Topic: MARRIED BUT BURNING?
THEME SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 7:8-9 (KJV)
[8] I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. [9] But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.
MESSAGE:
Having understood the essence of sexual intercourse, one would presume that, married couples are the happiest people on earth. Indeed, the happiest people on earth should be married couples. Unfortunately, married couples are among the most frustrated and devastated people on earth.
There are those who might have been struggling with the lust of the flesh and have thought that marriage is the cure for lust. Unbelievably, such folks would marry only to discover that their struggle with lust has become worse. If one has a mindset that “I’m going to marry so that I’ll stop fornicating,” I dare say that such a person will marry only to discover that marriage is not the cure for fornication. A personal relationship with Jesus is the cure for fornication. When you have understood that you were bought with a price, and that you no longer own yourself; when you have recognized that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit should have the right of way in your communion with Him; when you have understood the purpose of marriage and the essence of sexual intercourse, you’ll appreciate that you cannot have multiple sex partners and therefore should not give yourself to fornication.
On the other hand, many young men and women who love God and desire to please God might have followed Apostle Paul’s advice, that, it is better to marry than to burn. Such folks might have kept themselves pure until marriage, only to be married but are still burning for sex, because either the husband or the wife has chosen to use abstinence from sexual intercourse as a form of punishment. Yet, abstaining from sex as a form of punishing your spouse may not solve the marital problem. The Scriptural advice to such folks is in 1 Corinthians 7:5 (KJV) which says, “Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.”
The King James Version uses the word “defraud.” To defraud in this context, means, “To prevent someone from having something that is legally theirs by deceiving them.” Once you’re married, your spouse has legal rights and access to your body. Abstaining from sex is tantamount to defrauding the other person. If there are issues, and there are issues in every marriage; resolve them! But don’t get married to someone, and let that person find him or herself married, but still burning for sex. You may be pushing your spouse into temptation.
