Cheon Seong Gyeong 755
When you actually stop to think about it, you thought that treasures were stored up there in heaven. But it turns out that you had treasures all along in your bodies. You came to understand that the original palace is a part of your body. Aren’t the love organs the original palace that can attend God? Where is the pathway that makes the love connection? Is it in the fingertips? Where is it? What is it in a man? What is it in a woman? It is the male and female organs, where the most distasteful substance can also be found. Where does urine come out? From the sexual organ. This is the case for both women and men. If that unclean urine thus excreted were to mingle with love, would it still be unclean or would it become clean? Then how wonderful would it be to drink urine steeped in true love like iced tea! (178-125, 1988.6.1)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 703
Would it be all right for this substantial fruit of six thousand years to fall without ripening, like a fruit dropping from its tree? Should the fruit, worrying that the wind might blow, say, “Oh no, it looks like I might fall. If the wind blows a bit more, I am going to fall. Father, don’t shake me, just let me be still.” There may be some people here who are like that. On the other hand, there are members saying, “Even if you take an ax and shake the branches as you please, my branches will never fall until they have been cut.” To which group do you belong? (46-154, 1971.8.13)
Chastity
Chastity is to control one’s sexual desire: to refrain from premarital sex and to have sexual relations only with one’s spouse. Chastity requires the institution of marriage for its most joyful fulfillment. The extreme asceticism of a celibate monk or nun is a vocation only for the few, those who are willing to sacrifice continually the God-given desire to love and be loved. God created us to love, form families and raise children to propagate the human race. In this regard, sexuality within marriage is a wonderful gift, a joyful experience and a blessing of God.
However, as fallen human beings we do not naturally discipline our sexual desires to be employed in a faithful marriage bond. That requires training, and religions have traditionally served this purpose. Religions teach that adultery is among the most serious sins. They train the mind to subdue the desires of the flesh, and set boundaries on behavior to avoid temptation to sin. They lift up marriage as a holy institution. However, in today’s secular society, people have forgotten the discipline of desire. promiscuity and “free sex” are everywhere, promising instant happiness but yielding disappointment, heartbreak, and broken homes. Marriage is under attack, and many young people are cohabiting rather than marrying, largely because they no longer believe that they can make a lasting marriage. As the original standard of faithful marriage is forgotten, homosexuality and lesbianism are gaining acceptance as alternative lifestyles.
Father Moon speaks passionately and directly about this topic. Based upon his teaching that the human Fall was an act of illicit love, he sees the misuse of love as the root of all sins, crimes, unhappiness and suffering in human life. (See chapter 6) the fall caused people to devalue love and use it wrongly. Therefore, he calls us to elevate love to its original, heavenly purpose as the linking point between human beings and God. Sex in marriage should be a holy act, what he calls ‘absolute sex.’ Love between husband and wife should have the same absoluteness as God’s love for us. Anything less creates separation from God.
1. Refrain from Adultery, the Most Serious Sin
Neither fornicate, for whosoever does that shall meet the price of sin—doubled shall be the chastisement for him on the Resurrection Day.
Qur’an 25.68-69
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the immoral and the adulterous.
Hebrews 13.4
Whoever has illicit affairs with the wives of his relatives or friends, either by force or by mutual consent, he is to be known as an outcaste.
Sutta Nipata 123 (Buddhism)
But fornication and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as if fitting among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity,23 which are not fitting; but instead let there be thanksgiving. Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure man… has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Ephesians 5.3-6
Approach not adultery: for it is a shameful deed and an evil, opening the road to other evils.
Qur’an 17.32
He who commits adultery is punished both here and hereafter; for his days in this world are cut short, and when dead he falls into hell.
Vishnu Purana 3.11 (Hinduism)
Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking. And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, and said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Lo, having me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand; he is not greater in this house than I am; nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife; how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
Genesis 39.6-9
Four misfortunes befall a careless man who commits adultery: acquisition of demerit, disturbed sleep, third, blame; and fourth, a state of woe. There is acquisition of demerit as well as evil destiny. Brief is the joy of the frightened man and woman. The king imposes a heavy punishment. Hence no man should frequent another man’s wife.
Dhammapada 309-10 (Buddhism)
Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
Should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?
Let them be for yourself alone,
and not for strangers with you.
Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
a lovely hind, a graceful doe.
Let her affection fill you at all times with delight,
be infatuated always by her love.
Why should you be infatuated, my son, with a
loose woman
and embrace the bosom of an adventuress?
For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord ,
and he watches all his paths.
The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
and he is caught in the toils of his sin.
He dies for lack of discipline,
and because of his great folly he is lost.
Proverbs 5.15-23
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity; that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God.
1 Thessalonians 4.3-5
The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord… Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who joins himself a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two shall become one flesh.” But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
