A basic Christian primer on sex, marriage and family life. Article 11 – sex outside marriage

May 5, 2020 by Jill

by Martin Davie:

The Christian sexual ethic.

As C S Lewis writes in his book Mere Christianity, traditional Christian ethics contains a very clear rule with regard to sexual ethics. In his words:

‘There is no getting away from it: the Christian rule is, ‘Either marriage, with complete faithfulness to your partner, or else total abstinence.’ [1]

The reason for the existence of this rule is because, as we have seen previously in this series of articles, when God created the human race he created he created men and women to have sexual intercourse with members of the opposite sex and ordained that the context for sexual intercourse should be the permanent and exclusive relationship of one man and one woman in marriage.

What follows from this is that sex prior to marriage is morally wrong and so also is sex with someone other than your husband or wife. Furthermore, as Jesus made clear in the Sermon on the Mount, it is not only the act of sexual intercourse outside marriage that is morally wrong. The desire to perform such an act in morally wrong as well. In Jesus’ words:

‘You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.’ (Matthew 5:27-30).

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