The Pharisees ask Jesus about divorce to test him in Mark 10. Rather than just answer their question, Jesus directs them to God’s original design for marriage…vs 6- 9 “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” There are several days’ worth of material in just that short passage.

Today, however, I want to focus on the phrase “God made them male and female”. This is a quote from Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Psalm 139:13-16 says of God, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb….My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths …”. Malachi 3:6a tells us, “For I the Lord do not change…”

When you put these thoughts together, you can see that God designed each one of us. Individually, specifically, intentionally, purposefully. He chose YOUR personality, eye color, height, if you like spicy foods or not, how you will process good and bad news, what will motivate you, and what sex/gender you are. We can color our hair or learn to like certain foods, but we cannot change what we are at the core of who God made us to be. HE CHOSE your gender. HE CHOSE your gender because HE WANTED YOU.

How we bring glory to God is to be the best version we can of who He made us to be. There are lots of gray areas up for interpretation in the Bible. However, God is very black and white on the issue of gender. He created them male and female. That’s it. No other options.

Let’s look at God’s view of marriage and sex (another area where God is very black and white in His design). In Mark 10 we read, ”…and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” God’s plan and desire for marriage is that one man and one woman get married and stay married until death separates them (yes, there are a few specific exceptions to this, and I’m not digging into that here, but please talk to your pastor or an elder or trusted godly person if you have questions on this.). God’s plan for sex is that it is a wonderful gift for pleasure and for procreation, only to be experienced within the boundaries of marriage as stated above.

The world today says that anything goes. The Bible says differently. It matters to God what we do with our bodies. If you have already stepped outside of the boundaries that God has set for His children, know that He will forgive you and that He will remove your sin from you as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). You need only ask Him. I know because I was there. He will not only forgive you, but help you to forgive yourself, too.

I will leave you with 1 Corinthians 6:18-20. “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”