Hi all,
Last week I shared how the Bible teaches the physical union of husband and wife to be a type of the oneness of Christ and the church. Today we will set that statement into the culture of the first century Roman society.
If children were taught how the union of husband and wife is more than an animal-level act, but a spiritual and mystical type of Christ and the church, they would have context and answers within themselves when facing the onslaught of a sexualized society. They would look for others who understood the mysteries of Christ and what a Spirit-filled marriage looks like. Pop culture today in the US, looks like the Roman world as we experience a sort of re-paganizing of sex:
Sex in the Roman world
In Roman society they did not have words for heterosexual and homosexual. Adult men could have sexual relations with either gender, teenagers included. Female sexuality of the time isn’t well documented, but pornographic art has been found on the walls of Roman homes depicting similar behavior by women and men, even in groups. Phallic symbols were part of everyday life, from brothels to wall art and sculpture, even dining vessels. Phallic symbols were ‘good luck charms’ sold on the streets. They even adorned the outside of bread ovens and walls lining streets and in homes. They hung above door ways…the good luck charm of the Roman world. Sex and images of sex bombarded people everywhere.
Prostitution was legal and common throughout the Empire. Being married did not mean faithfulness to one another, for it was common to have mistresses and sex with either gender when offering sacrifices to the gods or goddesses.
That is where the liberal agenda of today would take us. On the surface they cry ‘freedom’ and ‘anything goes’ and ‘this is who I feel I am’ or ‘who I identify with’. But here is a truth: The physical can only minister to the physical, the mental can only minister to the mental, and the spiritual can only minister to the spiritual.
People give themselves over to all kinds of physical activity in the hopes of reaching that spiritual emptiness inside. But no physical effort can reach the spirit man. The once abused child now a teen or adult, will seek sexual partner after sexual partner hoping the next one will be ‘the one’, to fill that emptiness inside.
People seek education, classes on psychology, sociology, advanced degrees, looking for that one key truth that will fill the emptiness inside or explain who and why they are. People also seek spiritual solutions from many sources, each one they hope, will fill the void within.
Physical fulfillment can’t reach the spirit man. Filling the mind with knowledge can’t reach the spirit man. Spiritual efforts outside of Christ can’t fill that emptiness of spirit – we are created by God and only He can fill us, spirit to soul to body.
Paul presented freedom, security
The Jewish and Christian values taught among the Greek and Romans of the day were very different. Judaism and Christianity taught as mentioned previously, the union of husband and wife was spiritual, part of the creation order, and mystical as a type of oneness with Christ. Fidelity to one’s spouse was a new concept to the Roman world.
To the Roman or Greek woman, Paul’s teachings meant freedom. Today the world views Biblical values as constraining. Paul’s instructions in Ephesians 5: 21-32 were nothing short of revolutionary. Submit to one another, equally, mutually. Her husband was to treat her as he would his own body. That statement alone, in the context of sexual freedom for men to have relations with anyone of any age they chose, was exactly opposite of Roman culture. Men and women who came to Christ found great freedom within their marriages, fidelity, growing together as human beings and also in Christ, faithful and free to know their spouse fully and deeply in every way. The gospel was liberating for them. It defined from creation’s example, their purpose, who they could be with their Creator, individually and within the marriage, which He Himself had invented when He brought Eve to Adam.
Paul and Peter told the husbands to treat the wives like they treat themselves. Peter said to ‘assign honor’ to the wife in I Peter 3: 7, and to be tender hearted towards them. To a Roman woman, this was a breath of fresh air! This was empowering. Liberating. No longer merely objects of sexual pleasure with little say in the matter; Christ gave them honor, respect, as an equal partner in marriage. Paul said for the husband to love his wife like Christ did for the church, laying down his (His) life for us, so too is a husband to treat his wife like that.
I read an ancient Roman comment from those days that said Christian women were easy to identify because they didn’t walk 2 steps behind their husband like non-Christian women did; they walked side by side with them.
The gospel had wide-spread acceptance from family to family in large part because the Christian teaching of equality for men and women and how sex is a type of Christ and the church and not degraded to simply fulfill selfish lusts. The reordering of their understanding of sex within the bounds of marriage changed family culture and the ‘atmosphere’ of the family in a way that made Christians very unique indeed.
In Biblical and historical context, we cannot separate the gospel from sex. God takes the unsaved who are living according to their most base animal instincts, and elevates them to oneness in Christ, and that demonstrated within a marriage where they live out that oneness of body, soul, and spirit. Whether single or married, teen or adult, they can see what God teaches. Modern culture has perverted true Biblical understanding of marriage and sex to make it seem like bondage, especially for the wife, in an effort to paganize sex once again.
Consider still more…
In the opening pages of Genesis we see the man Adam in two beings, united and one in the Lord God their Creator. Remember, they were called Adam in the day they were created, and she wasn’t named Eve until after sin came. (Genesis 3: 20; 5:2)
We see them being put in charge of a ‘Garden’, which means work was part of the divine order as well. In its proper context, working is part of God’s plan that both provides for our lives and also causes us to depend on Him. The Jewish prayer before a meal starts by acknowledging the God of the universe, our Creator, who supplies the food, drink, bread, etc…that we are about to consume.
We work for ourselves and our family, to provide for them as Christ provides us a home in His ‘Garden’, heaven. The Tree of Life is mentioned as being in the Garden of Eden and also in heaven in The Revelation 2;7, 22: 2, 14 – Eden was the perfect example and demonstrates things are going to a full circle of completion. Sexual relations between husband and wife right at the start, demonstrated oneness in Christ in a safe and secure home, and is a type of our eternal home and oneness with Christ.
By not including proper sexual understanding as part of the gospel message, the church has abdicated its responsibility to the world, and they are are loudest and largest voice out there.
We will continue comparing the Roman world with God’s culture next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
