SEXUALITY
Sexuality is a gift from God that serves reproduction among humans and animals. After God created humans, he commanded them to reproduce and populate the earth, which God gave us humans as our possession. Sexual union was intended to enable man and woman to produce offspring together and thus fulfill God's command. The Bible explicitly teaches that marriage between a man and a woman is the only legitimate and God-recognized form of partnership, and that God's blessing lies only on it. This also means that sexuality may only be practiced within this framework, and that any other form of sexual intercourse is impermissible before God. This has not changed to this day, even if some "churches" claim the opposite.
God considers freely practiced sexuality that serves only one's own pleasure (as in the case of prostitution and pornography) to be fornication, which in turn is a form of greed. Adultery and fornication—which refers to any extramarital sexual intercourse—are sins, both against God and against one's own body, and bring about God's judgment. Whether this is socially acceptable or not is of no consequence to God. The ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah serve as a cautionary example of the consequences that can result from disregarding God's laws of purity in the area of sexuality. Their inhabitants, who unrepentantly committed homosexual acts, were therefore razed to the ground by God. Even today, any state that attempts to destroy God's laws regarding marriage—as is currently happening in Germany and other Western industrialized nations—is doomed to destruction.
Most people ignore God's commands regarding relationships and sexuality. In doing so, they devalue and sometimes pervert this divine gift to the extreme. For many people, sex has become nothing more than a commodity, and their partner is more or less an object through which they seek to satisfy their selfish desires. The Bible, on the other hand, urges us that marriage should remain pure and the marriage bed undefiled. This means that neither husband nor wife may allow themselves to be unfaithful to their spouse or to willfully harm them. In this context, Jesus explains that sexual infidelity begins in the heart or mind of a person. For this reason, we should resolutely resist any temptation that might lead us to betray our partner or to sin sexually. At the same time, the Bible warns that any violation of God's marital commandments will not be without consequences.
People who have problems with their sexuality should urgently consult a spiritual counselor or seek counseling from a Christian church. The same applies to addiction to pornography, homosexual tendencies, or compulsive sexual behavior. An honest confession to God and to oneself, and a request for God's help, are an important first step toward freedom. Faith in God and the power of His Holy Spirit enable us to control and overcome the sinful thoughts and unnatural tendencies in our hearts (even if they seem natural to us). God gives everyone the free choice to marry or remain single. There are Christians who consciously decide to forgo marriage in order to serve God with their undivided attention. However, living a single life is a gift not everyone possesses. Those who feel a strong desire for a partner or cannot live a life of celibacy should follow the Bible's advice and commit to a partner. This can prevent one from committing fornication and thus becoming guilty before God.
People who have committed sexual sin in their lives can trust in God's grace and know that God will forgive them if they confess their sins and sincerely repent. They can demonstrate this by acknowledging God's commandments, loving their spouse, and remaining faithful to them. A marriage that is entered into and lived according to God's will is under God's blessing and protection.
Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable. Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion. Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (...) Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both. The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples 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 bodies.
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. I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.[b] The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.