Sermon Video: Celibacy or Marriage? - 1 Corinthians 7:8-11

Is a life of celibacy make one closer to God than a life which includes marital sex?  Is Celibacy a spiritually superior choice?  The Apostle Paul had the opportunity to make that claim in his first letter to the church at Corinth when he addressed the topics of celibacy and marriage, but Paul did not make any such claim.  Why not?  Because as a Jew and a Christian, Paul understood that God's creation was "good" prior to the Fall, that there is no moral distinction between the physical and the spiritual.  This Judeo-Christian worldview contrasts with the Platonic dualism of Greek philosophy which envisioned the physical realm as the source of evil and the spiritual as the source of good.  As such, that dualism led toward viewing asceticism (self-denial) as a potential solution, thus supposedly elevating the spiritual by denying the physical.  This viewpoint was absorbed with the rest of Greek philosophy by the Church, resulting in a new non-biblical, and even anti-biblical viewpoint regarding virginity, sex, and marriage which eventually led to the monastic movement and many centuries later, to priestly celibacy. 
In the end, the embracing of celibacy as holier than marital sex by portions of the Church has led to a variety of non-biblical attitudes, including the association of "dirty" with sex, and the view that marital sex ought not be a pleasurable aspect of the "one flesh" union of marriage, but rather simply a means to procreation, a sort of necessary evil.  The Church has much to be thankful for to Greek philosophy, the inclusion of spiritual/physical dualism is not one of them.  God created humanity as male and female with a sexual capacity and desire, God created marriage, both of which must be inherently good, not evil.  Is celibacy superior to marriage?  Not at all.

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