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Sex!
(Continued from page 20)
riage and living God's ways, the
mental , emotional and physical apti–
tudes of husband and wife comple–
ment, not compete with, each other .
T he strengths and functions of such
mates are essential for the proper rear–
ing and healthy sexual identification of
children. Moreover, true masculinity
and femininity help balance the other
mate's personality, outlook on life and
character, smoothing out certain
eccentricities that each sex might not
work out alone.
Sex Demands Character Building
God created human sexual capacity
and the sex drive. Sex demands right
character development according to
God's revealed laws to control it, or
else misuse, perversion, unhappiness
and social tragedy wil l result.
Millions- ignorant or in rebellion
to any authority- run away from
this kind of character development.
They are allured by loose, cheap,
misleading and damaging role mod–
els and social values.
Sexual drive, when expressed
within the confines of God's laws, is
designed to channel the human emo–
tion toward true !ove.
What is the nature of true !ove?
Whether in marriage or sorne other
human relationship, true !ove acts in
ways showing total concern for the
physical, mental and spiritual well
being of others. Lust, on the other
hand, is concerned only with fulfill–
ing its selfish desires, pleasing its
immediate feelings, wants and crav–
ings. It is not thinking about anoth–
er's long-range needs, security, fu–
ture growth or godly development.
I n Malachi 2:14-15, God warns
husbands to be faithful to their wives
as their marriages are intended to be
a means of producing "godly off–
spring" (RSV).
But Satan, the invisible supreme
ruler of this world who sways society,
doesn't want that outcome. He
doesn ' t want humans to understand
the full purposes of sex. He does not
want humans to see how proper
marriage and sex relations or other
wholesome human relationships be–
tween the sexes reftect the character
and attitude of God.
28
Satan hates God' s purpose of
reproducing Himself. Satan wants to
make family life and marriage re–
pugnant and unattractive. He works
in human lives to destroy wholesome
marital and human relationships. He
does it by keeping mankind ignorant
of God's laws, purposes and plan. He
works to inspire and encourage
wrong values, emotions and lusts (see
Ephesians 2:2-3). That's the real
behind-the-scenes author of many
wrong emotions and attitudes!
Author of Wrong Sex Attltudes
Satan was the author of the first
wrong attitudes about sex back in the
Garden of Eden. Satan tried to dis–
credit everything God had taught the
first man and woman . Look at the
story recorded for our learning.
I n Genesis 2:24, God just finished
instructing Adam and Eve about
what was
e~pected
in their interper–
sonal relationships and about t,he
purpose of life. Then right away
Satan gets to them (Genesis 3:1).
Notice what Adam and Eve carne
to believe as a result of Satan's
deceptive líes. They decided to disbe–
lieve what God said was evil and
experiment for themselves-like so
many do today.
Eve took over the leadership role
of the family that God had given to
Adam, and Adam sheep-like fol–
lowed her in eating from the "tree of
the knowledge of good and evil."
Sex was not the first sin. Disobe–
dience to a direct command of God
was.
Adam and Eve's attitude toward
God and sex changed. Now they
were ashamed of their bodies- they
weren't before. Now they were afraid
of God and wanted to hide.
"Who told you that you were
naked [and needed to be ashamed of
your sexual functions] ?" asked God
(verse ll , RSV) . Who? Satan had
injected the first unwholesome atti–
tudes about sex and God's purposes.
And ever since, Satan has tried to
cause humans to have wrong atti–
tudes about sex. He has worked
through misguided and deceived
influenÚal persons and inculcated in
human minds wrong sex attitudes.
These altitudes run the gamut
from asceticism, shame and sex-is–
evil to today's degrading "anything
goes" immorality.
Satan is still here bombarding sus–
ceptible human minds with his per–
verted sex attitudes and thoughts.
But many do not recognize and
resist his (as well as other) damaging
human motivated infiuences on their
minds. No wonder so many are swept
away by the deceptive allure of per–
missiveness.
Why is God allowing it? So man–
kind will never be able to say to God:
You have denied us the experience of
living in ways contrary to your laws
and purposes.
What About You?
Sex demands right character and
attitudes. But today there are many
forces working to undermine the
building of right character and using
sex rightly. There is a massive assault
on the family and marriage, working
to undermine and destroy their divine
purposes and functions.
Malachi 4:5-6 reveals that only
because there will be human beings
who heed God's laws governing prop–
er family relationships, God will not,
in the end time, strike the earth with
total destruction.
The good news is that you as a
person, single or married, can strive
to develop the character that makes
marriage and family life a success.
You can build godly character and
thus, in the resurrection, qualify for a
greater reward in God's Kingdom
and Family.
Godly character development and
the proper control and right use of sex
go hand in hand. Strive to use and
appreciate sex as God intended. o
When People Suffer
{Continued from page 21 )
members of His Body who are com–
missioned to bear us up and relieve
our suffering for the sake of the
head.
"'He
'is
waiting, gathering the
armies of good. One day He will
unleash them. The world will see one
last explosion of pain before the full
victory is ushered in. Then, He wiH
create for usa new, incredible world.
And pain shall be no more.'
"l
hope those words will be of
sorne comfort and encouragement to
you, Helen . . . My prayers are with
you during this time of tria!." o
The
PLAIN TRUTH