Transcript: Episode 0074
This transcript:
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WEBVTT 00:00:37.292 --> 00:00:39.472Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast. 00:00:39.772 --> 00:00:40.772 I am Corey J. 00:00:40.792 --> 00:00:41.172 Mahler. 00:00:41.792 --> 00:00:43.012 And I'm still, whoa. 00:00:45.172 --> 00:00:50.932 On today's Stone Choir, we're going to be concluding our three-part series on the topic of love in scripture. 00:00:51.652 --> 00:00:55.732 As we mentioned the last couple weeks, this episode is not going to be for kids. 00:00:55.812 --> 00:01:03.412 There will be some things that are going to be explicit, so parents definitely listen first and maybe save this for some future day for your kids. 00:01:04.132 --> 00:01:06.732 I apologize for last week for not having the episode. 00:01:07.272 --> 00:01:09.992 We had a couple of things come up and weren't able to record in time. 00:01:10.452 --> 00:01:14.132 Just to let you all know, the next two weeks we're going to be taking off. 00:01:14.592 --> 00:01:17.772 We have a couple of things to take care of personally, so we won't be around for that. 00:01:18.072 --> 00:01:20.272 So we'll be back three weeks from this week. 00:01:21.412 --> 00:01:23.292 No updates yet on the coins. 00:01:23.312 --> 00:01:26.992 I apologize that that is not moving faster than we had hoped. 00:01:27.512 --> 00:01:29.072 The vendor is a little backed up. 00:01:29.432 --> 00:01:36.892 Corey was saying that there's actually some hand painting that they have to do on each of them, and that's probably slowing it down a little bit, but they're going to be gorgeous. 00:01:36.912 --> 00:01:48.412 We will get a notice out to everyone as soon as those things are available on Telegram, on Twitter and on Gab, and hopefully, you know, it'd be nice if we had some news before we get back next week, but we'll keep you posted. 00:01:48.732 --> 00:01:50.412 Thank you to everyone for your patience on that. 00:01:51.392 --> 00:01:57.212 On the subject of marriage, up front, Corey and I need to acknowledge something that's obvious. 00:01:57.572 --> 00:01:58.692 Neither one of us is married. 00:01:58.912 --> 00:02:03.492 So, if you get really angry that two unmarried guys would be talking about marriage, that's fine. 00:02:03.512 --> 00:02:04.132 Just turn it off. 00:02:04.652 --> 00:02:07.592 In addition to me not being married, I am also divorced. 00:02:07.972 --> 00:02:09.972 I was married for 10 years and I'm not married anymore. 00:02:10.072 --> 00:02:12.392 So that's, you know, a double strike. 00:02:12.412 --> 00:02:15.312 If you want to say this guy's an idiot, shouldn't be talking about marriage, that's fine. 00:02:15.352 --> 00:02:16.512 I'm not going to try to change your mind. 00:02:16.992 --> 00:02:20.652 I can tell you this, this episode is not going to be giving marriage advice. 00:02:21.132 --> 00:02:23.432 We're not going to be talking about here's how to have a happy marriage. 00:02:24.052 --> 00:02:26.312 I can tell you how to have a marriage wither and die. 00:02:26.452 --> 00:02:27.452 I'm an expert in that. 00:02:28.032 --> 00:02:36.772 We're not going to get into that today, but you know, we do know things, but we're not going to be the guys who are giving advice out of our lane because there's no point. 00:02:36.952 --> 00:02:42.972 There's plenty to talk about from scripture and from what's in the world for us to address today. 00:02:43.972 --> 00:02:49.572 As I said, the last couple of weeks, there's also going to be some things that we say today that some women are going to be uncomfortable with. 00:02:49.592 --> 00:02:52.452 That's the third apology in this preamble. 00:02:53.512 --> 00:03:01.532 We're going to be graphic in some places about some of the things that we say in a way that I know for a fact is going to make some girls uncomfortable. 00:03:02.572 --> 00:03:09.172 The intention is not to either be prurient or to be edgy or to say something that's like weird sex stuff. 00:03:09.672 --> 00:03:10.792 Not remotely the point. 00:03:11.532 --> 00:03:17.952 The reason that we're going to go into some of those places is it is inherent to the very subject of marriage itself. 