The early Christian laboured to spread the gospel and the life and times of Jesus. Christ’s early followers were brought up with the moral codes of Jewish religion, but the sexual ethics of the gentiles they sought to convert was dramatically different. In a world dominated by the pagan Roman Empire, a variety of sexual appetites were known and even celebrated. The pantheon included Aphrodite, the goddess of love, Pan, a pastoral fertility god, and many other deities renowned for their sexual adventures. Roman laws permitted polygamy, divorce, prostitution by both male and female. The tradition allowed for the carnal union between men and boys, the sexual use of slaves, sacrifice of unwanted infants through abortion and infanticide.
Christians pride themselves in a dramatically different view of sexuality. “This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication. That each of you know how to control your own body in holiness and honour, not with lustful passion like the gentiles who do not know God…” – 1 Thessalonians 4:3. Continue reading