The Sermon I Don't Understand
The most common sermon I have heard for singles comes out of the book Song of Solomon. I can think of half of dozen times I have heard this sermon from half a dozen different men. They take the passage of the wedding night and talk about how great sex is, and then tell the singles to wait until they are married to have sex. I do not understand how anybody could think this is an appropriate sermon for singles.
If you read my story you know I heard this sermon in Bible college, and for days I could not get what was said out of my head. I had an erection for 3 days straight. I looked at pornography for over a decade and this sermon was more pornographic than anything I ever saw. If I had a girlfriend then I would have been doing anything I could to get her to have sex with me. Thank God I was single when I heard that message, I don’t see how any couple could listen to it and stay chaste. Certainly the time I heard this sermon in Bible college was the worst, but why would any preacher specifically prepare this sermon for singles? First of all Song of Solomon is about a married couple, and according to most of the sermons I have heard on the subject, their sex life. If you are a Christian and unmarried what are you not supposed to do? as far as I can tell God intentionally wrote song of Solomon in flowery language as to go over head of those who are not yet married. I am unsure how big of a part this plays in preachers preaching this sermon, but I have a degree in theology and unless someone points out the sex parts it goes over my head. I am unmarried why do you want me focusing on the sex part? The area I am really lost and confused on is that somehow every time this sermon is preached they take a passage that is about sex and try to turn it into a message on not having sex. They say, “This part is sex, that part is sex, and over here is sex, so don’t have sex till you get married.” I don’t see how that is rightly dividing the word of truth. If you want to preach a sermon on purity go to I Corinthians 6 and 7. From “Flee fornication” to “Its good for a man not to touch a woman” to “If they can not contain let them marry”. What sounds more like rightly dividing the word of truth on the subject of purity? “Flee fornication” or “How to have hot sex, but wait till you are married”? There are wonderful passages throughout the scripture on purity. There are wonderful passages throughout scripture on singleness. Song of Solomon is not one of those passages. Consider your unmarried people, those teens and singles. Many of these people have years to wait until they are marred. As Christians they are called to be a virgin on their wedding night or practice abstinence until then. Why would you put this burden on them years before they get to practice it? |