Recent data from Pew Research indicates that roughly half of America’s Christians believe that casual sex and premarital sex are sometimes or always acceptable. According to Pew,

Half of Christians say casual sex – defined in the survey as sex between consenting adults who are not in a committed romantic relationship – is sometimes or always acceptable. Six-in-ten Catholics (62%) take this view, as do 56% of Protestants in the historically Black tradition, 54% of mainline Protestants and 36% of evangelical Protestants.

Attitudes toward premarital sex between adults who are in a committed relationship reflect a similar trend:

A majority of Christians (57%) say sex between unmarried adults in a committed relationship is sometimes or always acceptable. That includes 67% of mainline Protestants, 64% of Catholics, 57% of Protestants in the historically Black tradition and 46% of evangelical Protestants.

 Unsurprisingly, these findings come at a time when American Christians are increasingly caving to pressure from the LGBT movement. Both of these trends indicate that the American church has lost sight of the goodness of God’s design for sexuality. When Christians reject God’s design for sexuality, they reject God’s word, as well as the glorious picture of Christ and his church that marriage as God designed it offers.

In Pew Research’s summary of their findings, they clarify, “The survey did not ask respondents if they themselves would engage in any of these practices. Instead, the questions asked if they found the practices acceptable “regardless of whether you would do it yourself.”” However, research from the Institute for Family Studies found that roughly two-thirds of young Evangelical protestants have engaged in premarital sex.

Humans did not invent or create marriage, nor did they invent or create sex. God did, and he created it for our good. As such, what God says about sex and marriage should be of utmost importance to us. Christianity does not call for sexual purity because the Bible is anti-sex, but because the Bible teaches a very high view of sex. John Piper writes,

We save sex for marriage precisely because it is natural, and normal, and beautiful so that we can keep it that way. So that it does not become common, and sordid, and manipulative, and diseased, and cheap, but precious, and personal, and clean, and sacred… Holding sex until marriage doesn’t make it unnatural. It makes it priceless.

Divorcing sex from its created purpose and the boundaries that God has established cheapens it. When Christians lose sight of the fact that God created sex for marriage, it is not surprising that they would also lose sight of the fact that marriage is between one man and one woman. The church cannot casually accept a distortion of God’s design for sexuality in one area and expect to be able to hold the line in another area. If the church rejects God’s design for sexuality by accepting and normalizing sex outside of marriage, then it is no surprise that the church struggles to respond in grace and truth to the LGBT movement. How do we expect to point people to the goodness of God’s design when we ourselves have accepted a cheapened distortion of it?

1 Corinthians 6:18 tells us that sexual sin is sin against our own bodies. The following verses explain why this matters, “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God with your body.” For Christians, if we take our faith seriously and if we take God’s word seriously, we must pursue sexual purity.

Furthermore, we must remember that because God is the creator and Lord of all, his design for human sexuality is not simply one option among many but essential for human flourishing. We must not downplay or dismiss the serious harm caused by the cheapening of sex, and if we truly desire to love our neighbors and seek their good, we cannot remain silent on this issue. 

The church must rise up and commit to following God’s Word, pursuing holiness, and speaking truth to the world around us, not because we are legalists, but because we know the joy of the Lord and we know and delight in the beauty and goodness of his design. God created sex for marriage between one man and one woman. If the church loses sight of that, then we prove ourselves faithless to the word of God and sacrifice our ability to be salt and light to a world that is lost and broken.