Young people, dating and marriage: What Are We Teaching Them?
Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries are ending their marriage of less than 3 months. Reportedly they collected 10 million dollars for their wedding which breaks down to about 139,000 a day. Scarlette Johansson defended her revealing photos to be released in an upcoming issue if Vanity Fair says, “It’s not like I was shooting porno…Although there’s nothing wrong with that either.” All around us there are stories of people who are influencing and educating young people about the issues of purity, dating, and marriage. The world is doing such a good job teaching our kids, why should we share our voice, our opinion, and our convictions about such issues?
What is our silence teaching them? God intended for another voice to dominate the conversation. HIS VOICE.
It is time we get comfortable about addressing issues of sexuality. Young people are going to continue dating, continue exploring boundaries in marriage, and evaluating messages from media. Leaders in the church must add a strong voice to the discussion. Recently a new member of our Advisory Board for XXXchurch called me in great frustration. He couldn’t believe that in the midst of such a battle for our children’s bodies the church would be reluctant to speak boldly about the issue.
Why is it we can speak so boldly about theological issues that most of our congregation members care less about but refuse to meet them in the everyday issues of their lives? We are teaching our young people that God does not care about their sex lives and their ongoing struggle with purity. It is time for boldness in our teaching around dating, marriage, and sex. God does not blush when this subject is brought up and neither should we! Paul addresses it head on in the scriptures.
“God honored the Master’s body by raising it from the grave. He’ll treat yours with the same resurrection power. Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as the Master’s body. You wouldn’t take the Master’s body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not.
16-20There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.” [1 CORINTHIANS 6:14-20]
I want to encourage you to teach about the issues confronting our young people in both your personal example of purity and with your bold biblical voice. Share your plan for purity. Share your failures and your successes. If the door has been closed in your church begin to open it. I believe God will work radically in our churches as we get honesty about the REAL struggle for our bodies. After all, our bodies are “a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit.”