Fruitful and Multiply

Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” Genesis 1:28 NLT
Think about that first commandment that the Creator gave to his human creatures: “Have lots of children.” What’s that about? I am sure that if you had just created humans you can think of lots of other things you would have said to them. “Live at peace with each other.” “Don’t carve your initials in the furniture.” “Don’t waste the resources of the earth.” Etc., etc.
But no. So what’s the point? I think the point is this. “There are going to be lots of fish and birds and animals. But what we need is more life in my image. That’s your responsibility.” The great obscenity in God’s sight is death. He is Life, and life is clean. It is Death that is unclean, and so is anything that threatens life.
So where does Life, not biological life, but divine Life, on earth come from? It comes from the love of male and female, and now, the self-giving pain of the female. It comes from the mutual “knowing” of the sexual embrace, and the meeting of that which each gives to the other, that which is not enough in itself. Life is only found in giving oneself away. This is what is wrong with our modern conceptions of sexuality. One’s sexuality is one’s own, to be used for personal gratification. Furthermore, it is the mark of one’s identity and may be manipulated according to one’s feeling about oneself. Notice the pronoun in the previous two sentences: one. That way is not Life, but Death. Why is homosexual behavior wrong? Because it is about individual gratification and cannot produce Life! Why is transvestism wrong? Because it is about individual gratification and cannot produce Life. This is not to say that sex only exists for the purpose of producing Life. There is great gratification in committed, heterosexual love.
But it is so because of its life-giving qualities, and not the reverse. Life, God’s life, is clean. That which cannot produce Life, must in the end produce Death.