Science in Christian Perspective
Notes on "Science and the Whole Person" A Personal
Integration of Scientific
and Biblical Perspectives
Part 11
Human Sexuality (B) Love and Law
RICHARD H. BUBE
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305
From: JASA 31 (September 1979): 153-156.
Love vs Law
The third argument advanced by advocates of a sexual revolution on
Christian grounds
is that restrictions against extra-marital sexual expression are
legal in nature,
and that ultimately love must supercede law. This brings us naturally
to a consideration
of love vs. law, a subject with far greater significance than the
sexual revolution
alone.
Not only are love and law not mutually exclusive, but in a Christian
context neither
can be understood without the other. Law is the guide to what it means to love
(Psalm 119-97-104), and love is the fulfilling of what the law requires (Romans
13:10). Examples of extreme pitfalls are legalism on the one hand,
which forgets
the intent of the law in favor of its letter, and situational ethics
on the other
hand, which in seeking no law but love so subjectivizes love that it
retains little
content. In order to love, we must act in accordance with the real world; we do
not love a child by giving him everything he wants, nor do we love our neighbor
by seeking his presumed "welfare" at any cost. When Jesus was asked
which was the greatest commandment in the law, he answered that it was to love
God and to love your neighbor (Matthew 22:3740). On the night before his death,
he linked love and law indissolubly together when he said, "If
you love me,
you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15) To claim that one
can love without
reference to the law is to deny implicitly the created reality in
which we live.
The principles of the law inform us as to what it means to truly love in this
world. The situation does not determine the law; the situation determines how
the law manifests itself in love.
In speaking of biblical law, I mean the principles of living laid down in the
Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, and other similar and
related prophetic
and apostolic exhortations for godly living. This biblical law is given to us
by God's revelation of
the nature of the created universe and of interpersonal relationships in that
created universe because he loves us. Biblical law tells us what it
means to live
as a child of God, as he has intended us to live by creation, in the
real sinful
world in which we find ourselves. If we kept the first of the Ten Commandments,
we would be fully human and would need no others; our human situation
in its present
state, however, is such that this is not possible for us, and Cod has provided
a variety of guidances in practical living in the real created world. When this
law tells us "You shall not steal," or "You shall not
commit adultery,"
it is indeed reflecting the real content of actual human experience, but it is
not ultimately derived from this experience as a relative end in
itself. The content
of human experience confirms that it is a better world without
stealing and adultery
because this is the very intrinsic nature of the created world. It is divinely
revealed and it is experientially and even empirically testable; one
description
requires the other, and does not eliminate the other. The
commandment, "You
shall not commit adultery" tells us quite simply that committing adultery
can never be an ultimate exercise of love in the real world, the
appealing theme
of Tea and Sympathy to
This continuing series of articles is based on courses given at Stanford University, Fuller Theological Seminary, Regent College, Menlo Pork Presbyterian Church and Foothill Covenant Church. Previous articles were published as follows. 1. "Science Isn't Everything," March (1976), pp. 33-37. 2. "Science Isn't Nothing," June (1976), pp. 82-87. 3. "The Philosophy and Practice of Science," September (1976), pp. 127-132. 4, "Pseudo-Science and PseudoTheology. (A) Cult and Occult" March (1977), pp. 22-28. 5. "Pseudo-Science and PseudoTheology. (B) Scientific Theology," September (1977), pp. 124-129. 6. "Pseudo-Science and Pseudo-Theology. (C) Cosmic Consciousness," December (1977), pp. 165-174. 7. "Man Come of Age?" June (1978), pp. 81-87. 8. "Ethical Guidelines," September (1978), pp. 134-141. 9. "The Significance of Being Human," March (1979), pp. 37-43. 10. Human Sexuality. (A) Are Times A'ChangingP June (1979) pp. 106-112.
the contrary. Its effects are not "up for grabs" any more than the law of gravity or the laws of electromagnetics are at our subjective disposal.30 We can never love a person by pushing him off the top of a tall building because he feels like flying. I can conceive of situations where the choice to perform an undesirable deed (a "known evil," if you will) might be the consequence of realizing that in this imperfect world not to act would result in a known greater evil, but such exceptions retain validity only as evil is recognized as evil, and is not called good, and as exceptions-never if they are treated as a guide to the norm.
Many people's sexuality has indeed been damaged, sometimes
grievously, by having
been shaped within the confines of a narrow and non-biblical view of
sex: a view
in which sex and the human body are viewed as intrinsically "dirty."
In this context sexual aberrations take on the aspects of forbidden
fruit, becoming
all the more desirable because of the intense efforts of local
cultures to suppress
the expression of bona fide biological needs through
creation-designed channels.
