In the midst of this sexualization of our youth, God’s Word speaks powerfully to us with a deeply counter-cultural message: “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20, NIV).
In opposition to the lie that sex can be manipulated without consequence, Scripture teaches that sexual sin corrupts our bodies and souls. Sadly, many of us are watching the sacred being destroyed right in front of our eyes in the lives of our teens. True intimacy is not found in sexual immorality, but in the community of God’s people, in restored family relationships and in faithful marriages.
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Sacred Sex
As youth workers, it is our special honor—alongside parents—to teach God’s good design through word and deed. Scripture reveals that sexuality doesn’t begin with mere physical pleasure; it begins in Genesis with man and woman created in God’s image—holy, pure, the same and yet different, without shame. Biblical sexuality begins with a biblical view of gender.
Teens are amazed when they hear a message that contrasts the worldly conception of gender with the beautiful picture that Scripture paints of man and woman. Gender is not incidental, nor is it adequately described by stereotypes (even Christian stereotypes!). Our maleness or femaleness is a source of intimacy and a glorious aspect of our beings that reflects God from various angles.
Of course, if we are going to teach gender credibly, we have to put the hard work into understanding it ourselves. No one is unaffected by fallen conceptions of gender. We have all picked up misconceptions and subtly bought into cultural perceptions. Scripture spends a great deal of time instructing us on gender, primarily through the examples of godly mothers and fathers in the faith.
As we pursue our students’ hearts, the message we teach and live out will shine like a bright star in the darkness of our teens’ confusion. This is not a word of condemnation, but one of hope, value and purpose. Youth often discover the richness of life when they hear that they were carefully crafted by a loving God who longs to grow them up into the fullness of manhood or womanhood.
On the foundation of biblical gender, teens are ready to grasp the depth of true sexuality. God infused sex with a richness of meaning that would send us straight to worship if we truly understood. In marriage, we have the most poignant picture on earth of God’s triune nature. A man and a woman, the same and yet different, come together in marriage, joining physically and symbolically in sexual intercourse to “become one flesh.”