Sex, Morals and Immorality
Part 2
Two articles, “Sex, Morals and Immorality” by Dr. George Mair, B.M. Ch.B. (Eons) F.R.C.S.(Ed) reflect the deep concern of a Christian Specialist in General Surgery for the young and inexperienced. He has lectured on drugs and sex to gatherings throughout the Toronto, Ontario area. We are pleased to publish some of his words of counsel and warning.
In this section let us discuss: (1) I immorality; (2) unnatural sex and (3) then by way of illustration and summation, the beautiful story of the three women of proverbs.
Immorality
God is a God of order, of laws which cannot be broken, if the cause is set in motion, the effect must follow. With God’s moral laws, we reap what we sow. God’s sex laws were given for our happiness — even our children’s happiness. If we break them we suffer and, as we shall see in the next section, even our children suffer. Immorality affects us at all three levels of a Christian’s existence.
Psychological: (Psache (gr.) — Soul): Fear and Guilt may destroy our peace of mind and even result in psychosomatic disease — asthma, high blood pressure, nervous break--down. There is always an element of secrecy, fear of being found out and the guilt of a tormented conscience. How true Proverbs 9:17. “Bread eaten in secret is pleasant, but he knoweth not that death is there!”
Loss of Respect: Many a girl in trying to win a boy’s love only with her co-operation has found the truth of the sale sign “slightly used, greatly reduced in price.”
Distrust: Knowledge of even pre-marital promiscuity raises the doubt, “would he do it again?”
Even Hate: Think of 2 Samuel 13, David’s son, Amnon, loved his half sister Tamar, but after seducing her, it says in Verse 15 that he hated her and the hatred with which he hated her was greater than his former love.
Physical (Body): Social Disease: In spite of the advances in medicine, particularly in antibiotics, venereal disease is rampant and increasing, especially among teenagers. This has taken the medical world by surprise and is difficult to explain unless it is due to our sophisticated youths’ over-reliance in the power of medicine, underestimation of the terror of nature and the refusal to listen to the wisdom of Scripture. “Flee fornication. Every sin a man doeth is outside the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body” (1 Cor. 6:18). Many teenage girls with gonorrhaeal (salpingitis) — have been rendered sterile perhaps for life. They had had intercourse with only their boyfriend but he obviously had been elsewhere and with how many? Yet God’s plan of one man and one woman in Holy Matrimony, forsaking all others, is a foolproof preventative.
Pregnancy: The “Pill” is not foolproof; in spite of it, illegitimate births are increasing, especially among teenagers.
Who can measure the strain a pregnancy has on an unmarried girl! It raises problems that may be insoluable, and sometimes results in a forced marriage, provided both are willing. Of course, often this solution is perfectly satisfactory, but it may result in marriage before the couple is ready for it or marriage of incompatible persons and a lifetime of resentment. Great is the problem of raising an illegitimate child with all the social stigma attached to this, and with the harmful effects this may have on both mother and child. To have the child adopted must also be a strain to a normal girl. The guilt of having borne a child and giving it away, suppressing mother love, and never knowing thereafter how the child is, must take its toll.
Spiritual (Spirit): If these are the natural effects, the spiritual effect of immorality on a Christian must be severe. But here we must consider not only the open act — breaking the seventh commandment, we must also consider the secret act — breaking the tenth commandment — “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife.” Jesus said in Matthew 5:28, “If a man look on a woman to lust after her, he hath committed adultery with her already in his heart,” and again, Matthew 15:11, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out.” To sum up with Proverbs 23:7, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
So many Christians are legally correct, outwardly correct, but not morally correct, inwardly correct. Remember, “God looks on the heart.” To be correct where only man can see is pharisaism, and the Lord soundly condemned that.
Immorality begins with an attitude, a spiritual declension or backsliding, adrift from God. It progresses with a desire, the breaking of the tenth commandment and it only manifests itself with an open act, the breaking of the seventh commandment.
This is illustrated by David’s adultery. “At the time that kings go forth to battle, David sent Joab… but David tarried in Jerusalem” (2 Samuel 11:1). There was something wrong with David. He was not spiritually healthy. He was slacking. First we have David’s attitude. Then in verse two he saw the woman Bathsheba and coveted. He broke the tenth commandment. Then he sent for her and committed adultery; he broke the seventh commandment. But David had already sinned before the open act.
