Posted by
Mark McConnell on Thursday, November 16, 2006 7:25:02 PM
What is it, in our biology, that causes a man to desire a woman? Why does the thought of companionship become joined to sexual feeling for my wife, and not for my best friend? What is it about me that my wife finds exciting? I don't understand that. Do you?
I imagine that most people can relate to the question I'm asking, on some level. People find themselves having desires that they did not seek, or even want once they were formed. This might be awakened by pornography, a curiosity followed, some encounter or crime, or who knows where. No one can fully explain their attractions, and this is especially true of those that are contrary to conscience.
To some extent sexual attraction clearly has a biological foundation - but there is more to it than this. Everything about us has social meaning and significance, and religious importance, as well: it is our design that we are not merely machines made of meat. These complications of our nature add to the tormenting powers of desire.
Because we are more than our biology, there are many matters in which we cannot simply follow desire, but must say "no" to the flesh, "no" to the gene of desire; it is in these things that we must ask for grace to escape temptation.
This is how each person is trained in the knowledge that the fullest explanation of the human self is not even found in our selves - but in God who made us in his image, and who calls us to himself in Christ.