00:03:18.372 --> 00:03:27.492 And so we're going to talk about the specifics because as we go through some of the passages and go through some of these subjects today, a lot of euphemisms are present in Scripture. 00:03:27.512 --> 00:03:29.332 Some are not very euphemistic, frankly. 00:03:29.352 --> 00:03:36.412 We kind of gloss over some of the language that God uses and pretends that it's flowery when it's actually very graphic. 00:03:37.052 --> 00:03:41.232 But it's in a specific way that girls in particular are very uncomfortable with. 00:03:41.252 --> 00:03:46.472 I know that from experience that it just makes some girls uncomfortable, guys like, well, yeah, that's how it works. 00:03:46.872 --> 00:03:48.792 So we're not trying to be weird. 00:03:48.812 --> 00:03:51.532 We're not trying to do anything transgressive. 00:03:51.872 --> 00:03:54.912 We're just trying to be frank about the subject. 00:03:55.412 --> 00:03:57.952 And a key part of it is sexual nature. 00:03:58.392 --> 00:04:05.172 And so we're going to talk about that in terms that don't bypass the reality, the frank reality. 00:04:05.652 --> 00:04:13.432 Because one of the things that's happened historically in theology, you know, obviously, you want to be able to talk about scripture without getting gross or getting prurient. 00:04:13.872 --> 00:04:17.512 You want to be able to talk about God's things in a way that's godly. 00:04:18.052 --> 00:04:20.052 And we certainly seek to do that as well. 00:04:20.432 --> 00:04:24.272 And so things like euphemisms and metaphors are very valuable. 00:04:24.572 --> 00:04:27.892 It's important to be able to talk about the subject without going there. 00:04:28.432 --> 00:04:33.132 And when someone says going there knowingly, you know exactly what they're talking about when no one has to say it. 00:04:33.632 --> 00:04:36.532 So you can allude to something without it getting weird. 00:04:38.452 --> 00:04:54.432 The problem is that in our modern society where nobody lives on a farm anymore, no one's around animals, really apart from being exposed to something grotesque like pornography, you're not going to see the intercourse unless you're a participant. 00:04:55.472 --> 00:04:59.872 And that's the way it's supposed to be except for we've been separated from nature. 00:05:00.372 --> 00:05:03.432 In nature, you know, some of the examples we're going to give are of shepherds. 00:05:04.052 --> 00:05:07.212 They were frank about these things because they were around livestock. 00:05:07.692 --> 00:05:12.392 Everyone understood that when a male couples with a female, certain things happen. 00:05:12.772 --> 00:05:16.192 And you can say certain things happen knowingly, everyone knows what you mean. 00:05:16.912 --> 00:05:31.072 The problem is that the fact that the conversation around marriage proper has been so far divorced euphemistically from some of the key elements is that today a lot of people have really reverted back to the Gnosticism of the first century. 00:05:31.852 --> 00:05:39.932 When we did the Gnosticism episode, we deliberately avoided a lot of the weird sex stuff because we don't want to have a bunch of weird sex episodes. 00:05:40.192 --> 00:05:42.832 Unfortunately, this is going to have to be the kind of weird sex episode. 00:05:43.112 --> 00:05:44.552 It's not us doing weird stuff. 00:05:44.572 --> 00:05:49.812 It's just when you talk about these things, there are certain things that are on the table. 00:05:50.312 --> 00:06:04.892 So in the early Gnostic cults, one of the things that you'll see Paul and some of the other authors arguing against is very clearly that there were anti-sex cults and there were rabid sex cults simultaneously at the same time as early Christianity. 00:06:05.412 --> 00:06:06.772 And the problem was twofold. 00:06:06.792 --> 00:06:12.692 On one hand, you had those who were not behaving in remotely Christian manners related to sexuality. 00:06:13.152 --> 00:06:23.972 On the other hand, you had those who were going down the Gnostic path of denying the flesh entirely, saying that the body is nothing and so either you can do whatever you want with it or you shouldn't do anything, complete denial. 