God’s Purposes for Sex
God created us as sexual beings, as male and female. Sexuality is built into our very core as humans.
You could say that we are “hardwired” for sex. Appropriate and truly fulfilling sexual expression can occur only within the careful and specific limits that God has established.
Outside those limits there is trouble—guilt, shame, fear, sorrow, disappointment, and heartache. Within those limits, however—the limits of one husband and one wife devoted exclusively to each other—
there is great freedom, flexibility, and joy. From the pages of the Bible we can glean three primary purposes for human sexual activity: procreation, recreation and release, and communication.
Sex Is for Procreation As we have already seen, procreation lies at the very heart of God’s original charge and command to mankind.
“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.
Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground— (Gen. 1:28).
God created man to exercise dominion over the created order, and one way of accomplishing that goal was through procreation:
to reproduce and populate the earth. It was to this end that God created man in two genders, a male “man” and a female “man.”
The man and the woman were of the same spirit and the same essence—they were made of the same “stuff,” as it were.
First, God created the man, Adam. Then He made a woman—Eve—from part of Adam’s side, and presented her to him.
“The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called “woman,”
for she was taken out of man.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Gen. 2:23-24).
The phrase “one flesh” is a sexual reference relating to the physical union between a husband and wife.
The Bible contains many other references that indicate that human reproduction is a fundamental part of God’s plan for mankind.
In its proper place, sex is both honorable and a source of blessing from God.
If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep His covenant of love with you, as He swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers.
He will bless the fruit of your womb , the
crops of your land—your grain, new wine and oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you.
You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young (Deuteronomy 7:12-14 emphasis added).
Here God actually makes a commitment to His people that if they are faithful and obedient to Him, none of them will be barren or childless.
God wants His people to procreate. He wants to populate the world with His children so that His glory will fill the earth.
Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate (Psalm 127:3-5).
Children are a heritage from God. The Hebrew word ben (“sons”) has a wide variety of meanings and can refer to all children, not just males.
Heritage means “properly.” God takes the conceiving, birthing, and raising of children very seriously because they are His heritage.
That’s why abortion and physical and sexual abuse of children are such serious sins—they are messing with God’s heritage.
God takes the conceiving, birthing, and raising of children very seriously because they are His heritage.
There are many other passages that could be cited but these should be sufficient to demonstrate clearly—if there was any doubt—that one of the primary purposes of sex is for procreation.
