He made the Pleasures...

“Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s [God’s] ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures” -The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis

Visiting prostitutes, men sleeping with their dad's wives, illicit affairs, homosexual sex, burning lust, sex starved marriage partners and biblical counsel to indulge in copious amounts of God glorifying, passionate sex...are all part of preaching through 1 Corinthians. It will stir things up for any pastor who dares to really teach through it...because it hits us where we live.

It's sad to me to think that the God of Solomon's steamy song; is often represented by a church that would ban the book if it was titled differently and included in some other book of literature other than the Holy Bible. In fact some of the greatest critiques of Christianity have leveled their attacks below the churches belt:

“The church fights passion by cutting it out, in every sense; its practice, its “therapy” is castration. It never asks, “How does one spiritualize, beautify, deify, desire?”—its discipline has always emphasized eradication (eradication of sensuality, pride, the ambition to rule, covetousness, vengefulness).—But ripping out the passions by the root means ripping life out by the root; the practice of the Church is an enemy of life…” 
-Twilight of the Idols ,Friedrich Nietzsche

But the church has brought a lot of this scathing rebuke on herself:

"In the second century, Clement of Alexandria allowed unenjoyed and procreative sex only during 12 hours out of the 24 (at night) but by the middle ages, preposterous as it now seems, the church forbade it forty days before the important festival of Christmas, forty days before and 8 days after the more important festival of Easter, 8 days after Pentecost, the eves of feast days, on Sundays in honor of the resurrection, on Wednesdays to call to mind the beginning of Lent, Fridays in memory of the crucifixion, during pregnancy and 30 days after birth (40 if the child was a female), during menstruation, and 5 days before communion. This adds up to 252 excluded days. Not counting feast days, if there were 30 of those (a guess which may in fact, be on the conservative side) there would then have been 83 remaining days in the year when (provided of course, that the woman did not happen to be menstruating or pregnant or in the postnatal period and provided that they intended procreation) couples could with the permission of the church have indulged in (but not enjoyed) sexual intercourse."

So much of this subject really is the fruit of a misunderstanding of the gospel. At the heart of this anti-body theology is a gnostic heresy that says, our bodies are not good...only are spirits are truly good. It's a lie...and this teaching pervades many Christians ideas of how to live in this world.

As we move into chapter 8 we will begin to see this idea as we deal with those who Paul calls the ones who have "weak faith". I imagine this discussion is going to rock some peoples world!

Should be fun....