Brave Rifles: Sex in a Godless Army (part 1)

We simply cannot address the affliction of soldiers without addressing the penis and its proper usage, rather the implications of its improper use. We’ll address other afflictions wrought by pervasive godlessness, but sexuality rules the day. God made us as sexual beings. Sexuality permeates our very existence and as such, it must be accounted for.

Only a few dabble in a singular pervasive sin as afflictions imbricate and become indistinguishable one from another. Most of the afflicted suffer from a multitude of assaults upon their being which is to be expected.

A Godly Ethic

Like our nation, our soldiers are entirely confused about sexual ethics and what godliness in this arena looks like. Lines continue to blur and many descend truly into what would have been deemed utter insanity only 20 years ago. God clearly defines gender and sexuality leaving absolutely no room for vacillation.

The Bible records that the Pharisees confronted Jesus regarding divorce. His response addresses a number of issues.

     Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female…(Matthew 19:4)

Without hesitation, Jesus refers directly to the first decree in Genesis 1:27. God made them male and female—separate, different, not just good, but very good. (Genesis 1:31) Jesus goes on to reference Genesis once more saying,

     …Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. (Matthew 19:5)

It is a true statement that Jesus never expressly condemned homosexuality. He also never expressly condemned bestiality, or pedophilia, or incest. He did promote marriage between a man and a woman, as He condemned adultery, lust, and by inference, fornication. Jesus condemns any sexual activity outside of that between a man and a woman in the context of a biblical marriage. (Matthew 5) The rest of the Bible concurs. Only an extremely painful and distinctly dishonest exposition of Scripture will yield any conclusion other than this.

God made them male and female, separate.

They are different, distinct. This distinction is a good thing. God made them in His image, unique and with different passions and purposes. To the man, He gave the mandate to work, to have dominion over creation in the Garden, and to teach His wife what God had given directly to Him. God creates woman as man’s ‘helper’. (Genesis 2:20) Lest any think this a derogatory or diminishing term, consider that God frequently refers to Himself as man’s ‘helper’. (Ex. 18:4, Psalms 33:20, Psalms 70:5) Woman is to come alongside man and ‘help’ him in exercising dominion over creation.

God designates separate roles for the man and the woman. First, the man is to serve as the spiritual leader, to have authority over his wife and family. Immediately we begin to encroach upon contemporary thought patterns. The Bible speaks clearly on the matter. Nowhere does God direct the man to rule or dominate the woman, this is solely of the Curse. (Genesis 3:16) God does direct male leadership.

Many pull Ephesians 5:21 out of context when Paul speaks about believers “submitting to one another.” They propose a sort of mutual submission between the man and woman. However, this is a weak assertion tempered by fear of rejection and poor exegesis, clearly not the godly intent.

Paul does tell Christians to submit to one another, but then he goes on to explain what he means. “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” (v.22) “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” (v.6:1) “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters.” (v.6:5a) Paul says, everyone submit to one another and here is how:

1. Wives submit to husbands,
2. Children submit to parents, and
3. Bondservants submit to masters.

Long ago, western society applied a derogatory connotation with the concept of submission. The Bible never quibbles. Nowhere does God call the husband to submit to his wife. The husband is the head of the household, indeed the head of his wife, “so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.” (v.24)

Peter agrees, “wives, be subject to your own husbands.” (1 Pet. 3:1)

This straightforward biblical concept generates intense and immediate ire. Antiquated, masochistic, chauvinistic—the notion of male headship drives those who object into a veritable frenzy. They simply cannot believe that someone would advocate such a blatantly discriminatory and hateful belief. I understand how some might object without considering the full counsel of God’s word on the matter.

Consider the call given to the husband. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church.” (Ephesians 5:25) A husband is to love and honor his wife in the same way that Christ loves the church—to die for her, literally. In this context, the notion of mutual submission seems like a paltry concession for the sake of bristled sensibilities. Consider the power of husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church and wives submitting to husbands in a godly fashion.

Again, submission does not imply subjugation or lack of equality or worth. God calls all Christians to submit in some way. God calls all believers to submit to the government (Romans 13:1, 1 Peter 2) and to the leadership of the local church (Hebrews 13:17, 1 Peter 5). It is the wife that God calls to submit to the husband “as to the Lord”, not as if he is the Lord. Her ideas, thoughts, and beliefs possess merit; she is just under his headship.

God said that this is the best way. The curse from Genesis 3 opposed this godly pattern from the beginning. Resistance or outright refusal is merely symptomatic of this curse. God made them male and female, in His image, with different roles, but of equal value. This is the essence of biblical complementarianism, a foreign concept to the unchurched and increasingly, even to the churched, as popular unbiblical thought patterns continue to invade the body of Christ.

Marriage has the mission of procreation and discipleship.

The very first command given to the couple was “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28) God commanded Adam to know his wife Eve in the strictest biblical sense of the word and to have children and to bring them up in the ways of the Lord. This is the way that God’s people were to spread across the entire earth, subduing it. The Fall did not negate this mandate. Repeatedly, Scripture confirms the primacy of teaching our children the ways of the Lord.

God calls us to make disciples, starting with our own children.

Here we see the unique role and ability of the woman to steward life, to give birth, and her unique bend toward nurturing. Secular culture minimizes this unique capacity to mother as women desperately seek to usurp what was not given to them in the first place. What an amazing thing, to mother, care for, and nurture life from its very conception. I stand in awe of this capacity as should any godly society, holding the desire to mother as a truly sacred desire.

Please do not hear me say that a woman cannot and should not work or pursue a profession. By all means, I merely proclaim the sacred call of motherhood and the disparate ordained roles for men and women.

Marriage has the mission of proclaiming the Gospel.

Most importantly, as I love my wife as Christ loved the church and she submits to me as to the Lord, we display the Gospel to a lost and dying world. A biblical marriage is a visual depiction of the Gospel. The Bible frequently refers to the Church as the Bride of Christ and its relationship with Jesus as a marriage.

Based upon these purposes, is it any wonder that Satan and the world have continuously sought to undermine the sanctity of marriage, driving a wedge between man and woman? They often rely upon factors from point number one in distorting and perverting godly roles to exacerbate the conflagration between the two sexes.

Our nation continuously drives further from the godly standard, taking our army with it. Like the populace, our soldiers possess intense confusion over issues of masculinity, femininity, and sexuality. This resonates in their actions and vast affliction.

Ignorance of, and practice outside of, the biblical sexual ethic generates intense personal struggle and pragmatically, weakens our force. 

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