Jesus Christ on sexual morality

[LoungeLizard]

There are, of course, many codes of sexual morality that people who describe themselves as Christian proclaim.

My question is this: What did Jesus Christ himself teach?  I am specifically excluding later derivations on his teachings; I mean what did he himself directly say in the Gospels?

I am interested in 3 areas:

(1) Sexual intercourse within / outside Marriage.

(2) The importance of marriage as an institution.

(3) Homosexuality and gay sex.

[ursula62]

What Jesus said is very different from what Acts and the Epistles say. Jesus actually said very little on marriage, and nothing on gay sex. St Paul was a Jew and his views on marriage were based on the Old Testament.

Matthew ch19 v3-12  tells the story of the Pharisees testing Jesus on the Jewish scriptures, and asking him about Divorce. Verses 7-9 say "Why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal could be given in cases of divorce" He answered "It was because you were so hard-herated that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning. Now I say this to you: anyone who diverces his wife - I am not speaking of an illicit marriage - and marries another is guilty of adultery." Jesus goes on to answer questions from the disciples, asking whether it is advisable not to marry. In verse 11-12 Jesus's reply is "It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted. There are eunuchs born from their mothers' womb, there are eunuchs made so by human agency and there are those who have made themselves so for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let anyone accept this who can."

Luke ch16 v18 says "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery and the man who marries a woman divorced by her husband commits adultery."
In John Ch v v6-29 tells the story of the Samarian woman at the well. She offers Jesus water. After he has drunk, Jesus tells her to call to her husband. She says she has no husband. In Verses 17-18 Jesus says �you are right to say �I have no husband� for although you have had five the one you now have is not your husband.�

Hope this helps.

[silly moo]

Jesus was also a jew , and a rabbi , christianity did not exist until after his death.

[RevShirls]

As ursula62 points out, Jesus said very little about marriage and sexual intercourse within/outwith marriage. He said nothing specifically about homosexuality and gay sex.

The text from Matthew about divorce seems a rather harsh text. It really needs to be taken in the context it was meant. It was directed at the pharisees who were always criticising, nitpicking and policing people who broke every tiny little aspect of the law/Torah. Divorce was something that any man could do easily - just by handing his wife a piece of paper divorcing her. Women couldn't divorce men and if a woman's husband divorced her she was discarded and considered to be outwith the unclean and outwith the community. I believe (don't mean to preach) that Jesus in this instance was protecting women. The Pharisees were so self-righteous yet they happily saw nothing wrong with divorcing their wives as soon as they got fed up or bored with them. I think this is why Jesus was so harsh with them here and said that they shouldn't divorce their wives. I have problems with people trying to apply this to other situations (ie modern situation of divorce).

As for the reference to eunuchs - some people think that this may refer to people who were gay. Nowadays we define "eunuchs" as those who have been castrated but Jesus talks about those who were born eunuchs or have become eunuchs as a result of human intervention or have become eunuchs by their own decision.