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Sexy Pizza Key Verses (NRSV)
Genesis 1:26-28 Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image,
according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the
wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon
the earth.’ ?27So God created humankind in his image,? in the image of
God he created them;? male and female he created them. 28God blessed them,
and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and
subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of
the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’
Genesis 2:21-25 21So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the
man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place
with flesh. 22And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made
into a woman and brought her to the man. 23Then the man said,?’This at last
is bone of my bones?and flesh of my flesh;?this one shall be called
Woman,? for out of Man this one was taken.’ 24Therefore a man leaves his
father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.
Leviticus 18:1-3 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Speak to the people of
Israel and say to them: I am the Lord your God. 3You shall not do as they
do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do
in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not follow
their statutes.
Leviticus 18:22 You shall not lie with a male as with a female. It is an
abomination.
v.24 Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for by all these
practices the nations I am casting out before you have defiled themselves.
20:13 Death penalty.
It is important to note that While God’s commands are specific to his
people, He still considers the forbidden sexual practices evil when other
nations do it.
Deuteronomy 22 20 If, however, this charge is true, that evidence of the
young woman’s virginity was not found, 21then they shall bring the young
woman out to the entrance of her father’s house and the men of her town
shall stone her to death, because she committed a disgraceful act in Israel
by prostituting herself in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil
from your midst.
22 If a man is caught lying with the wife of another man, both of them
shall die, the man who lay with the woman as well as the woman. So you
shall purge the evil from Israel.
23 If there is a young woman, a virgin already engaged to be married, and a
man meets her in the town and lies with her, 24you shall bring both of them
to the gate of that town and stone them to death, the young woman because
she did not cry for help in the town and the man because he violated his
neighbour’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
25 But if the man meets the engaged woman in the open country, and the man
seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.
26You shall do nothing to the young woman; the young woman has not
committed an offence punishable by death, because this case is like that of
someone who attacks and murders a neighbour. 27Since he found her in the
open country, the engaged woman may have cried for help, but there was no
one to rescue her.
28 If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with
her, and they are caught in the act, 29the man who lay with her shall give
fifty shekels of silver to the young woman’s father, and she shall become
his wife. Because he violated her he shall not be permitted to divorce her
as long as he lives.
2 Samuel 11: David and Bathsheba. Adultery
Song of Solomon 4:1-5 How beautiful you are, my love, how very
beautiful!?Your eyes are doves?behind your veil.?Your hair is like a flock
of goats,?moving down the slopes of Gilead. 2Your teeth are like a flock of
shorn ewes?that have come up from the washing,?all of which bear twins, and
not one among them is bereaved. 3Your lips are like a crimson thread, and
your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate?behind
your veil. 4Your neck is like the tower of David,?built in courses;?on it
hang a thousand bucklers,?all of them shields of warriors.?5Your two
breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle,?that feed among the lilies.
(This book shows a very egalitarian view of courtship and sexuality fairly
uncommon in the ancient world. I suggest you read it. Its pretty good.)
5:10-16 10My beloved is all radiant and ruddy,?distinguished among ten
thousand. ?11His head is the finest gold;?his locks are wavy,?black as a
raven. ?12His eyes are like doves beside springs of water,?bathed in milk,?
fitly set. 13His cheeks are like beds of spices,?yielding fragrance.?His
lips are lilies,?distilling liquid myrrh.14His arms are rounded gold,?set
with jewels.?His body is ivory work, encrusted with sapphires. 15His legs
are alabaster columns,? set upon bases of gold.? His appearance is like
Lebanon,? choice as the cedars. 16His speech is most sweet, and he is
altogether desirable.? This is my beloved and this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem.
Job 31:1 ‘I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look upon a
virgin?
Jesus:
Matthew 5:27-28 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit
adultery.” 28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
15:18-20 18But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and
this is what defiles. 19For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder,
adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20These are what
defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.
Matthew 15:21-28: Cannanite Woman.
Matthew 19:1-12: Marriage/Divorce/Moses Jesus upholds the Genesis account
of “one flesh” and discusses how the law was given because hearts were
hard. He actually makes divorce way more serious.
21:28-31: 28 ‘What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the
first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” 29He answered, “I
will not”; but later he changed his mind and went. 30The father* went to
the second and said the same; and he answered, “I go, sir”; but he did not
go. 31Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’
Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax-collectors and the
prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.
Luke: 7:36-50: Sinful Woman
Luke 8: 1-3: women support the ministry of Jesus.
Luke 10:38-42: Mary and Martha
Luke 15: prodigal. His lifestyle choices are not a hindrance to the Father
welcoming him back.
John 4: woman at the well. She is an outcast because of her lifestyle but
Jesus breaks just about every cultural rule to talk to her and transforms
her into a redemptive force in her community.
John 8:2-11: woman caught in adultery. “Nor do I condemn you. Go and sin no
more.” Jesus does not condemn her, but calls her out of sin and into a
better life.
Paul
Romans: 1:24-27 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to
impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they
exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the
creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen. For this
reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged
natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving
up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one
another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own
persons the due penalty for their error.
28-32: And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done.
29They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness,
malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips,
30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil,
rebellious towards parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to
die-yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.
People rebelled against God and he gave them over to all kinds of desires.
Homosexuality is listed along with a lot of other things, many of which are
rarely confronted by the church. Here, homosexuality is not so much a cause
of sin, but more of a result.
1 Corinthians 5:9-12 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate
with sexually immoral persons- 10not at all meaning the immoral of this
world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you would then need
to go out of the world. 11But now I am writing to you not to associate with
anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or
greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat
with such a one. 12For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it
not those who are inside that you are to judge?
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not
inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters,
adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, 10thieves, the greedy, drunkards,
revilers, robbers-none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And this
is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified,
you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit
of our God. (Greek words indicate adolescent male prostitues and men who
would go and visit them. Paul uses word found in the Greek OT from
Leviticus to make the word. Also, notice how other things are included in
the list; thievery, greedy, drunkenness. How much does the church deal with
greed?)
6:12-13, 16 12 ‘All things are lawful for me’, but not all things are
beneficial. ‘All things are lawful for me’, but I will not be dominated by
anything. 13’Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food’, and
God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for
fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body . . . 16Do you not
know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For
it is said, ‘The two shall be one flesh.’
7:1-6 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: ‘It is
well for a man not to touch a woman.’ 2But because of cases of sexual
immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own
husband. 3The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and
likewise the wife to her husband. 4For the wife does not have authority
over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not have
authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5Do not deprive one another
except perhaps by agreement for a set time, to devote yourselves to prayer,
and then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of
your lack of self-control. 6This I say by way of concession, not of
command. (Paul does a few things here. He says that since the culture of
both the city and church is full of sexual immorality, marriage is a good
thing. He also gives equal sexual rights to both the husband and the wife.
This was a pretty revolutionary thing to say, especially as a
“concession.”)
Galatians 3:28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer
slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in
Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 5:21-33 21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for
Christ. 22 Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. 23For
the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the
church, the body of which he is the Saviour. 24Just as the church is
subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their
husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and
gave himself up for her, 26in order to make her holy by cleansing her with
the washing of water by the word, 27so as to present the church to himself
in splendour, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind-yes, so
that she may be holy and without blemish. 28In the same way, husbands
should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife
loves himself. 29For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and
tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30because we are
members of his body. 31’For this reason a man will leave his father and
mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’
32This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church.
33Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should
respect her husband.
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