Christians reckon sexy is good

She was beautiful, she was slender and she was wearing...well, not much, actually. She was wearing a bikini. And, she was clearly sexy as she leaned against the side of the pool. And, there she was on the back of a Brisbane bus... you may have seen her yourself. And you too, if you eat the advertised chocolate bar will have a body just like hers...but appropriate for your gender.

Here is the promise of the ad, in case you've always been on a bus rather than behind one.

Heavenly taste

Sinful body

That's right, you can eat this lo-carb chocolate bar and not only does it taste as if God himself was in its presence but you'll still have your sexy, beautiful body, that is, your sinful body. A body ready for sex because you are slim and delicious just like the chocolate bar, though probably with more hair and possibly a different colour.

However, that is exactly what I'd like challenge: this association between sexy and sinful. For Biblical Christianity thinks that sex isn't sinful; it is good, even really good. And I don't just mean good as enjoyable but actually a good thing as part of the fabric of life. A thing of benefit and wonder to the human race. Just like food is good. Food is nourishing, beneficial and enjoyable. And, so is sex. Though there are some differences between food and sex. As a sexologist friend of mine observed, 'without food you'll die but I've never seen anyone die from lack of sex'.

In fact, so positive is the Bible toward sex that it in one passage it says the married must not withhold their bodies from each other. Or in others words they ought to get as much sex as they can.

The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.

Paul's 1st letter to the Corinthians, chapter 7

Another passage warns that anyone who forbids marriage (and by implication, sex) teaches the things of demons. That is a pretty strong rejection of the teaching that sex and sexy is bad. Here is the text from the Bible:

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

Paul's first letter to Timothy, chapter 4

Why is sex good? Because God made it part of a good world. The physical world itself is deeply, deeply good and to be enjoyed with thanks to God. So, sex and being sexy is good.

But not only is sex good, so is chocolate. Did you notice as well that it says forbidding certain foods, as if they were immoral, is also from demons. Hmmm, I think I'll skip lo-carb chocolate from now on and just go with the heavenly stuff.

^{Photo by Anastasiya Lobanovskaya from Pexels}