The spiritual effect of this sin is also illustrated in David. David was a sinner but he was still a man after God’s own heart. He remorsely confessed his sin in Psalm 51, but David’s usefulness was greatly impaired. Nathan the prophet could say, “Thou shalt not die,” but this act divided his reign in two. Until then his reign had been glorious; hereafter it became a succession of tragedies — Amnon’s incest and murder, Absalom’s rebellion, etc. “God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7).
Adultery affects our spiritual usefulness; it also hampers spiritual relationships. “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” “He who is joined to an harlot is one body. For two, saith He, shall be one flesh” (1 Cor. 6:16-19).
Adultery hinders our communion with God. It also mars our marital communion. Scripture seems to suggest that adultery actually breaks the original marriage bond. Jesus in Matthew 19:9, certainly indicates that divorce is permissable in cases of adultery and some brethren have recently been suggesting that remarriage is possible for the innocent party. This is not convincing although the verse is a little ambiguous, “Whosoever shall put away his wife except it be for fornication and, shall marry another, committeth adultery; and whosoever marrieth her who is put away doth commit adultery.” But there is certainly a strong suggestion that in God’s eyes, fornication does break the marriage bond.
Christians therefore, should guard against this sin by remembering where and when the sin starts. It starts in the mind with sexy books and off-color jokes, and in the eyes with suggestive pictures, and in the desires of our hearts. The Lord’s Prayer says, “Lead me not into temptation.” Paul says, “Flee all appearance of evil.” This is important for young Christian unmarried couples when they ask, “How far can we go?” Certainly what God in His wisdom covered in the beginning should be left covered until marriage.
Homosexuality
This is an unnatural sexual activity which brings revulsion to most Christians, yet it is important that some of us think about it because it is a classic example of the head-on collision of modern science (which regards it as a psychiatric illness) and Scripture (which condemns it as a sin). It involves the sexual attraction of two of the same sex (Here we will discuss males only).
Now, it is true a young man behaves this way because of a warping of his developing personality. He is attracted to a man on the one hand because he is looking for a father —he is repelled from women because he has had too much of his mother. You see, possibly he was brought up by his mother either because there was no father in the home (He is illegitimate or his parents are divorced.) or his father has failed him in his function in the home (too occupied with business or too quick to give his son money instead of love and discipline).
What an example of the penalty attached to the second commandment, “Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children!”
How ironic that the name for this sin is sodomy! It was the sin of Sodom, a city of the same immoral Canaanites we discussed in Part I. Don’t you see? Immorality destroys the home and without normal home life children can’t grow up emotionally healthy. God knew that from the beginning, and that is why He tries to regulate sex, but man still won’t believe it.
True, then, homosexuals may be emotionally disturbed; are they, therefore, culpable? Scripture still says, yes!
They have a sexual appetite (unnatural) just as the rest of us have a sexual appetite (natural) and to all, God still says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
They are still responsible to God for their actions and Paul says, “likewise also the men, burning in their lust one toward another, men with men ….(Rom. 1:27). “Knowing the judgment of God, that they who commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them” (Rom. 1:32). Scripture teaches us in the same words as the MacNaughton Rules of our Law Courts. “They know what they are doing and they know it is wrong, but they do it anyway.”
Three Women of Proverbs
It is befitting that we conclude this subject, especially after the example of fatherly failure in the previous section, with a picture from the Book of Proverbs. A father is seen there anxiously trying to raise his son, properly. He cautions him against the loose woman. She will bring on him the evils mentioned in chapter five (Revised, standard version).
My son be attentive to my wisdom (v. 1). The lips of a loose woman drip honey (v. 3). But in the end she is bitter as wormwood (v. 4). Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house (v. 8). Lest you give your honour to others (v. 9). And at the end of your life you groan when your flesh and body are consumed (v. 11). For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord (v. 21). The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him (v. 22).. He dies for lack of discipline (v. 23).
He advised him to respond to a Woman of Virtue — a woman on whom God has set His seal. Her name is Wisdom. She will bring him the happiness mentioned in chapter eight.
Now, therefore, my sons listen to me
Happy are they who keep my ways
For he who finds me, finds life (v. 32).
The son obviously responded to his father, for at the end of the book in chapter 31 we find him in affluence and honour with his Perfect Wife, the virtuous woman described in chapter 31:10-12.
Who can find a virtuous woman?
For her price is far above rubies.
The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her.
She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life (vs. 10-12).
He is in a happy home with emotionally healthy children.
Her children rise up and call her blessed.
Her husband also and he praiseth her (v. 28).
Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised (v. 30).