Counterfeit Cultural Sexuality or Genuine Scriptural Sexuality
“It is not enough to rage against the lie. You’ve got to replace it with the truth.”
-Bono, U2
In the movie Catch Me If You Can, Frank Abagnale (portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio) is notorious for being fraudulently employed as a doctor, a lawyer, and a co-pilot, all before reaching his twenty-first birthday. As a successful con artist, Abagnale also becomes adept at check fraud and steals millions of dollars. FBI Agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) makes it his responsibility to capture Abagnale and bring him to justice. However, Abagnale remains one step ahead of Hanratty and the federal agents.
Abagnale is eventually caught and imprisoned, but Hanratty convinces the FBI to let Abagnale serve the rest of his sentence working for the FBI bank fraud unit. In a riveting scene, Abagnale tells the federal agents that you don’t learn to spot counterfeit checks by studying the counterfeits. Instead, you study genuine checks until you have mastered the look of the real thing.
As we take a look at the theology of sexuality, I fear we have been looking at counterfeit cultural sexuality for so long that we do not recognize genuine scriptural sexuality.
We must look more intently at Scripture than culture, or we will never be able to see the genuine. A thorough understanding of Scripture stands against the counterfeit of culture and a thorough understanding of theology against the counterfeit of our society.
Two things should define our sexuality:
GOD IS LOVE
Love. Agape. Eros. Philia. Storgé. Amor. Ai. Hubun. Grá. Sneha. Anpu. Liebe. Liubov. Yêu. Rak. A look at love around the world. Love is the greatest. Love is eternal. Love is unfathomable.
That is why love is the best word to begin with on sexuality. Because sexuality is not complete without love. And since God is love, sexuality cannot be complete without a theological understanding of God.
The Bible says that God is love. In 1 John 4:8, John is quoted directly as saying, “God is love.” What is so interesting about this text is that John also stresses to each of us that we are known as believers by our love. Love is the inescapable quality of Christianity!
A discussion on sexuality today cannot be done without a basic understanding of the highest form of love: agape. Meaning unconditional charity, the deepest Christian fellowship and communion created by God and shared with humankind.
However, the foundational and elementary nature of God is love. That means we understand everything about God through His love.
No matter how we acquired our views on sexuality— whether a personal sexuality ethic or a social sexuality ethic—I contend sexuality can only be understood through having a scriptural or biblical understanding of God.
Because sexuality began in the image of God as Creator, our understanding of sexuality then must be anchored to the fact that God is love. This must be the modus operandi (method of operation, or M.O.) or worldview or framework by which we understand God.
God cannot operate outside of His character. Everything He does can be defined by His M.O. That infers when God created us at the beginning of time back in Genesis 1–3, we can only be fully known through His love.
Here is the second characteristic nature of God that helps us to define sexuality.
GOD IS HOLY
About the time we come to understand that God is love, multiple writers, including Moses, David, the prophets, and Peter, called God holy. Wow, what a mix of character. To see God as love and holy at the same time is remarkable. What a responsibility Christians have to model to this world a God of both love and holiness. It is almost too difficult of a task without His grace and His truth.
Do you see the connection? We see that God is love by His grace, and yet we see God as holy by His truth. I believe the entire list of God’s character and His nature given to us by all of the authors in Scripture falls between His love and holiness, or His grace and truth.
To be honest, I believe this is where a lot of people depart from the scriptures. They simply cannot accept a higher standard of controlling our emotions and desires. So, our view of sexuality depends upon our view of the world - either from a biblical worldview or a non-biblical worldview.
In the same way, all of us have an M.O., worldview, or framework by which we see the world. The reality is that not every person’s M.O. is an objective moral reasoning built out of the Scriptures. It is more popular to build a subjective moral reasoning out of personal ideology or culture.
Finally
God’s character and nature is no secret in the Scriptures.
There are many verses in the Bible that define the character and the nature of God directly and indirectly. For instance, God is also called all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present, good, merciful, compassionate, just, terrible, awesome, fearful, patient, perfect, gracious, and merciful.
If we have a biblical worldview of sexuality, our M.O. will be love and holiness. It really cannot be anything else—not selfish, not cultural, not judgmental, and not hateful. To understand the Scriptures is to understand God. And to understand God is to understand love and holiness and sexuality.