Introduction
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Sanctified Sexuality A Position Paper of the Free Methodist Church - USA — Page 1
Sanctified Sexuality
A Position Paper of the Free Methodist Church — USA
God’s Gift of Sexuality
Sexual intercourse is God’s gift to humanity, for the intimate union of a man and woman within
marriage. In this relationship, it is to be celebrative (Hebrews 13:4). Marriage, between one man and
one woman, is therefore the only proper setting for sexual intimacy. Scripture requires purity before
and faithfulness within and following marriage.
With deep compassion for persons who self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, and
especially those who have been mistreated and marginalized in various settings, the Free Methodist
Church encourages its congregations to practice welcoming hospitality and embracing lovingkindness
toward all who desire to worship among us. We will be a people who offer ourselves as agents of
Jesus’ grace and love to others – all others. We will trust the Holy Spirit to convict people of their sin,
to enliven hope of transforming possibilities, and then to lead people to God’s best for their lives.
(From 2019 Book of Discipline, Par. 3311 A).
Commitment to the Biblical Story
Free Methodists shape their lives according to the biblical story that reveals and empowers the life of
God’s people. According to that story, God created the world “very good,” (Genesis 1:31, see also verses
4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). This means that the world, its creatures, ecosystems, and people functioned and
interrelated exactly as God intended. Within that world God made the human beings male and female
and gave them to each other. God provided for their union — such that the two became “one flesh” — as
bearers of God’s image, governors of God’s world, and as agents of God’s blessing in the world (Genesis
1:26-28, 2:24). The male and female together as one flesh provided God-given care and leadership for the
world. Together they blessed the world as they ruled and reproduced new generations of human beings
who would do likewise. At least, that was God’s plan.
Within that plan, the male and the female found mutual delight and profound partnership in their one
another relationship. The man exclaimed: “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She
will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man’” (Genesis 2:23 NLT). The writer then observes:
“This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into
one” (Genesis 2:24 NLT). And then: “Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame”
(Genesis 2:25 NLT).
In these brief verses, we find important features of God’s design and plan for the human beings. Each
finds fulfillment with and in the other. Though each is an individual, their one-flesh union makes them
more together than alone and qualifies them to assume their role in God’s world. That they are “naked
and without shame” suggests the transparency, intimacy, love, freedom, and beauty of their life together.
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