Rebellion against such a distorted view of the subject often takes the form of
a shift to a position in which sexual activities are viewed with
maximum liberality.
It is claimed that sexual sins and crimes are caused by the
omnipresent prohibitions
against them, and that Christians bear a heavy weight of guilt for their role
in this historical process. The solution for anti-social sexual excesses, it is
also argued, is to ignore the sexual issue completely, be completely
free in allowing
everything rather than prohibiting, and instead concentrate on
communicating what
love is really all about; once it is understood what love really is,
then sexual
excesses will wither away in a natural way. There is enough truth to
this argument
that it should not be simply ignored; if negative prohibitions are
not liberally
seasoned with positive example and training, a distorted view of sexuality is
extremely likely to develop. But to argue that a person can be simply permitted
to continue in sexual sin until his realization of the true meaning
of love delivers
him, fails to recognize the totality of the whole person. First, it
neglects the
fact that sin is more appealing than righteousness to the sinful
nature. Second,
it is like urging a person to develop better health by diet and exercise while
ignoring the fact that the person is swallowing a dose of poison each
day. Understanding
and appreciation for sexuality within the context of a sustained and committed
love relationship, and the continued practice of acts and lifestyle
that contradict
this, are mutually exclusive activities.
Christian advocates of a sexual revolution argue that the Christian no longer
has any relationship to the law. All decisions are to be based on love alone in
the midst of the particular situation.
We have not met a single creative Christian who has not found the old rules wanting in some respect. Not one of them thinks that the Christian response should he to turn the volume up on the Church's transmitter
proclaiming premarital chastity, pure monogamy, and abstinence from adultery . . . . All ethics ore contextual or situational nowadays.31
It is argued that Jesus himself affords a prime example of one who repeatedly
broke the law in order to meet the requirements of love by healing on
the Sabbath,
eating corn in the fields on the Sabbath, and not condemning the woman taken in adultery to death (Matthew 12:1-12; Mark 3:1-6; Luke
13:1017; Luke 14:16; John 8:1-11). Here there is a double confusion. First of
all the "laws" that Jesus "broke" were part of
the ceremonial
or civil laws, many of which had been greatly elaborated far beyond
anything set
forth in the Mosaic ceremonial or civil laws, and not part of the
universal moral
law. Secondly, Jesus rather showed what Cod's intent in these laws
was, as contrasted
to the human requirements that had been added to them; the actions of
Jesus must
he considered as clarifying and fulfilling the essential intent of the law, not
as breaking of it in any meaningful way.
Another argument for the relevance of only love and not law for the Christian
is an interpretation of Paul, particularly the letter to the Galatians, which
supposedly shows that "grace overrides law totally."22 Here
again there
is a major confusion. Paul's entire argument against the supremacy of the law
is directed toward people who believed that it was obedience to the
law that earned
them righteousness before Cod. Paul, on the other hand, is arguing eloquently
that our relationship with Cod rests upon the grace of Cod in Jesus Christ, and
that for Christians to still consider obedience to the law as the way
to salvation
is not to understand the life and work of Jesus Christ. The usual discussion of
the relationship between grace or love and law among Christians,
however, is concerned
not with whether salvation comes through obedience to the law or not,
but whether,
having been saved by Cod's grace, the Christian can simply ignore the
law or whether
it can still serve as a guide (indeed, must serve) to what it means to live a
fully human life here on earth. The answer to this latter question can hardly
be derived from Paul's former argument. Instead it must be recognized that to
consider the moral law of no value whatsoever in guiding Christian living, is
essentially to turn one's back on interpersonal reality in favor of an idealism
that the real world seldom substantiates.
Love vs Sex
Sex itself is not the answer to the need for love, nor need it he supposed that
the need for love cannot be satisfied without sex. There is a genuine
biological
urge in sex, and the physical release from this urge can be achieved
through any
number of practices not involving love. The very failure of these
methods of relief
of the biological urge only, when problems of the whole person in
loneliness and
need for love are concerned, is self evident. Many in recent years, caught up
in the despair of life without God, have sought to deify sex as the
ultimate mystical
experience, the answer to life's problems and the slogan "Make love, not
war" can be understood fully only in this context. When one
person uses another
to obtain relief from his or her sexual drives, the persons involved are being
treated as "things"-and this is certainly one of the basic attitudes
incompatible with the Christian position.
