Christian ethical teachings on sexual ethics: HSC Studies of Religion

What this dot point is asking

In the Christianity depth study the syllabus asks you to describe and explain Christian ethical teachings in ONE area: bioethics, environmental ethics or sexual ethics. This page covers sexual ethics. (For bioethics see Christian ethical teachings on bioethics.)

Recent questions show what you need:

• 2023: explain how ONE ethical teaching is applied to encourage adherents to "do good" (5 marks, with Ephesians 2:10 as stimulus).
• 2024: outline ONE ethical teaching, then explain how it is reflected in your chosen area (2 + 5 marks).
• 2025: explain TWO ethical teachings in the area (5 marks), and a 20-mark extended response analysing how Christian ethical teachings guide adherents "to navigate the world today".

So you need a small number of clearly named teachings, each with accurate sources, applied to specific issues, with an understanding of how and why Christian traditions differ.

The answer

Where Christian ethical teaching comes from

Christian ethics is not a single rulebook. Teachings are derived from several sources of authority, and denominations weigh them differently. This is the key to explaining diversity.

• Scripture. The Bible, above all the teaching and example of Jesus. Key texts for sexual ethics are Genesis 1 to 2, the Ten Commandments, Jesus' teaching on marriage (Matthew 19), and Paul's letters (1 Corinthians 6 to 7; Ephesians 5).
• Tradition. The Church's accumulated teaching. For Catholics, the magisterium (the teaching authority of the Pope and bishops) interprets Scripture authoritatively, set out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and papal documents. Orthodox Christians look to the Church Fathers and the councils.
• Reason and natural law. Especially in Catholic thought, reason can discern the purposes built into human nature, such as the unitive and procreative purposes of sexuality.
• Conscience and experience. Many Protestant traditions stress the individual's conscience, formed by Scripture and prayer; some also give weight to lived experience and contemporary knowledge (sometimes summarised as the "Wesleyan quadrilateral" of Scripture, tradition, reason and experience in Methodist and Uniting traditions).

Core ethical teachings on sexuality

Learn these as named teachings you can outline and then apply.

1. Sexuality is a good gift of God, and humans bear God's image

"So God created humankind in his image ... male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27), and God blessed them: "Be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28). Christianity does not regard sexuality as shameful; the Song of Songs celebrates sexual love. Because every person bears God's image (imago Dei), every person has equal dignity and must never be used as an object.

2. Marriage is the covenant in which sexual union belongs

"Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). Jesus quotes this and adds: "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate" (Matthew 19:6). Hebrews 13:4 teaches: "Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled." For most churches, sex expresses the total, lifelong, faithful self-giving of marriage, which is why adultery ("You shall not commit adultery", Exodus 20:14) is always wrong and why traditional teaching holds that sex belongs only within marriage.

3. The body is a temple of the Holy Spirit: chastity

Paul writes: "do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:19). Chastity is the virtue of ordering sexual desire rightly in every state of life. The Catholic Catechism defines it as "the successful integration of sexuality within the person" (Catechism 2337). It applies to the married (fidelity), the single (abstinence) and those called to celibacy (Matthew 19:12; 1 Corinthians 7:7). Jesus deepened the commandment by addressing intention: "everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28).

4. Love (agape) and mutual self-giving

"Love is patient; love is kind" (1 Corinthians 13:4). Ephesians 5 opens with "Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ" (5:21) and asks husbands to love their wives "just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (5:25). Christian sexual ethics is framed as love that seeks the good of the other, which rules out coercion, exploitation and abuse.

5. Justice, compassion and forgiveness

Jesus' treatment of the woman caught in adultery ("Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again", John 8:11) models holding a high ideal together with mercy. This shapes how churches respond pastorally to people whose lives do not match the ideal.

Applying the teachings: marriage, sex and family

Marriage

• Catholic and Orthodox. Marriage is a sacrament (in Orthodoxy a holy "mystery"): a visible sign of God's grace, reflecting Christ's love for the Church (Ephesians 5:32). In Catholic teaching its purposes are the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children.
• Protestant churches. Marriage is holy and ordained by God but usually not counted as a sacrament (Anglicans often describe it as a sacramental rite). It is a covenant of companionship, mutual support and, where possible, family.

