As we launch into our exploration of sexuality, we must remember that we lose something if we treat making love as simply physical excitement, intercourse, and techniques. Making love offers insight into Christ's relationship and modus operandi with His beloved followers, the church. It includes joy, excitement, trust, commitment, unselfish nurturing, self-esteem, and a mutually fulfilling, playful companionship. It is truly intimate, and we will never completely understand this mystery.
The apostle Paul dealt more with the fuller meaning of sexual interaction and intercourse in the sixth chapter of 1 Corinthians, as he talked about the temple prostitutes in the pagan worship of Aphrodite. Some of the Corinthian Christians were getting sexual excitement and release by visiting the temple prostitutes. He wrote, “Toods for the stomach and the stomach for foods. . . The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord ... Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For athe two/ He says, "shall become one flesh"... Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” (1 Cor. 6：13,16,19 NKJV). Paul emphasized that sexual union has an emotional and a spiritual dimension to it; it is not like eating a meal or casually satisfying a bodily desire. Sexuality is truly threedimensional, involving body, soul, and spirit (see Chapter28 on sexual integrity and remaining three-dimensional).
Making love needs to be based on an intimate marital partnership. Without the playful, loving companionship, sex becomes another buzz or rush that loses its perspective and has increasingly diminishing returns. Going on a roller coaster or eating a big steak is fun, but we wouldn't want to do that two or three times a week for the rest of our lives. A one-flesh marriage—that is, the spiritual and emotional merger of wife and husband—allows sex to be ever new and exciting. Sex is a means to an end and never an end in itself.
Making love unites and excites, but the relationship gives the context and meaning. Without the intimate relationship, we find that sex becomes an activity (like eating steak or shooting white-water rapids) that rapidly loses its dynamic appeal.
Making love in a special and meaningful way is modeled after Christ's relationship with the church. We need to understand Christ's deep commitment, gentleness and humility, and His ability to lead and serve and to speak the truth with love. He demonstrated the basis for true spiritual and emotional union.
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