00:06:24.472 --> 00:06:27.952 And one of the things that happened in some of the Gnostic cults was that they denied sex. 00:06:28.252 --> 00:06:35.212 As part of the reason they went away is that they weren't having kids and spreading their Gnostic beliefs to newer generations. 00:06:35.592 --> 00:06:37.552 It kind of petered out for that reason. 00:06:37.952 --> 00:06:41.392 But in scripture itself, we see arguments against people. 00:06:41.512 --> 00:06:45.092 Paul himself argues against people are saying, well, you shouldn't have sex at all. 00:06:45.112 --> 00:06:46.432 He's like, no, you should. 00:06:46.452 --> 00:06:48.912 And he talks about celibacy proper. 00:06:49.472 --> 00:07:19.432 But one of the problems that we see again today is that, especially online with a lot of younger guys that are trying to be trad, trying to be faithful, trying to be good Christians, a lot of what influences our thought around marriage and sexuality is frankly either Gnostic or monastic in its roots, not necessarily in its form, but there's the, you know, some of the early church fathers were kind of anti-sex. 00:07:19.992 --> 00:07:25.272 They basically saw it as a necessary evil and not as a blessing from God. 00:07:25.852 --> 00:07:32.372 And so when some of the younger guys today look back to see what was said early on in the church, some of what said was bad. 00:07:32.392 --> 00:07:41.412 Some of what said is what bore out its fruit as the monastic system, which turned into homosexual brothels for both men and women. 00:07:41.852 --> 00:07:45.512 By 1000 AD, within Rome itself, you had men like St. 00:07:45.532 --> 00:07:54.972 Peter Damian cursing all the sodomites everywhere inside the church because the convents and the monasteries were filled with homosexuals, overwhelmingly. 00:07:55.152 --> 00:07:56.472 This was 1000 years ago. 00:07:56.772 --> 00:07:58.092 Procentism didn't do that. 00:07:58.492 --> 00:08:04.592 It was the monastic vows, it was the so-called vows of celibacy, which are at odds with our created nature. 00:08:05.052 --> 00:08:11.452 And so as today we're trying to look at how do we behave in a Christian manner with these things, it's difficult. 00:08:11.652 --> 00:08:15.632 You're not going to find a consistent voice from inside the church about these things. 00:08:15.652 --> 00:08:22.792 And so what we talk about today is going to point back to scripture and talk about here's how we divide one thing from another. 00:08:23.132 --> 00:08:28.672 But one of the things that's going to come up over and over in this episode is imagine you have a couple things on the table. 00:08:28.912 --> 00:08:31.552 And you want to put them in the same bucket on the table. 00:08:31.852 --> 00:08:34.332 And we're going to say actually these belong in two separate buckets. 00:08:34.712 --> 00:08:40.392 They look like they're the same, but when you clearly distinguish one part from another, they're clearly different. 00:08:40.832 --> 00:08:43.752 And there are other things that maybe you would divide in two separate buckets. 00:08:43.772 --> 00:08:49.652 And we're going to point out and say actually there's a common thread between them where they should be in the same bucket. 00:08:50.212 --> 00:08:59.332 So a lot of what's happened, whenever we have conversations around things that are unusual and what people have heard before, it's really just making those kinds of distinctions. 00:09:00.032 --> 00:09:08.392 One thing looks like a certain category, and when you look at it with the proper definition, in our case the scriptural definition, it actually needs to go in a different bucket. 00:09:08.852 --> 00:09:17.012 And so what we're going to say today about marriage and about sexuality and these various passages you were treating is not anything weird, it's not anything novel. 00:09:17.372 --> 00:09:40.592 It's just showing that there's actually complete harmony in all the different places where we're talking about how we are to be married, how we are married, what the assaults of Satan's world are on marriage itself, and then what it looks like when we either obey or disobey God as it relates to what this blessing is that we've been given, because it's ultimately a blessing from God. 00:09:41.372 --> 00:09:46.832 The marriage, the love of marriage, eros, lust in some forms. 