Two types of Girls...or so I thought.

Scripture passage that caught my attention today: 1 Corinthians 7:1-4 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is well for a man not to touch a woman.” 2 But because of cases of sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. 3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

Observation: Paul sees a bigger picture than most did in his day. The early church clearly struggled with what it meant to be human and still follow Jesus. And apparently some of them had decided that sex was bad, hence the statement in their letter to Paul which apparently implied that “It is well for a man not to touch a woman.” Paul’s response is twofold. First, while it might be good for some to follow that advice, many human beings have especially strong sexual desires and, rather than pretend that such desires don’t exist, it is better to share them in an appropriate committed relationship which Paul understood to be marriage. Second, Paul took special pains to mention the equality of the relationship in marriage. Not only does the husband have authority over his wife’s body (which most everybody, in those days, would have taken for granted), but also the wife has authority over her husband’s body (which most everybody, in those days, would have found shocking).

Application: When I was young (grade-school age) I distinctly remember walking out to the car after church one Sunday thinking that there were two types of girls in the world—those that you might like to have sex with and those that you would want to marry!

I’m not exactly sure where I got that idea—and thankfully I later got rid of that idea!—but there was apparently a time when I, like those to whom Paul was writing, thought sex in and of itself was bad.

Paul offers a healthier way to look at the issue—one that acknowledges the varying levels of human desire and also offers a plan for how such desires might best be quite mutually expressed.

Prayer: Lord, there’s certainly much more that could be said, and what I did say could surely be said better. But thank you again for your own great lessons. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(readings today included: Joshua 12-14 and 1 Corinthians 7)