Christian Intimacy & Ethics Understanding the Biblical Purpose of Relationships
Written by Austin Romito and Carolyn Bokinskie Photo Illustrations by Kelsie Stevens
W
e all long for intimacy – it is rooted in our human nature to express love and be loved by others. We desire that significant other who makes us laugh, knows every little detail about us, and is willing to travel the ups, the downs, and to the ends of the earth by our side. We want to be known and live in community. This seems to be a part of the holy design that God had intended for humankind. Just as Jesus loved and sacrificed for the church, man and woman can display love and sacrifice in a marriage as a visual and physical representation of God’s goodness. This desire for love, sex and intimacy are natural feelings instilled in us by our creator, as are the rules he set down regarding when it is acceptable. Yet, these are not necessarily appealing standards to live by compared to culture’s pervasive notion of immediate gratification. People quickly become turned off to the biblical realities of sexual standards as soon as they perceive these standards as lofty ideas that tie them down. According to the Lexico dictionary,
16 | Pursuit
powered by Oxford University, ethics are a set of moral principles that govern a person’s behavior; a principle is defined as a fundamental truth that serves as the foundation of a belief system. Biblically, Christians are commanded to rely on the Bible’s fundamental principles to guide our lifestyle and daily choices. Christian sexual ethics is the standard that Christians use to inform their sexual thought, expression, and behavior based on the truths found in the Bible. In a postmodernist world, it can be difficult for unbelievers to understand a lifestyle that is motivated by a single source of truth when we live in a world that promotes no absolute truths at all. In “Hidden Worldviews,” Steve Wilkens and Mary L. Sanford write that central to postmodernism is “the belief that our perceptions of time, ethics, the sacred, death and a host of other things always come to us through the filter of culture.” The growing influence of postmodernism in our world tells the next generation that there is no absolute truth and that truth can be defined ➤
