With those words everything in life is given its shape, purpose, and meaning. But for the purpose of the topic of sex, these words do something important. They destroy the validity of dividing life into spiritual and secular. This division has opened to us doors of danger as we think about sex. It’s allowed us to live with a distance and dissonance between our world of sex and the principles and promises of Scripture. And it’s allowed us to minimize the degree to which every sexual act is deeply and inescapably spiritual. The way in which you participate in sex always reveals the true spirituality of your heart.

If you are a believer, the entire way you think about yourself, life, and the world around you has been shaped by the words of God found on the pages of your Bible. In all things, your calling is to live inside the boundaries of what God has said. But you must begin by understanding the importance, the life-shaping significance, of the first four words of the Bible: “In the beginning, God” (Gen. 1:1)

With those words everything in life is given its shape, purpose, and meaning. But for the purpose of the topic of sex, these words do something important. They destroy the validity of dividing life into spiritual and secular. This division has opened to us doors of danger as we think about sex. It’s allowed us to live with a distance and dissonance between our world of sex and the principles and promises of Scripture. And it’s allowed us to minimize the degree to which every sexual act is deeply and inescapably spiritual. The way in which you participate in sex always reveals the true spirituality of your heart.

So I want to take time to unpack five implications of those four words in Genesis 1:1—“In the beginning, God,”— and apply them to the world of sex.

1. God exists and is the center of all things.

It is humbling and significant to realize that the biblical story doesn’t begin with us. It begins with God. It’s important to recognize that the story that unfolds on the pages of your Bible is God’s story. The story moves according to his will and by his plan. It’s all for him, from him, through him, and about him. He zealously holds on to his position at the center of all things. He will not forsake his position of authority or give his control to another. He is the center, the important one, and the Lord of glory. Your understanding of everything in your life must begin here.

Our problem with sex doesn’t begin with lust, with bad choices, or with sexual misbehavior. Our problem with sex begins when we forget that God must be at the center of this part of our lives as he must be with any other. When you have no greater motivation in sex than your own satisfaction, you are already in sexual trouble, even if you don’t know it yet. How have you tended to put yourself in the center of your world of sexuality?

2. God is the creator and owner of all that exists.

Human beings were designed to be resident managers of the created world that God owns. God made and owned the beautiful garden of Eden, placed Adam and Eve in it, and then commissioned them to live in and care for the garden he made and owned. They didn’t own what they’d been given. They didn’t make the rules. They didn’t get a vote when it came to the purpose for their own lives and for everything else. They were there to recognize God’s ownership by fulfilling his purpose.

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