Ten Words of Life #8: Freedom of Sexual Wholeness (Exodus 20:14, Matthew 5:27–28, 1 Thessalonians 4:2–8)

"In our post-sexual-revolution culture, there seems to be wide agreement among young adults that sex is good and the more of it we have, the better . . . In this landscape, there is only one rule: Get consent from your partner beforehand . . . But the outcome is a world in which young people are both liberated and miserable. While college scandals and the #MeToo moment may have cemented a baseline rule for how to get into bed with someone without crossing legal lines, that hasn’t made the experience of dating and finding a partner simple or satisfying. Instead, the experience is often sad, unsettling, even traumatic."-- Christine Emba, Rethinking Sex “Jesus is saying that [a person’s] sexuality is precious and valuable, that she has a sexual integrity to her which matters and should be honored by everyone else. He is saying that this sexual integrity is so precious that it must not be violated, even in the privacy of someone else’s mind . . . Jesus is showing us that our sexuality is far more precious than we might have realized, and that his teaching is actually a form of protection for it.”- Sam Allberry, Why Does God Care Who I Sleep With? How do we steward our sexuality in a way that affirms our personhood and dignity? What voices do we listen to as we seek to navigate the different messages about sex in our world? In this week's message from our Large Group meeting, we look at the Seventh Command from Exodus 20:14, prohibiting adultery and promoting sexual holiness. In this command, God calls his people to a sexual ethic that cares for our neighbor and honors God.