00:09:46.852 --> 00:09:53.492 You know, there's a properly ordered lust and a disordered lust, and we'll talk about that, because generally that something has a very negative connotation. 00:09:53.812 --> 00:09:55.672 That's another thing that goes back to the very early Church. 00:09:55.692 --> 00:10:05.092 There's some, not all, but there are some who are very much in sort of the semi-Gnostic view that anything physical was gross and carnal and that was inherently bad. 00:10:06.892 --> 00:10:10.672 We have the opposite view, but at the same time it has to be properly ordered. 00:10:10.972 --> 00:10:20.292 There's a lot of these seemingly fiddly distinctions, but when you get them all sort of sorted out neatly and put them arranged correctly on the table, it's all going to make sense. 00:10:20.392 --> 00:10:32.652 So by the time we get to the end of this, hopefully you'll see that all the various passages we're going to highlight in Scripture, all they're talking about different aspects of the same thing, they're all actually unified by the same underlying premise. 00:10:33.712 --> 00:10:38.332 So this episode is the third one in our series on love. 00:10:39.312 --> 00:10:50.712 And specifically, there is one term, one form, one kind of love that is distinct, that is unique to this episode, because in effect, it is marriage. 00:10:51.292 --> 00:10:53.452 And that is eros, that is sexual love. 00:10:53.832 --> 00:10:55.652 Now marriage, of course, is more than that. 00:10:55.692 --> 00:10:57.592 It's a more, it's that emotional love. 00:10:57.612 --> 00:11:00.812 It can turn into delectio, the intellectual love. 00:11:01.312 --> 00:11:04.532 It is shtorghe, because obviously there's familial love involved. 00:11:04.792 --> 00:11:07.692 And it is agape, because there is that self-sacrificing love. 00:11:08.192 --> 00:11:15.852 But what distinguishes from all other relationships, the marriage relationship with regard to love, is eros. 00:11:16.712 --> 00:11:21.132 Because that is the only relationship in which that can properly be present. 00:11:22.172 --> 00:11:26.472 If you have eros present in any other relationship, that is disordered. 00:11:26.812 --> 00:11:31.812 You should not have that anywhere else, except within the bounds of marriage. 00:11:34.712 --> 00:11:43.072 And to focus on that term for a minute, we'll focus on it more throughout the episode, of course, but I want to distinguish that term from a number of other terms. 00:11:44.472 --> 00:11:58.712 Because one of the ways that we deal in euphemism in modern discussions and historically as well, is that we conflate things that are not really the same, or we use a portion of something to refer to the whole. 00:12:00.872 --> 00:12:04.252 Marriage and wedding are not the same term. 00:12:05.692 --> 00:12:07.112 The wedding is the ceremony. 00:12:07.432 --> 00:12:09.132 The wedding is what you do in church. 00:12:09.152 --> 00:12:10.572 You should do it in church anyway. 00:12:11.012 --> 00:12:13.252 Most modern couples don't, but you should. 00:12:14.812 --> 00:12:21.532 Marriage does not happen in church, unless you are a Satanist who has broken into the church at night in order to desecrate it. 00:12:22.212 --> 00:12:24.632 Marriage happens in the marriage bed. 00:12:26.372 --> 00:12:42.892 We were a little more frank about this historically to some degree, because in some cultures, and this actually probably happened to Martin Luther himself when he married his wife, they used to literally throw you into bed after the wedding ceremony was done, because you weren't married yet. 00:12:43.572 --> 00:12:50.632 So they threw you into bed so you could be married, so you could actually do what was necessary to be married to your wife. 00:12:52.792 --> 00:12:55.992 Because again, the marriage does not happen in the church. 00:12:56.392 --> 00:12:58.532 The wedding, the ceremony happens in the church. 