The Original Flame

“The duty of ongoing sexual relations is clearly presented by Paul when he says, “Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband” (1 Cor. 7:3). Modern liberated types enjoy sniffing at this, as though making sexual relations a duty somehow removes the romance, the excitement, the Original Flame. The thing that will supposedly carry us through to the end of our lustful little lives is supposed to be that spontaneous combustion thing between man and woman, like in those movies they make nowadays for heavy breathers. But any pastor who knows what it is like to counsel a couple who cannot even touch one another anymore knows what a bogus help this doctrine of spontaneous romance is. And our generation, riddled as it is with divorce, ought to be a little more humble about giving out advice concerning long-term sexual contentment” (Federal Husband, p. 31).