Sex and the Good Samaritan

The church at Corinth was having issues regarding sex and sent questions to the Apostle Paul about the issues they were facing. Below is a part of Paul’s answer to the church at Corinth.

1 Corinthians 7:1-6
Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command.

Yeah, I’m sure you’ve seen this before but I’m going to take a slightly different tack with it.

Paul points out two factors that seem to relate to the questions the church at Corinth had. First, is the fact that sexual immorality was occurring and the second is temptation because of a lack of self-control. The issues that the church in Corinth faced isn’t much different than the church faces today. How to remain sexually moral in a time of sexual immorality with temptation surrounding us testing our self control. Paul’s answer to sexual immorality, temptation and a lack of self-control? Have sex with your spouse.

Now, I have head these scriptures explained away much like the “expert in the law” tried to justify himself in Luke 10. To the “expert in the law” Jesus told The Parable of the Good Samaritan. When Jesus had finished telling the parable he asked the “expert in the Law” who had been a neighbor to the man that was robbed and left for dead? The “expert in the law” answered, “The one who had mercy on him.” (NIV)

I share that to ask this question, can we all agree that it is good for each of us to provide a fulfilling sex life to our spouse so that they can more easily face the sexual immorality in our society, the sexual temptation inherent in this sexually immoral society, and their own lack of self-control? To answer no one would have to make the same type of justification that the “expert in the law” tried to make.

James 4:17 (NIV)
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Once we know the good that we ought to do and we choose to not do it we have committed the sin of omission. On top of this, we have placed our spouse in a precarious position. We have made it more difficult for them to face the temptations of this sexually immoral society in which we and they live. Make no mistake, each sin is accounted to the one that chooses to sin. As an example, my sin of omission would not give my wife a “pass” on her sexual sin, just as her lack of sexual sin wouldn’t release me of my hard-hearted sin of omission.

Proverbs 3:27-28 (NIV)
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act.
Do not say to your neighbor, “Come back tomorrow and I’ll give it to you”—when you already have it with you.

And after the “expert in the law” had answered that the man who showed mercy had acted like a neighbor to the man that was robbed and left half dead, Jesus replied, “Go and do likewise.” (NIV)