Ethics (Biblical Morality): Sexuality
Biblical morality regarding sexuality is not arbitrary but rooted in God’s eternal design for creation. From the opening pages of Genesis, the Bible affirms that God created humanity as male and female in His image and instituted marriage as the covenantal context in which sexuality is expressed (Gen. 1:27; 2:24). Sexuality is thus a good gift from God, not to be despised but to be ordered toward faithfulness, fruitfulness, and the flourishing of human relationships under His authority.
In every age, God’s people have faced competing visions of sexuality. Ancient cultures often reduced sex to fertility rites, power, or pleasure, while today’s culture frequently promotes autonomy, individual desire, and situational ethics. Yet the Bible insists on universal moral norms that transcend culture. These norms reveal God’s good design, expose human sin, and point us toward redemption in Christ, the true Bridegroom of His people.
1. God’s Creation Design for Sexuality
Sexuality begins in creation. Genesis teaches that humanity was created in two complementary sexes—male and female—together reflecting the image of God (Gen. 1:27). The purpose of this differentiation is not merely biological but covenantal: man and woman are brought together in marriage as “one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). This union is ordered toward companionship, covenant faithfulness, and fruitfulness in bringing forth children.
Marriage in the Bible is never presented as a human invention but as a divine institution. It is a picture of God’s covenant love, which explains why the prophets and apostles use marriage as a metaphor for God’s relationship with His people (Hos. 2:19–20; Eph. 5:25–32). To misuse sexuality, then, is not merely to break a rule but to distort a picture of the covenantal relationship between Christ and His church.
2. Sexual Morality in the Law and Prophets
The moral law, summarized in the Ten Commandments, includes a direct prohibition: “You shall not commit adultery” (Exod. 20:14). Far from being a mere external rule, this command protects the sanctity of marriage and guards against the destructive power of unfaithfulness. The Old Testament expands this principle to forbid adultery, fornication, prostitution, homosexuality, and bestiality (Lev. 18). These prohibitions are not arbitrary but flow from the recognition that sexuality outside of covenant marriage distorts God’s creation order.
The prophets often use sexual imagery to describe Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. Idolatry is compared to adultery, as God’s people abandon Him for false gods (Jer. 3:6–10; Ezek. 16). This imagery is meant to awaken Israel to the seriousness of covenant-breaking and to show how sexual sin in human relationships parallels spiritual unfaithfulness to the Lord.
3. Jesus’ Teaching on Sexuality
Jesus affirms the Old Testament teaching on sexuality while also deepening its implications. When asked about divorce, He quotes Genesis: “From the beginning it was not so” (Matt. 19:8). He points back to God’s creation of male and female and the covenantal unity of marriage (Matt. 19:4–6). For Jesus, marriage is not a contract to be broken at will but a covenant established by God.
Moreover, Jesus expands the seventh commandment beyond external action to include inward desire: “Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:28). This radicalizes biblical morality by showing that God is concerned not only with behavior but with the desires and thoughts of the heart.
In doing so, Jesus does not make the ethic unattainable for the sake of despair but to show the depth of human need and the necessity of grace. The Gospel promises forgiveness for the sexually broken and the power of the Holy Spirit to live in holiness. Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught in adultery demonstrates this balance of grace and truth: “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more” (John 8:11).
4. Apostolic Teaching on Sexuality and the Church
The apostles carry forward Jesus’ teaching by applying it to the life of the church. Paul exhorts believers to “flee from sexual immorality” (1 Cor. 6:18), warning that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. He reminds Christians that sexual sin is uniquely destructive because it involves both body and soul. Instead, believers are called to honor God with their bodies (1 Cor. 6:19–20).
Paul also describes marriage as a mystery pointing to Christ and the church (Eph. 5:25–32). Just as Christ gave Himself sacrificially for His bride, so husbands are called to love their wives, and wives to respect their husbands. The sexual ethic of the New Testament is therefore not restrictive but redemptive, shaping human relationships to reflect the greater covenant of salvation.
The church is called to discipline those who persist in sexual immorality without repentance (1 Cor. 5). Yet the goal is always restoration, reminding us that no sin is beyond the reach of Christ’s forgiveness. The Gospel transforms sexuality from a place of rebellion into a place of witness, as believers live faithfully in a world that denies God’s design.
5. Biblical Sexuality, Holiness, and the Gospel
The biblical ethic of sexuality is inseparable from the Gospel. Humanity’s failure to live according to God’s design reveals our sinfulness and points us to our need for redemption. Sexual sin, like all sin, earns God’s judgment (1 Thess. 4:3–6; Heb. 13:4). Yet in Christ, there is forgiveness, cleansing, and renewal. Paul reminds the Corinthians that although some of them were once sexually immoral, “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 6:11).
In the new creation, sexuality will no longer be a source of temptation or distortion, but its covenantal significance will be fulfilled in the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7–9). All human marriages and all human sexuality point forward to that consummation when Christ and His church are united forever.
Thus, biblical morality regarding sexuality is not only about preserving purity but about anticipating glory. By living faithfully now, the church testifies to the reality of God’s kingdom and the ultimate joy of union with Christ.
Conclusion
Biblical teaching on sexuality affirms the goodness of God’s creation, guards against the destructive power of sin, and points forward to the redemptive plan fulfilled in Christ. Far from being a relic of the past, this ethic continues to shape the life of the church and to provide a countercultural witness in a world that has largely rejected God’s design.
Sexuality, when lived in accordance with biblical morality, becomes a signpost of the Gospel itself—revealing God’s covenant love, the transforming power of grace, and the eternal promise of union with Christ.
Bible Verses About Sexuality
Genesis 2:24 – “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Exodus 20:14 – “You shall not commit adultery.”
Leviticus 18:22 – “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”
Proverbs 5:18–19 – “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.”
Matthew 5:28 – “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Matthew 19:4–6 – “He answered, ‘Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.’”
1 Corinthians 6:18–20 – “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Thessalonians 4:3–4 – “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor.”
Hebrews 13:4 – “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”
Revelation 19:7 – “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready.”