00:12:59.812 --> 00:13:11.112 But we tend to conflate these things when we're discussing them, because we don't want to discuss the actual physical process of marrying a woman, partly because of modesty and partly because it makes people uncomfortable. 00:13:11.132 --> 00:13:24.652 And as Woe said in his introduction, there's nothing wrong with using euphemism, but it does become a problem when you lose the ability to understand what you are referencing, what you are implying by the use of that euphemism. 00:13:25.072 --> 00:13:30.012 If you take the euphemism to be the thing itself, then the euphemism is destructive. 00:13:30.032 --> 00:13:31.112 It is no longer helpful. 00:13:31.572 --> 00:13:40.252 And so it's important to understand the underlying nature of marriage, and not just think when you think marriage, the ceremony in a church. 00:13:41.252 --> 00:13:44.472 That is a marriage ceremony, you could call it, but it is a wedding. 00:13:44.752 --> 00:13:47.112 It's important to distinguish these terms. 00:13:47.132 --> 00:13:50.932 So I would recommend saying, wedding for the ceremony, marriage for the actual thing. 00:13:50.952 --> 00:13:56.172 Now, of course, the marriage relationship is more than the act of sex. 00:13:57.212 --> 00:13:58.512 But it's not less than that. 00:13:59.592 --> 00:14:16.732 Because what distinguishes your wife from other women out in the world, if you have a friendship with a woman, she's not your wife because you have a friendship with her, you may have a long-standing friendship with a woman, and you may have these other elements, these other kinds of love may be present there. 00:14:17.232 --> 00:14:20.872 Now, you have to be careful not to let that edge into something that's inappropriate. 00:14:21.772 --> 00:14:26.152 But what distinguishes that relationship from a wife is eros. 00:14:26.552 --> 00:14:27.132 It's sex. 00:14:28.132 --> 00:14:30.592 Because your wife is the woman with whom you have sex. 00:14:31.592 --> 00:14:37.632 And it is the sexual act itself that creates the marriage, because it is the marriage. 00:14:38.012 --> 00:14:43.432 That is the one flesh union, to use the term that is so often used in Scripture. 00:14:44.652 --> 00:15:00.312 And we have to recognize this, because if we keep using the euphemisms and just slowly lose an understanding of what is actually going on and what the actual thing is, we wind up with all these various perversions that we see in modern society. 00:15:00.892 --> 00:15:09.052 And so, for instance, you have those who will argue for homosexual marriage or sodomite marriage, whatever term you want to use for that particular form of degeneracy. 00:15:09.852 --> 00:15:10.832 It's not marriage. 00:15:11.372 --> 00:15:12.492 It cannot be marriage. 00:15:13.152 --> 00:15:18.112 Because the nature of marriage is a man having sex with a woman. 00:15:19.032 --> 00:15:20.332 That is what marriage is. 00:15:21.132 --> 00:15:22.492 And we'll get more into that later. 00:15:22.512 --> 00:15:30.352 For those who find that uncomfortable, who don't like that definition because of some of the things that it implies, well, that's spoken to in Scripture. 00:15:30.372 --> 00:15:31.572 We will get to those verses. 00:15:32.952 --> 00:15:35.852 But that is the fundamental nature of the thing. 00:15:35.952 --> 00:15:37.352 It is the core of the thing. 00:15:37.452 --> 00:15:39.872 Yes, again, there are other parts to it. 00:15:40.172 --> 00:15:42.452 Because, of course, you start a family with this person. 00:15:43.132 --> 00:15:44.772 Obviously, only way you can start a family. 00:15:45.672 --> 00:15:47.312 But you keep a home with this person. 00:15:47.552 --> 00:15:48.652 You love this person. 00:15:49.032 --> 00:15:50.812 There's more to the relationship. 00:15:51.012 --> 00:15:56.352 But you can't remove this central part of it without destroying the nature of the thing. 00:15:57.672 --> 00:16:01.012 The same as we discussed with other forms of love. 00:16:01.832 --> 00:16:10.072 If something about it becomes degenerate to the point where it is no longer that love, it isn't even right to call it by the name anymore. 00:16:10.812 --> 00:16:17.632 You can't remove the essence of a thing and still call it that thing without, of course, being subversive. 