Lust III

Today’s post is on lust. Today, I’ll briefly examine how lust is prominent in our culture.

It doesn’t take long to notice how saturated sex is within our culture (or if you don’t notice it, don’t watch TV for awhile, then turn it back on). It’s everywhere. I listen to my stations on Pandora radio only to be assaulted with Trojan ads. I turn on the TV to watch Monk and Psyche only to be assaulted with the “25 Most Voluptuous Vixens” on E!. We esteem the external beauty of these women and disregard their character. We objectify their flesh and neglect their virtue much less what makes them human.

While our culture glorifies it, believers remain silent about it (except Driscoll). Rather than address sex in an open, honest and straightforward discussion, chastity balls are held, sex, puberty and affections are discussed in wishy-washy terms of condemnation while at the same time promising a utopian marriage for those who abstain. Next to apostasy, it seems premarital sex is the next worse sin for couples.

Such focus is given on dating that we as believers neglect the glaring statistics that our divorce rates are the same as nonbelievers. We promise utopian marriages and give three point sermons on Ephesians about submission and not having a hint of sexual immorality. We hold emotional ceremonies and take vows about true love waiting. We paint adultery and infidelity, chastity and abstinence in generalities. We say all these things, yet neglect honest discussion about real, relevant topics.

Perhaps we could benefit from Driscoll’s treatment of sex and lust in the church. Rather than suppressing or flatly condemning with broad strokes, Driscoll confronts these issues head on. Sex is not something to be talked about in quiet, but a sacred, holy privilege for the married. It is something to be enjoyed, not shamefully or lustfully performed.

Enough connotating sex with something, naughty, bad or dirty (at least in a believer’s language). In his post on First Things, Joe Carter references a book that contains prayers before sex. While we could argue we should pray before sex or not, I believe the sense of reverence contained within the prayer gets at the heart of what it means to be united in essence to another. It is a sacred, reverent external manifestation of a man a woman’s union in marriage. This honest approach is what we need.

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