The Bible tells us that God designed us male and female and that there are sexual benefits because of that. There’s companionship, identification, procreation, and also happiness and safety when we follow God’s plan. God designed sex for marriage, not to be a killjoy, but for our flourishing.

If God exists and He created us, He designed our sexuality. And if God is good, then He designed our sexuality for our benefit. Not only is this true, it has pragmatic benefits when we align our lives and behavior with our design. And recent sex scandals illustrate the destructive nature of doing things mainly because they give us pleasure rather than making wise choices that lead to our wellbeing.

The Bible tells us that God designed us male and female and that there are sexual benefits because of that. There’s companionship, identification, procreation, and also happiness and safety when we follow God’s plan. God designed sex for marriage, not to be a killjoy, but for our flourishing.

While sex outside of marriage has lots of short-term pleasure, there are long-term harms. The Federalist posted the results of a recent study that confirms what other studies have shown: cohabiting and having children outside of marriage is a strong indicator of poverty. Seventy years ago, the most important factor in economic wellbeing was employment. Fifty years go, it was education. But for the last twenty years, the most important factors have been marriage and having children within marriage. Cohabiting and having children out of wedlock, even if the parents eventually marry, are strongly associated with poverty.

What happened between 20 and 50 years ago? The sexual revolution. No-fault divorce. Out-of-wedlock births. The study shows the pragmatic results of pursuing a sexual ethic we’re not designed for. Doing things as God designed for us actually has pragmatic benefits.

When the Harvey Weinstein story broke a few weeks ago, columnist David French made a simple but really profound observation. Before the sexual revolution, there were boundaries around sex. Even if not practiced perfectly, generally our social norms followed God’s norms and it produced good benefits for individuals and society. Sex was reserved for marriage. Extra-marital sex was wrong. Casual sex was rare. Spouses were expected to be faithful. Children were to be born into a married home.  Divorce was hard to obtain to encourage couples to stay together and work through problems.  Sex was not on display virtually everywhere we look.  Teens were not assumed to be sexually active.  Children were not sexualized and exposed to images and ideas beyond their developmental level.  Things weren’t perfect; I’m not idealizing the times. There were plenty of failures and hypocrisy.  But generally, these boundaries were reinforced, followed, and were good for individuals and society.

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