The biblical treatment of sex within the "one flesh"
concept emphasizes
that this relationship is at least intended to correspond to the closest union
of man and woman possible. It must be admitted, of course, that sex
can be approached
on a much lower level than
this, and that sexual relationships can he in practice treated as nothing more
than the fulfillment of a biological need. But this is possible only because it
is possible for man to forsake the image of God with which he is
endowed by creation,
and to behave as if indeed he were nothing more than an animal for
which the category
"human" is inappropriate. Whenever sex is treated casually
and is experienced
outside of a lifelong commitment of love, both parties involved
forsake the potentialities
and the destiny of their humanity, lose the concept of united personhoods, and
to a greater or lesser degree pattern their behavior after subhuman
creatures.
The biblical perspective is that sexual relations between man and woman fulfill
their proper role when experienced in the context of a lifelong commitment of
love. It is this lifelong commitment of love-as opposed to the brief giving and
taking of casual liaisons-which makes it possible to have meaningful,
celebrating,
person-affirming communion. To claim that the pursuit of such
communion is possible
without a lifelong commitment of love has neither biblical nor
empirical support.
If this is indeed the ease, then why should such a man and woman
hesitate to affirm
their mutual commitment publicly-i.e., "get married"? Is it
not eminently
likely that a refusal to give assent to such public commitment is
really an indication
that such commitment is not given? And if such commitment is indeed not given,
it makes little sense to continue to justify sexual relations on the
hypothetical
grounds that a meaningful relationship is involved.
Advocates of a sexual revolution respond, not so much b denying these
statements,
as by proposing that they miss the mark by assuming that meaningful, celebrative
sexual relations must be limited to one man and one woman in some
kind of permanent
relationship. They argue instead that it is possible for some
individuals to have sufficiently meaningful relationships with members of the opposite sex to justify sexual
relationships with several
partners at a time, and that groups of men and women can mutually
agree to share
sex among several partners between them. There is little point in debating that
such arrangements can indeed be made; the questions are "Empirically, how
meaningful are they?" and "Theologically, are they consistent with a
holy God's pattern for his creatures?"
The first of these questions appears to be a prime candidate for answering on
experimental grounds. Such multiple relationships are or are not possible based
on love-except, of course, that our empirical investigation is
severely hampered
by difficulty in objectively defining and identifying a satisfactory
relationship.
Because a satisfactory relationship is claimed does not make it actual. If the
requirements for a satisfactory sexual relationship are to be identified with
our term, "a lifelong commitment in love," then the
biblical revelation
is fairly clear in providing a strongly negative answer. A positive answer to
the question would follow only if God had made men and women so that
total lifelong
commitments in love could be made at one time by one man to many women, or at
one time by one woman to many men. But the biblical revelation and
whatever empirical
data are known to me-scent to indicate that the assumption that relationships
of sufficient depth to justify sexual relationships can exist
Law is the guide to what it means to love, and love is the fulfilling of the law.
outside the one man/one woman marital relationship is based on an
illusion, contrary
to the created structure of interpersonal sexual relationships.
The claim that sexual exclusiveness between one man and one woman who
have become
"one flesh" in a lifelong commitment of love, and who are seeking to
live out in their lives a representation of Christ and the church, is
the result
of human selfishness and is incompatible with the requirements of loving one's
neighbor -as is sometimes dune-seems to me to be a gross misreading
of the biblical
revelation. The Bible constantly treats marital infidelity as an
analogy to spiritual
apostasy for precisely the same reason; as man is to love only God with heart
and soul and mind above all else in life-because this is the only way to fulfill
the creation purpose for man, so a man and a woman in a lifelong commitment of
love are to keep each only for the other-again because this is the only way to
fulfill the creation purpose for mail and woman. If men and woman and
sex and human
nature were all differently constructed, different possibilities
might he available.
But we are designed to live in the world that God has made, and he has loved us
enough to reveal to us what this entails. As discussed
earlier,"" freedom
is never achieved by neglecting reality. Jesus tells us, "If you continue
in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth,
and the truth
will make you free." (John 8:31,32) How often the first phrase
of this conditional
promise is omitted! Out of the exclusiveness of the marriage relationship comes
the additional strength by which man-and-woman now go out together to be God's
servants in the world.
"Is-Ought" Fallacy Again
The basic arguments of advocates of a sexual revolution can be semi
to he examples
of the isought fallacy, in which scientific evidence for what is, is
unjustifiably
assumed to have the authority to dictate what oug/tt to he. Consider
the following
quotations as examples.
