Humans are sexual beings. Regardless of whether we're single or married, we struggle with issues of sexuality. Unfortunately, this struggle has been intensified in our Western culture. Dr. Pitirim Sorokin, the first professor and chairman of the Sociology Department at Harvard University, wrote that, 'Our civilization has become so preoccupied with sex that it now oozes from all pores of American life.³However, as one writer put it, the "real world of sexuality is very unlike Playboy: it includes tragedy, loss, and aloneness along with comedy, pleasure and triumph. Vulnerable people need wisdom.⁴ We need biblical wisdom in the area of sexuality as we need it elsewhere.

Christian disciples don't have special flesh. Consequently, we share in common many of the same problems that our contemporaries do, including sexuality. William Masters and Virginia Johnson have reported that at least 50 percent of marriages are flawed by some form of sexual maladjustment or dysfunction. ⁵ Therefore, it's probably safe to assume that many marriages among believers are also plagued with sexual maladjustment or dysfunction.

Jeremiah had disdain for the leaders of his day who 'dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious" (Jeremiah 6:14, NIV). As disciples, many of us have wounds, some visible, some not. Regardless of the nature of the wound, it must be tended to, or else it will worsen. Sexual problems are usually, not always, symptomatic of greater problems which need correction. Failure to attend to these problems can result in fractured marriages. A failure to adhere to biblical sexual standards will ultimately destroy a person, a family, a community and a nation.

One of the most forceful teachings of the Old Testament is "the Balak Strategy.'⁶ Israel's enemies could only triumph over Israel if Israel allowed itself to be morally defiled. The most prevalent apostasy in the Old Testament was Baalism.

The worship of this Canaanite god and the other Canaanite gods such as Ashteroth and Baalim centred around the worship of sex in all its forms, including the worship of the human genitalia. Numerous tablets, statues and engravings have been found at the Ras Shamra archaeological site depicting their obsession with sex.

Of course, this "Balak syndrome" is still true. Today, believers are besieged by a war on the family.

Jeremiah wrote that 'the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can...