Back in the days of cassette tapes, I was in a band.  And after we performed a concert, people would sometimes ask “Hey do you guys have any tapes?”  I would say, “Yes we do, I got one from the Eagles and Gary has one from the Gaithers.”  Most people didn’t appreciate my witty reply.

But I’d like to discuss a different kind of tape here – the sticky kind.

I was invited to speak at a marriage retreat.  There were several couples present and they shared much in common: each person had been married and divorced before, and each couple had lived with their current spouse prior to marriage.  Each couple was also quite troubled. 

And I was reminded of the parable of the duct tape. 

Think of fictitious Bill as a piece of duct tape (you can choose the color).  He is alone and longs to be wanted.   Like tape, he is ready to adhere when applied to another person.

Bill met Sally.  She is also alone and ready for a partner.  Bill fit the bill.  After a couple of dates, they ended up in the bedroom and became “one flesh.”  Their sticky sides met and they deeply bonded. 

It was more than physical. Their union was also emotional, mental, and even metaphysical in its nature.

After several months of dating, Bill tried to pull away.  But stick two pieces of tape to each other, and it’s almost impossible to separate them.  If you succeed, both pieces are mangled beyond recognition.  And what is left loses most of its stickiness.

Bill eventually married another, but it was a deeply troubled marriage mostly because Bill was emotionally mangled and had lost his stickiness in several prior relationships. 

Back in Genesis 2, God created one man and one woman and invited them to become one flesh with each other – to marry for life and bear children.

This became the template for mankind going forward. God expected us to commit to lifelong relationships and reserve our sexual passions for our spouse alone.

Any departure from this is considered to be immoral.  The Scripture says, “Marriage must be honored among all, and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers” – Heb. 13:4. NETBible ®

God expects us to honor the institution of marriage.  We do that when we say, “I do.”  We are also told to keep the marriage bed undefiled.  Sex was designed to take place within the boundary of marriage, not before it, or with anyone who is not your spouse.

The author indicates that to do otherwise is to be immoral.  The word in the Greek from which this is translated is, “porneia.” Notice the root word “porn.”

Back in 1^st century pagan circles, there was a huge number and diversity of sexual deviancies.  So many that God would have needed to compose 1,000 commandments to address each particular offense – so He summed them up instead with this word, “porneia.”

But why would God be so stingy and deprive us of the pleasures of unrestricted sex?  Only because He wants us to experience the richest marriage possible. 

He wants to see two fresh pieces of tape, stick to and bond with each other, so that their relationship will flourish and even endure the hardships of life.  He wants to protect us from the trauma of being mangled by multiple sexual partners.

God is not limiting us – He is looking out for us! 

Many of us, including myself, have already blown it in this area.  Know that God’s grace and forgiveness are great when we seek it.  There’s no need to despair. 

But, we can get it right going forward, and we can teach the parable of the duct tape to our kids and grandkids so that they might experience God’s very best for them.    

A PRAYER: God, how we need your help in this area. 

May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you