Is sex not already far on the way to becoming "autonomous," and hence not even a sensible topic for Christian ethics any longer?22
To be true to our Lord we should try to "feed" the sexually hungry, not give them the Bible only. But this might violate the seventh commandment. Given the new circumstances, maybe such acts could be legitimized.22
The empirical data are that today a high percentage of concerned, loving, active Christians have had wholly positive experience with pre-marital sex; some equally with pre-marital abstinence. Both are options for Christians today.22
This Man is also acquisitive, power-driven, creative, inventive, and he was made in the Creator's image; he is co-creator now. He will and most flex his muscles, and try his wings. He will, for absolutely certain sure, use his new sexual affluence. Our problem is to solve the simultaneous equation: Given sinfulness and sexual affluence, what patterns are best? (Do not respond by giving solutions for pre-1950 sexual poverty. )22The evolutionary thrust of history leaves us no doubt as to the outcome. The Church will sooner or later accede to Society's patterns and then find the rationale to justify co-marital, loving (including sexuality) with persons
other than the spouse . he question is: shouldn't the Church lead the way?22
In 1973 more than half the U.S. population felt that premarital sex was no longer immoral-a 500% change in two decades. Some of these data are like Jesus' reference to the 'Clouds no larger than a man's hand." They are early warnings before the event itself.32
In each case cited, changing patterns in society are taken as norms
for Christian
living. It should he remembered that among the same commandments as "You
shall not commit adultery," is also "You shall not
kill," and "You
shall not steal." We have abundant empirical data that more
people are killing
and stealing than ever before; yet we feel that it is not appropriate
to recommend
that the Church lead the way to liberalized views on killing and stealing. It
will be found in the end that "You shall not commit adultery" is no
more flexible than these other commandments. To violate any one is to violate
the structure of human living, and to violate the structure of human living is
to set the stage for less-human living.
Strikingly absent from the views of advocates of a sexual revolution
is the realization
that the lifestyle of men and women committed to God in Jesus Christ
must be considered
as necessarily intrinsically different from the lifestyle of men and women not
committed to Jesus Christ. What men and women do, who do not have a
personal relationship
with God in Christ, means absolutely nothing as far as what men and
women in Christ
should do.33
Summary
Human sexuality may not be everything, but it is an extremely important facet
of human life and society. A society's attitude toward sex is a
significant index
of its overall health, along with its attitude toward social justice,
racial equality,
and concern for the poor and suffering. It is an error to suppose
that a society's
attitude toward itself and toward its problems can be totally
separated from its
attitude toward the appropriate interpretation of sexual
relationships. Certainly
the biblical revelation recognizes the centrality of sexuality, places sexual
relationships between man and woman within the context of the good
creation, and
lays the foundation for viewing a lifelong commitment of love between a man and
a woman as the basis for sexual intimacy. The view of Christian
marriage between
two persons united in Christ and in love for one another is that this
relationship
is to be analogous to the relationship between Christ and his Church; the high
potentialities of marriage are thus set forth together with the realization of
the impossibility of their full attainment in a non-Christian context.
Those who advocate a sexual revolution on supposedly Christian
grounds have three
principal arguments. (1) "Modern advances in scientific understanding make
traditional approaches to sexual ethics untenable." But such
"advances
in understanding" derive as much, if not more, from the presuppositions of
the interpreter as from the data themselves. (2) "The Bible has ceased to
he a reliable guide to sexual ethics." But
what is at stake is the invocation of "biblical
scholarship" which again
can be presupposition dominated, and a general rejection of the historical view
of the authority and reliability of the Bible without any real justification.
(3) "An authentic Christian concern for love rather than law
requires setting
aside old legalistic restrictions against extra-marital sexual
relationships."
Such arguments involve a failure to discriminate between the. moral
and ceremonial
or civil laws of the Old Testament, a misunderstanding of Jesus when
he sets the
spirit of the law above human legalistic additions and misinterpretations
of the
law, and a misunderstanding of Paul when he argues for salvation by
grace rather
than by works that seek to earn righteousness by obeying the law. A resolution
is achieved by seeing the law as setting forth general principles
which show what
it means truly to love.
Understanding and appreciation for sexuality within the context of a sustained and committed love relationship, and the continued practice of acts and lifestyle that contradict this, are mutually exclusive activities.
Every attempt to advocate a movement toward "open sex" on the basis
of empirical scientific studies, data or experience, invariably
involves a direct
invocation of the "is-ought" fallacy. In such eases a skillful blend
of the is with the would is advanced as the should. Based on a type
of "ethics
by democracy", this approach totally ignores the intrinsic
difference between
Christian and non-Christian living. If all the world should come to
consider "you
shall not commit adultery" as a meaningless and outdated
concept, hopefully
there will remain small pockets of Christians, who by their devotion to Christ
and his word, their appreciation of the potentialities of Christian marriage,
their development of a home with Christ as the center, and their
training of their
children, will continue the lifestyle appropriate for human beings created in
the image of God.
