
The remedy for sexual immorality is grace – the grace of the Spirit who confronts and convicts us of our sinfulness. Through the Spirit of grace those who repent are forgiven of past sins and empowered to resist future sinfulness. Grace does not affirm us in sin, but delivers us from the slavery of sin (Romans 6:1ff). Confronting sexual immorality in the church does not mean casting stones – that is, condemnation. But it does mean that sinners are challenged to embrace a sexual ethic consistent with the sanctification of the body – “Go, sin no more” (John 8:1-11).