00:16:17.652 --> 00:16:20.192 You can be subversive and do that, but you're wrong. 00:16:20.672 --> 00:16:22.012 A Christian should not do that. 00:16:22.452 --> 00:16:26.572 The essence of the thing must remain for it to remain that thing. 00:16:27.032 --> 00:16:32.732 And so the sexual relationship between a husband and a wife is a necessary part of the marriage. 00:16:33.152 --> 00:16:34.472 It must remain. 00:16:35.992 --> 00:16:42.312 And for some, that will make them uncomfortable because they may think that there's something dirty about sex or something untoward. 00:16:42.852 --> 00:16:44.892 Scripture does not speak of it in those terms. 00:16:45.092 --> 00:16:48.052 You can point to the fact that the Song of Solomon exists in Scripture. 00:16:48.072 --> 00:16:54.412 We won't go over that particular book in this episode, to the surprise, perhaps, of some, but that isn't the focus of the episode. 00:16:55.092 --> 00:16:56.432 But go ahead and read through it. 00:16:58.912 --> 00:17:02.312 What is said in that book is not said by a God who hates sex. 00:17:04.812 --> 00:17:20.872 And the modern focus on celibacy, as Woe was mentioning, from some of those who want to appear as if they are trad, is just fundamentally flawed for a number of reasons, but one of the flaws flows from a hatred of pleasure. 00:17:22.372 --> 00:17:33.332 Some of those who have decided they want to be a particularly traditional or trad Christian think that Stoicism is the way to go, even if they don't call it by that name. 00:17:33.652 --> 00:17:40.032 They are really adopting those beliefs, sort of an indifference to the reality, to the tangible things of life. 00:17:41.352 --> 00:17:49.752 God didn't create us to be removed from nature, to stand back and above it, to ignore the physical reality. 00:17:51.032 --> 00:17:54.792 Look at what is praised in Scripture as part of the good life. 00:17:55.692 --> 00:18:04.592 The daily readings just finished up the book of Ecclesiastes, and one of the things in Ecclesiastes, repeated in more than one place, is basically eat, drink and be merry. 00:18:05.572 --> 00:18:06.612 That's physical pleasure. 00:18:07.212 --> 00:18:08.132 And so is sex. 00:18:08.772 --> 00:18:12.632 God created these things for men to enjoy. 00:18:13.532 --> 00:18:16.292 He didn't create them as a temptation for you. 00:18:16.312 --> 00:18:19.472 He didn't create them in order to see if you could resist them. 00:18:20.632 --> 00:18:24.612 Yes, they are supposed to be enjoyed in an ordered and proper fashion. 00:18:24.852 --> 00:18:26.372 You aren't supposed to drink to excess. 00:18:26.532 --> 00:18:28.132 You aren't supposed to eat to excess. 00:18:28.352 --> 00:18:31.032 You aren't supposed to have sex with women who are not your wife. 00:18:31.932 --> 00:18:43.492 However, these things, in their proper place, at their proper time, are to be enjoyed, and that is part of the Christian life, because you are supposed to enjoy the good things of God. 00:18:43.952 --> 00:18:46.192 He has given these things to humanity. 00:18:47.492 --> 00:18:48.852 You are not a good Christian. 00:18:48.892 --> 00:18:54.312 You are not better than everyone else if you decide you are not going to enjoy the good things of God. 00:18:54.932 --> 00:19:05.372 If God gives you a blessing and you say, no, God, I couldn't possibly enjoy that, you are actually insulting your Creator by telling Him the things that He created for good, that He created for your enjoyment. 00:19:05.912 --> 00:19:06.952 Well, those aren't good. 00:19:06.952 --> 00:19:08.492 I couldn't possibly do that. 00:19:09.732 --> 00:19:15.292 You are attempting to be holier than God, and anytime you try to do that, you are sinning. 00:19:15.432 --> 00:19:20.532 You are not going to succeed, because obviously you can't be more holy than God, but you are also sinning in the attempt. 00:19:21.472 --> 00:19:26.632 So, avoiding pleasure, avoiding the good things in life, does not make you a better Christian. 