REFERENCES
30R. H. Bube, "Science Isn't Nothing," Journal ASA 28, 82
(1976).
31R. and D. Roy, op. cit., p. 72.
32R. Roy, op. cit., P. 81. Reference is probably intended to be to Luke 12:54,
although the language is that of I Kings 18:44.
33Other sexual issues, such as homosexuality, which are not treated
explicitly
in this installment, can be explicated
using the principles that are set forth here. That a person should find himself
or herself with a sexual preference for the same sex is the consequence of our
existence in an imperfect and sin-afflicted world. That a person so oriented should
choose to express
this tragic distortion of sexuality
in a homosexual lifestyle suffers the same shortcomings, grief and
judgment that
would fall to a person with a heterosexual orientation who chooses to express
this sexuality in ways inconsistent with God's creation purpose for maleness/
femaleness. The homosexual needs our love, concern and personal acceptance; the
practice of homosexuality, however, needs to be seen for what it is:
falling short
of the potentialities of human sexuality with attendant consequences.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Is the present laxity in sexual morals a totally new historical phenomenon,
or is it only a contemporary cycle in a process dating hack to the beginning of
mankind?
2."Diversity in unity" appears to be a common theme in the
biblical revelation
from the doctrine of the Trinity to the Church as the Body of Christ. How does
this concept hear on human sexuality and marriage?
3.What do you think is the principal content of the biblical
idea of "one flesh" as set forth in Genesis 2:23-25, Matthew 19:3-6
and I Corinthians?
4. Describe an experimental situation in which you would expect to determine in
a scientifically accurate way whether or not pre-marital sex has any effects on
a person's future life.
5. Is changing environment necessarily the only consideration in dealing with
the regulations of human society? Is mankind in possession of atomic
energy, TV,
the means of genetic control, and released from some of the
constraints of nature
in the past, more or less likely to act harmfully for itself, society
and posterity?
6. Is it right and proper to experiment with pre- and extramarital
relationships
in order to find out empirically whether or not they lead to a more fulfilling
life? Should we do the same for killing and stealing? Do you see any
correlation
with recent experience with drug taking?
7. To what extent should Christian ideals be legally enforced on those without
these ideals? To what extent should nonChristian practices be invoked
as the grounds
upon which to alter Christian principles?
8. It is sometimes argued that extra-marital sex between two people
with a loving
relationship is obviously far more Christian than sex legalized by a marriage
license between two people whose only concern is lust and
self-gratification, and that therefore the advocate against extra-marital sex is simply
legalistically
blinded. Is this a valid argument, or is it an argument that one type of error
justifies another?
9. Following up the previous question, does marriage put an end to
all questions
of sexual ethics? Can ripe occur in marriage? Can infidelity occur
without physical
adultery?
flow
10. How do you know what it means "to love" both in general
and in specific
situations? Is the answer to this question self-evident? Is any answer adequate
that does not reach back to I John 4:7-12 as a foundation?
11. Person A is faithful its marriage, attends church regularly,
follows the roles
of business fairly, and in general restricts his concerns and his attentions to
himself and his own family only. Person B lives in a commune where constraints
on sex are considered improper, participates in no institutional
church activities,
usually swims in the nude, and works hard to help the poor and unfortunate in
the total community in which he lives. Which of these persons is
more/less moral
than the other? Why?
OTHER RELEVANT READINGS
J. Banyolak and I. Trobisch, Better Is Your Love Than Wine, InterVarsity Press
C.M. Berry and S. Macautay, "Everything You Always Wanted
to Know About Sex," Christian Medical Society Journal,
p. 1, Summer 1971
C. S. Board et. al., Guide to Sex, Singleness and Marriage,
Inter Varsity Press (1974)
R. H. Buhe and R. Roy, "Is There a Christian Basis for a Sexual
Revolution,"
Journal ASA, 26, 70 (1974)
D. Field, Free to do Right, InterVarsity Press
0. Piper, The Biblical View of Sex and Marriage, Scribners (1960)
J. Rinretna, The Sexual Revolution, Eerdmans (1974)
K. and F. Smith, Learning to be a Man/Learning to be a Woman, InterVarsity Press
V. Mary Stewart, Sexual Freedom, InterVarsity Press (1974)
H. Thielicke, The Ethics of Sex, Harper and Row (1964)
A. N. Triton, Living and Loving InterVarsity Press (1972)
W. R. Trnbisch, I Loved a Girl, Harper and Row (1965)
I Married You, Harper and Row (1971)
Love is a Feeling to be Learned, InterVarsity Press