In the image of God

I was pondering this morning about sexuality. It is so powerful. And it also seems so significant that it is an area in which Satan strongly tempts and perverts. It seems like so many powerful men have powerful sexual desires which they indulge and/or are unable to control, even when they must be smart enough to know the dangers. President Clinton is but one very public example. We all have heard of well-known pastors falling in this way. In the Bible we read of Noah, Lot, David, Amnon, Sampson and others in this regard.

God’s word says He made us in his image and likeness. How does sexual desire and activity reflect Him? Beyond the creativity of reproduction, how is it “god-like?” Why are humans sexually ready all the time and not only seasonally like many other living creatures? Is that anything to do with humans as divine image-bearers?

Paul writes of the husband and wife relationship as a picture of Christ and his church. Revelation speaks of the marriage supper of the Lamb. John the Baptist compared himself to the “best man” of the bridegroom.

Intense spiritual experiences seem to cause euphoria somewhat like sexual experiences do. Some people who have Holy Spirit encounters seem to get an appetite to pursue them which reminds me of humans with sexual appetites.

It seems to me that there are certain aspects of humanness which are most powerful, most desired and most subject to perversion. They are areas given to man by God as blessings, but they seem to be areas of temptation and fall – sometimes spectacularly so. They are matters of strong desires and in life they seem to overlap, as well:

Power (influence, headship, control, domination)
Wealth (enjoyment, satisfied appetites, influence, comfort)
Sex (enjoyment, satisfied appetite, control, manipulation)

Yet properly “harnessed”, these are all areas for giving, for loving and for service which are very powerful and influential for God and for good.

What do you think? Do you have insight from God about this?