A Grandmother’s Lecture On Sex -- By: Catherine Clark Kroeger

Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 12:3 (Summer 1998)
Article: A Grandmother’s Lecture On Sex
Author: Catherine Clark Kroeger


A Grandmother’s Lecture On Sex

Catherine Clark Kroeger

Catherine Clark Kroeger is CBE President Emerita and adjunct professor at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. She is author of I Suffer Not a Woman (available through the CBE Book Service).

Sex is discussed openly, explicitly and directly from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation. If the Scriptures are our only infallible rule of faith and practice, then as C. S. Lewis said, there’s no use being more spiritual than God!

In The Beginning

So let us begin where the Bible does: at creation. The Genesis accounts are not scientific treatises. Rather, they tell us who we are, why we are, and what are God’s purposes for us.

Humankind was created in God’s own image, to have a relationship with God, to please and honor God, to walk and talk with God. Intertwined with these concepts is the firm declaration that both male and female were made in God’s image. In Genesis 5:2 we read, “Male and female he created them. He blessed them and gave them the name ‘Man’ (adam) on the day they were created.” Adam was the name for both man and woman, indicating all humanity. Right at the beginning of Genesis we are given a definition of humanity that is inclusive of both men and women, based upon their creation in God’s own image.

To turn to the better known account in Genesis 1:27-28, we read, “Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it.’“ Here we have a specific mandate to exercise human sexuality, accompanied by God’s blessing. The creation story tells us that we are both spiritual and sexual beings. Sexual activity is part of God’s design and decree, intended not only for the benefit of the human race but of the earth as well.

While procreation is surely a wonderful outcome of sexual union, the second chapter of Genesis demonstrates that it is by no means the primary purpose. Here we are given the particulars of what is laid out more generally in chapter one. God makes each part of the world and after each stage sees that the work is good. After the creation of the male, however, God says, “It is not good that man should be alone.” Just as the world was empty until God filled it, now the heart of man is empty. The man was designed not only for a relationship with God but also for a relationship with another who might share his humanity, his desires and emotions, his aspirations toward God. For as the human heart is best satisfied when it reaches out to the one true God and centers its devotion there, so too the heart is best satisfie...

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