Thread: The early church was marked by a deep concern for the poor and for racial equality (Gal 2:10; 3:28). At the very same time, it taught that sex was only for within a mutually self-giving life-long covenant of marriage (1 Thess 4:3-8; 1 Cor 6:12-20). 1/7

To our modern ears, this sounds like a contradictory mishmash of liberalism and conservatism. And today the church is being fragmented by progressives and conservatives who want it to only serve one of these commitments and discard the other. 2/7

But to the church, the sex ethic & the justice ethic are a whole cloth. Sexual immorality and injustice go hand in hand because there is a unifying principle that unites them. In Jesus, we see one who had ultimate power and privilege sacrificing it in order to love and save us. 3

This was self-giving rather than self-fulfillment and self-realization. This is the basis for biblical justice. (A) To help the marginalized ALWAYS requires sacrifice. Giving away what we have. (See https://quarterly.gospelinlife.com/justice-in-the-bible/ ) 4/7

(B) If on the other hand, you are one of the marginalized, it also requires self-sacrifice to forgive and reconcile even as you seek justice, speaking the truth in love. Today’s Left doesn’t accept B and today’s Right won’t accept A. At the same time, this is also the basis 5/7

for the Christian sex ethic. The modern world sees sex as a commodity to be consumed, enjoyed in relationships conducted contingently on a profitable cost-benefit relationship. But marriage requires mutual self-sacrifice, the giving up of independence for the deeper joy 6/7

of interdependence. This is why the Bible and the church has always seen sex-only-within marriage and doing justice as a whole cloth united by the principle of self-sacrifice, of “losing one’s self to find one’s self.” Don't let the modern world split you. 7/7