Faithful Intimacy

Song of Songs 4:1 – 5:1

The first is that Sex is a god to be worshipped.

A god to be worshipped….FALSE!

Gross or dirty…FALSE!

1 Timothy 4:3-5 says that it is the insincerity of liars… 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

The truth is that sex is a good gift from God.

Redeemed and faithful intimacy is that it is indeed a gift from God

Hebrews 13:4a – Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled...”

Faithful and redeemed intimacy brings and demonstrates Oneness between husband and wife.

Genesis 2:24-25

Eugene Peterson writes,
“We don’t read for very long in the Song of Songs before we realize two things. One, it contains very specific love lyrics and two, it is very explicit sexually…The song makes a connection between conjugal love and sex, a very important and Biblical connection to make. There are some that eliminate sex when they speak of love supposing that they are making love more holy. Others, when they think of sex, never think of love. But the Song of Songs proclaims an integrated wholeness that is at the center of Christian teaching, and committed wedded love for a world that seems to specialize in loveless sex. The song is a convincing witness that men and women were created physically, emotionally and spiritually to live in love.” 

Redeemed and faithful intimacy is focused on the other. It is selfless.

Fidelity. Fruitfulness. And the relationship of the husband and wife to God. (Augustine)
In other words, redeemed and faithful intimacy is for the spouse, the world and for God.

Beth Jones in her book Faithful, A Theology of Sex writes,
“Christians can name the goodness of sex because God is good. God frees us for faithfulness. God frees us for healthy, happy, holy marriages blessed with the gift of good sex, and God frees us to live the good life in healthy, happy, holy singleness and chastity. We can reclaim the goodness of desire, we can reclaim delight and we can testify to what God has done by being sexual in ways that are mutual, that treasure difference, and that reflect God’s own faithfulness. The story of delight that we find in the Song of Solomon is a story of goodness redeemed. The work of God, which began in creation, has not been wiped out by sin, and God is working among His people to bring healing and wholeness and delight.”

Redeemed and Faithful intimacy points us to our God.

All of the desire, anticipation, delight and ecstasy of chapter 4 should point us to our Lord Jesus Christ. God is the one for whom we were created. He is the One for whom we long.

Psalm 42:1-2

Tim Keller writes,
Sex is glorious…it leads us to words of adoration-it literally evokes shouts of joy and praise…John 17 tells us that from all eternity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have been adoring and glorifying each other, living in high devotion to each other, pouring love and joy into one another’s hearts continually. Sex between a man and woman points to the love between the Father and the Son…

It is a reflection of the joyous self-giving and pleasure of love within the very life of the triune God. Sex is glorious not only because it reflects the joy of the Trinity but also because it points to the eternal delight of soul that we will have in heaven, inn our loving relationship with God and one another…

No wonder, as some have said, that sex between a man and woman can be a sort of embodied out-of-body experience. It’s the most ecstatic, breathtaking, daring, scarcely-to-be-imagined look at the glory that is our future.