Proper Use of Five Senses

Next Part Sex in Marriage Commanded!

Enjoyable sensations, as well as those that are noxious or painful, can be received through each of the five senses. The influential Catholic minds, mentioned earlier, considered the enjoyment of any physical sensation to be sinful. The well-known expression about tasting a wonderful dessert, “It’s so good, it must be sin,” comes directly from this once-ingrained mode of thinking. However, God designed the human body, including the nervous system, which incorporates all of the senses! He alone determines their right and proper use!

In His love and generosity toward man, God created the capacity to enjoy the taste of fine food—the scent of an orchard in spring—the beautiful sight of a perfect sunset—the uplifting sound of quality music—the feel of soft material on one’s body.

The senses themselves are not sinful—it is the wrong use of them that is sin!

Learning to recognize quality, and to discern between the wholesome and the degenerate, is an important part of the character-building process. Those who are building the character of God are engaged in the process of “by reason of use hav[ing] their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). Human beings are expected to use their five senses, working through God’s Spirit, and apply their minds to expressing love toward neighbour and toward God.

But how can we know that we are using our senses and mind in this way? God thunders: by living according to His “holy, just...good,” and “spiritual” Law! (Rom. 7:12, 14).

Man Incapable of Godly Love

In the New Testament, Jesus reinforced the TWO BROAD COMMANDMENTS found in the Old Testament, which are still applicable today: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind...You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Matt. 22:37, 39).

One is permitted to love the self as much as a neighbour. This alone is a challenge, as the natural mind of man is based primarily on the love of self above others.

However, God requires that human beings love Him more than self! This is impossible for the ordinary human mind, which is naturally hostile to God: “Because the carnal mind is enmity [the enemy of, antagonistic] against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom 8:7).

You were born with a mind that is automatically contrary to the love of God. Man in his natural state is capable of expressing only two of the three kinds of love—philia and eros.

The love of God—agape—is SPIRITUAL love. This is a love that is beyond the human level. It is simply absent in the natural mind—and cannot be developed without the Holy Spirit present in that mind! Therefore, human beings, of and by themselves, CANNOT love God! It is not possible for them to do this.

So how then may a person fulfil the command to love God above self?

The answer is found in I John 4:19: “We love Him, because He first loved us.” Christians—those who have been begotten of the Holy Spirit—receive at conversion a portion of the love of God through His Spirit (Rom. 5:5). This love is then expressed back to God through obedience to His Law.

John also recorded, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments” (I John 5:3), with Paul adding this, “Love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10).

All of God’s commandments, including the Ten Commandments, are summarized in the two broad principles above—love for God and love for man.

Love in Marriage

The Bible states that God is a Spirit (John 4:24), but that He created humans from physical matter. This was by careful design with a Supreme Purpose in mind—if men would come to understand and yield to it. God created man physically complete, but spiritually incomplete—lacking the Spirit of God.

I repeat that humans ARE capable of both philia and eros. But even philia has a selfish element, as it is directed toward our “brothers”—by extension, our family, our friends, those in our group—those who could also potentially benefit the self.

Since man is incapable of agape—SPIRITUAL love—God created sex to allow him to enjoy the blessings of marriage and family on the physical level.

Of all created beings, God designed humans alone to be capable of entering God-plane relationships. This is unlike any other living creation—animal, plant or even angels. Sex, marriage and the family make it possible for physical man to have a foretaste of membership in the God Family.

Sex in marriage, when unfettered by misconceptions and guilt, is almost certainly the pinnacle of the physical experience. However, since it is most often misused, and not confined to marriage, it then most often becomes the very worst source of pain and regret. The Bible also explains that “God is not mocked”—human beings “reap what [they] sow” (Gal. 6:7)!

Sex Within Marriage—for Our Benefit!

God intended sex to stay within the boundaries of wedlock for a tremendously important reason. He wished to spare His children the terrible unhappiness that can result from fornication. This includes all of the psychological “baggage” automatically involved, and, in some cases, the physical damage that may result from sexually-transmitted disease or from injury due to ignorance!

God gave sex to man as a GIFT—a very special and marvellous gift, unlike any other. He knew that something more would be necessary to closely bind a marriage. He also knew that unselfish agape love of God would be absent in the vast majority of human beings, and that this form of love would have to enter every human mind through conversion. He created the physical body, with its five senses and sexual capacity, carrying the very greatest potential within the human body for intense pleasure and enjoyment, and called it “very good.” He then gave mankind His Law, which directs people in the right use of His physical creation, and leads to happiness and every blessing that all human beings desire.

Sex makes possible the blessings of marriage, home and family. It is meant to bring a husband and wife together as closely as two people can possibly be bound, and the delectable pleasure that comes from this intimate encounter binds in a way as can no other activity between human beings.

However, believing that he knows more than the One who designed sex, it is almost as though man has purposely set out to taint and mishandle sex in every conceivable way. Thus, he has reaped a veritable ocean of misery and other wrong results—jumbled up, broken homes, single-parent families, divorce, juvenile delinquency, orphans, unwanted pregnancies, abortion, adoption, rampant disease, rage-related crimes against spouses, and so many others.

If only man would submit to God’s wisdom and enjoy the blessings that a loving Creator wishes to bestow!