00:19:27.332 --> 00:19:43.912 Exercising self-control, recognizing these things have limitations, they have a proper time and place and form and all of that, recognizing the nature of the thing is important, but completely eschewing the thing does not make you a better Christian. 00:19:44.792 --> 00:19:47.812 It makes you perhaps a Stoic, and the Stoics were certainly not Christian. 00:19:48.692 --> 00:19:54.072 And so this modern tendency to think that you have to be a celibate to be a good Christian is wrong. 00:19:55.772 --> 00:20:02.672 And I want to take the opportunity to reiterate what we have said elsewhere and at other times, Twitter and other places. 00:20:03.792 --> 00:20:08.352 Celibacy is a particular gift that is given to very few men. 00:20:09.272 --> 00:20:12.032 If you have it, you have no doubt that you have it. 00:20:12.852 --> 00:20:15.072 It is not a gift that you can acquire. 00:20:15.532 --> 00:20:18.532 It is not a gift that you can exercise if you don't have it. 00:20:18.832 --> 00:20:28.192 It is not something that you can simply exert enough self-control and pretend that you have this gift and act as if you actually have it. 00:20:29.072 --> 00:20:30.412 That's what the monks try to do. 00:20:31.072 --> 00:20:32.432 That's what the nuns try to do. 00:20:32.452 --> 00:20:39.872 And we historically see what happens when you have particular organizations, when you have individuals who pursue that path. 00:20:41.912 --> 00:20:52.252 Horrible sins, horrible disgusting things, of which those who wrote the Book of Concord, for instance, didn't even want to list them or be explicit about them. 00:20:52.272 --> 00:20:53.352 They heavily implied them. 00:20:54.272 --> 00:20:58.432 But you have, as we'll mention, men like Peter Damian condemning the rampant sodomy. 00:20:58.952 --> 00:21:03.552 That is what happens when you try to ignore the reality of how you were created by God. 00:21:05.652 --> 00:21:13.992 If you are celibate, you will have zero temptation with regard to the opposite sex, with regard to sex whatsoever. 00:21:14.752 --> 00:21:16.312 That will simply not exist for you. 00:21:16.712 --> 00:21:18.392 That is what it means to be celibate. 00:21:18.892 --> 00:21:23.652 If God gives you the gift of celibacy, it means that you are actually asexual. 00:21:24.132 --> 00:21:29.712 Those are the only asexuals in all of human history, those to whom God has given the gift of celibacy. 00:21:31.212 --> 00:21:35.252 If you see a naked woman and you enjoy that, you're not celibate. 00:21:36.532 --> 00:21:36.952 Period. 00:21:37.832 --> 00:21:44.212 You cannot acquire the gift by exercising self-control, denying yourself or whatever it happens to be. 00:21:44.892 --> 00:21:48.792 Instead, you should pursue the things that God has given you. 00:21:49.732 --> 00:21:50.712 Scripture is very clear. 00:21:50.912 --> 00:21:56.032 Because of the temptation to sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife and each wife her own husband. 00:21:56.532 --> 00:21:58.872 That is the solution to the problem. 00:21:58.892 --> 00:22:02.132 In our fallen state, we have a disordered eros. 00:22:02.472 --> 00:22:04.832 It is not expressed solely toward the spouse. 00:22:06.192 --> 00:22:16.512 In our pre-fallen state, so Adam and Eve, and also once we are restored in the new creation, you will not have that temptation. 00:22:16.852 --> 00:22:21.412 You won't be tempted to think about another man's wife in a sexual way. 00:22:22.192 --> 00:22:24.592 You will have no temptation with regard to that. 00:22:25.612 --> 00:22:28.432 In our fallen state, the temptations exist. 00:22:29.032 --> 00:22:32.172 And so marriage is part of the cure for that. 00:22:32.432 --> 00:22:34.572 In fact, marriage is the only cure for that. 00:22:34.592 --> 00:22:36.192 Yes, you still have to have self-control. 00:22:37.592 --> 00:22:41.572 But the libido is supposed to be exercised within the bonds of marriage. 00:22:42.752 --> 00:22:43.532 And nowhere else. 00:22:44.152 --> 00:22:46.772 That is the only solution for that temptation. 00:22:46.792 --> 00:22:49.792 God gave the medicine for the sickness. 00:22:52.012 --> 00:22:56.672 Looking for some other solution, looking for some other cure is wicked. 00:22:57.152 --> 00:23:05.552