While the world in which we live glorifies the gratification of sexual desires as the focal point of all human existence, the ultimate end state of many social human interactions, an experience to which one is entitled, and without which one can never say they have truly lived……….the truth is that sexual gratification is none of that.
I have felt prompted to write this for some time. I know I risk being misjudged, hated, and accused of bigotry or harboring some type of phobia in doing so. However, my hope is that some will see through the spiritual blindness caused by Satan and his humanist servants and recognize these blogs as acts of love…the real love that rejects enabling, and seeks to bring exaltation, eternal peace and everlasting joy to all of God’s children.
The points to follow arise from the scriptures, and the teachings of God’s servants, most particularly the excellent talk on sexual intimacy by Elder Jeffry R. Holland entitled “Of Souls, Symbols and Sacraments: a link to which is provided here:
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/jeffrey-r-holland/souls-symbols-sacraments/
The truth is that sexual gratification is at best a side blessing that may come as one seeks to fulfill the great command to multiply and replenish the earth. While under the influence of the Holy Spirit and refined by the pure love of Christ it can be a sweet blessing to a Godly marriage, one to be freely given but never sought for in lust. However, even in Godly marriage sexual gratification is only a small, and even non-essential, part of God’s plan.
Given the relative and comparative unimportance of such gratification in the eternal scheme of things, it is amazing to me that so many use it as the a basis for defining who they are. They label themselves, formulate their existence and purpose in life, based on who they believe they can best obtain sexual fulfillment from. That to me is both tragic and limiting. It has not always been that way, but is an outgrowth of our increasingly Godless society that teaches evil for good and accuses good of being evil. For those honest enough look at the issue deeply and openly, they will discover that fixation on sexual gratification is simply a result of years of the rampant narcissism that has been governing our modern world.
In the following posts I will show that lust is not a valid basis for defining who we are. In fact, as we strive to rid ourselves of lust, we must also fight the tendency to define ourselves by our lusts.
Lusting after a person of the opposite gender is just as vile and sinful as lusting after someone of the same gender, or lusting after different ages, species, or anything else. When one defines themselves by the object of their lusts, which lust they should be trying to destroy, it is like surrendering to those lusts. They can then fall into the trap of misery, were they allow their lust to percolate, and burn within them, while fighting the temptation to act on them so that they can “remain technically sinless.” The Godly answer is to refuse to be defined by lust, to acknowledge its source and our mission to overcome it through the grace of Christ, and then to crush it, reject it, fight it, until it is gone.
Eros must be destroyed if Phileo and Agape are ever to prevail in our souls. Once Phileo and then Agape come to rule our souls, then one can marry, and fulfill their eternally assigned and sacred roles, while basking in the freedom of those deep, pure, and freeing forms of love.