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Building Block
Seven: Sexual Fulfillment
In the garden paradise where it all began, Adam and Eve shared
a wonderful intimacy: “They were both naked, the man and his
wife, and were not ashamed” (Gen. 2:25). Furthermore, the command
to replenish the earth came before the fall. Intimacy and mutual
physical fulfillment, therefore, have always been part of the
husband-wife relationship.
The husband and wife are to find sexual fulfillment in each
other. The Bible gives the following perspectives:
It Is Protective The husband and wife are to reserve
this special intimacy for each other, and they are to give it
freely. Paul wrote, “Because of sexual immorality, let each
man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband”
(1 Cor. 7:2).
No one needs to tell us that we are living in a sexually promiscuous
age. There are few restraints. From billboards to television
to magazines, relationships are being sexualized.
A husband and wife who maintain intimacy are helping to protect
each other from a sexually obsessed society. They protect their
own faithfulness.
It Is Enjoyable After delivering a stern warning about
prostitution, the wise author of Proverbs wrote these words
to young husbands:
Drink water from your own cistern, and running water
from your own well. Should your fountains be dispersed abroad,
streams of water in the streets? Let them be only your own,
and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer
and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
and always be enraptured with her love (5:15-19).
The sexual aspect of marriage is not a necessary evil to be
endured for the purpose of procreation. It was designed by God
to bring continuing pleasure—an intimate, exhilarating, renewing
part of the husband-wife relationship.
It Is Expected When a man and woman come together in
marriage, each has a right to expect sexual fulfillment from
the other. Paul wrote:
Let the husband render to his wife the affection
due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife
does not have authority over her own body, but the husband
does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over
his own body, but the wife does (1 Cor. 7:3-4).
Paul went on to say that if one marital partner decides to abstain,
it is first to be agreed upon with the other. Furthermore, the
time of abstinence is to be brief.
Do not deprive one another except with consent for
a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer;
and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because
of your lack of self-control (1 Cor. 7:5).
Mutual sexual enjoyment is an important part of marriage. Marital
sexual experience that is motivated by love is not evil. It
must not be made more important than it is; nor should it be
minimized. It is part of the overall picture—an intimate part
of the shared identity of the man and woman who come together
as husband and wife.
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