{"id":41573,"date":"2015-02-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/nt-wright-bibles-counter-intuitive-sexual-ethic\/"},"modified":"2015-02-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T00:00:00","slug":"nt-wright-bibles-counter-intuitive-sexual-ethic","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/nt-wright-bibles-counter-intuitive-sexual-ethic\/","title":{"rendered":"N.T. Wright: The Bible’s Counter-Intuitive Sexual Ethic"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the interview with Jonathan Merritt, N.T. Wright said:<\/p>\n\n

\n

We need to remind ourselves that the entire biblical sexual ethic is deeply counter-intuitive. All human beings some of the time, and some human beings most of the time, have deep heartfelt longings for kinds of sexual intimacy or gratification (multiple partners, pornography, whatever) which do not reflect the creator's best intentions for his human creatures, intentions through which new wisdom and flourishing will come to birth. Sexual restraint is mandatory for all, difficult for most, extremely challenging for some. God is gracious and merciful but this never means that his creational standards don't really matter after all.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3364,3553,3562,3764,3765,4163,4695,4955,4958,4960,4962,4982],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-41573","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-abstinence","tax_ctp_tags-celibacy","tax_ctp_tags-chastity","tax_ctp_tags-desert","tax_ctp_tags-desire","tax_ctp_tags-homosexuality","tax_ctp_tags-premarital-sex","tax_ctp_tags-sex","tax_ctp_tags-sexual-immorality","tax_ctp_tags-sexual-passion","tax_ctp_tags-sexuality","tax_ctp_tags-sinful-pleasure"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nN.T. Wright: The Bible's Counter-Intuitive Sexual Ethic - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/nt-wright-bibles-counter-intuitive-sexual-ethic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"N.T. Wright: The Bible's Counter-Intuitive Sexual Ethic - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the interview with Jonathan Merritt, N.T. Wright said: We need to remind ourselves that the entire biblical sexual ethic is deeply counter-intuitive. 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