Time to put an end to the dirty weekend

It’s time to put an end to the dirty weekend. Let’s face it, most of us equate a dirty weekend with rolling around in something other than the mud. So, if a weekend away is about a couple having time out to themselves, enjoying each other’s company and enjoying some relaxed physical intimacy, what are we saying? That is dirty? Or, to be more direct, sex is in some way dirty? Because, let’s face it, sex is what we mean by the dirty weekend.

Why do we equate sex with dirty? The answer to that is no doubt found in ancient Greek philosophy. The Greeks believed that the physical world was intrinsically evil and that the soul was trapped in the body. This concept is expressed in ways such as self-mortification, celibacy, and that sex is only about procreation. These ideas crept into Christianity in the early centuries of the Christian era and have influenced our thinking ever since.

The idea however has no basis in the Bible. The clay form of Adam became a living soul when the breath of God was breathed into it. Sex was part of the creation that God pronounced ‘very good’. The Old Testament book Solomon’s Song of Songs is a celebration of physical intimacy between equals, quite explicit in its sexual references. There is nothing dirty here. In the New Testament marriage is something to be honoured (Heb. 13:4). Husbands and wives are told to fulfil their marital duty to one another, abstaining only for mutually agreed times so that they can devote to prayer (1Cor. 7:3-5).

Sure, the Bible does put some constraints on human sexuality, but I believe there are sound reasons for this. The point is it is not seen as anything debased. It is part of the human ideal, an integral part of that which was made in the image of God.

I think it’s time that my wife and I had a weekend away to enjoy the gift, to celebrate the love we have for one another, for an honourable weekend.