Our culture uses sex to sell just about everything! Cars, motorcycles, clothing especially jeans, all different kinds of food and drink especially alcohol and a plethora of other products. Our world today is enamored with sexuality. The cultural arousal of sexual desires today disassociates sexuality from our faith in God. It compartmentalizes our sex lives by putting up walls that will keep God out. But the scriptures give us clear insights into our sexuality. The Song of Solomon is the celebration of sexual intimacies expressed in the context of the will of God. The Bible definitely recognizes the sensual side of human nature as part of God’s wonderful creation. Don’t forget, it is God who created us “male and female” (Genesis 1:27). Most of us are quite happy about that!

That same passage addresses the most intimate of human relationships as a reflection of the image of God in humanity. But it’s all in the context of the marriage bond as expressed in Genesis 2:24. Furthermore, the nakedness is one in which there need be no shame or disgrace (Genesis 2:25). One writer says, “Song of Songs transports the marital relationship to the pre-fall Garden of Eden, where husband and wife enjoy each other with no inhibitions. This book testifies to the mutual complementarity of man and woman. It affirms the sanctity of marriage and approves erotic, heterosexual love within the marital bonds.” In other words, it’s part of God’s divine plan for man. Most of us are quite happy about that!

The marital bonds between men and women are exclusive and permanent. But we must not miss the fact that from the biblical perspective they are also heterosexual. “Male and Female created He them.” Function follows form. In the innocent nakedness of man and woman, God’s function is clearly seen in the creation through its form. It’s all very “natural.” In Romans chapter 1, Paul explains that the heterosexual lives of husband and wife are natural. But the pursuit of sexual fulfillment with those of the same sex is “unnatural.” Paul says (Romans 1:26-27), that they have “exchanged” what is natural and beautiful in the God created “male and female” order into something that is “contrary to nature.” All kinds of hermeneutical acrobats are performed in the homosexual community to change the meaning of the Phrase in Leviticus 18:22 which refers to homosexual conduct as “an abomination.” Yet, to any normal reader of the passage this truth is inescapable.