Sex before marriage and cohabitation

Traditional teaching in Catholic, Orthodox and most evangelical and Pentecostal churches is that sexual intercourse belongs only in marriage, because it expresses a commitment that only marriage makes. Many Christians today cohabit before marriage, and some progressive Protestant voices emphasise the quality of a committed, loving relationship rather than its legal form. Mainstream church teaching continues to present marriage as the proper context for sex, while ministers commonly welcome cohabiting couples into marriage preparation.

Contraception

• Catholic. Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae (1968) teaches that the unitive and procreative meanings of marital intercourse are inseparable, so artificial contraception is morally wrong. Natural family planning (using the woman's natural cycle) is permitted for serious reasons. Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body (Wednesday audiences, 1979 to 1984) developed this into a theology of the body as a gift. Many Catholics in practice do not follow the teaching, which is itself a point of discussion.
• Anglican and Protestant. The Anglican Lambeth Conference of 1930 (Resolution 15) was the first major church decision to accept contraception within marriage in some circumstances. Today most Protestant churches regard family planning as a matter for the informed conscience of the couple, grounded in responsible parenthood.
• Orthodox. Views vary; many Orthodox pastors permit non-abortifacient contraception within marriage with pastoral guidance, while stressing openness to children.

Divorce and remarriage

• Catholic. A valid, consummated sacramental marriage is indissoluble (Mark 10:9). Civil divorce does not end it, but a Church tribunal can grant a declaration of nullity (annulment) if a valid marriage never existed. Pope Francis's Amoris Laetitia (2016) urged pastors to accompany and discern with divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.
• Orthodox. Out of pastoral mercy (oikonomia) the Church may permit a second and, rarely, a third marriage, with a more penitential rite.
• Protestant. Most churches accept divorce where a marriage has irretrievably broken down and permit remarriage; some evangelical churches restrict it to the grounds in Matthew 19:9 (sexual immorality) and 1 Corinthians 7:15 (desertion).

Sexuality and same-sex relationships

This is where Christians disagree most, and a respectful, accurate answer presents the range fairly.

• Traditional teaching (Catholic, Orthodox, most evangelical and Pentecostal churches). Marriage is between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4 to 6), so sexual relationships between people of the same sex are not morally permissible. The Catholic Catechism states that people with same-sex attraction "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided" (Catechism 2358), and calls them, like all unmarried people, to chastity (2359). In December 2023 the Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans allowed priests to give brief, non-liturgical blessings to couples in irregular situations, including same-sex couples, while stating that Church doctrine on marriage is unchanged.
• Affirming views. Some Protestant churches and theologians read the biblical texts traditionally cited (for example Leviticus 18:22 and Romans 1:26 to 27) in their historical context, and emphasise the love, faithfulness and dignity of committed same-sex relationships. In Australia the Uniting Church's 15th Assembly (2018) adopted a second statement of belief on marriage, allowing ministers to conduct same-gender marriages, while respecting ministers and congregations who hold that marriage is between a man and a woman.
• The Anglican Communion remains divided on the question, including within the Anglican Church of Australia.
• Australian law. Same-sex marriage became legal in December 2017 under the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017, after a national postal survey in which 61.6% voted yes. The Act protects ministers of religion from having to solemnise marriages contrary to their beliefs.

Consent, abuse and safeguarding

Every Christian tradition teaches that sexual abuse is a grave evil because it violates the dignity of the person made in God's image. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2013 to 2017) exposed serious failures in many institutions, including churches. Since its final report (December 2017), churches have adopted stronger safeguarding and child-safe standards. A mature answer recognises that the gap between teaching and practice is itself an ethical challenge that Christian communities have had to confront.

Explaining the diversity

The same core teachings lead to different conclusions because traditions weigh the sources differently:

How the teachings guide adherents today

For the 2025-style question ("navigate the world today"), show the teachings at work:

• Guiding personal decisions about relationships, commitment, fidelity and the use of technology (pornography, image-based abuse).
• Preparing couples for marriage through church marriage-preparation courses.
• Shaping community life, from youth ministry on healthy relationships to pastoral care after divorce.
• Engaging public debate respectfully in a pluralist society, as during Australia's 2017 marriage debate, when Christians argued on both sides.

In one sentence

Christian sexual ethics teaches that sexuality is God's good gift, to be expressed in faithful, self-giving covenant love within marriage and governed by chastity and respect for the dignity of every person, with Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions applying these shared teachings differently to contraception, divorce and same-sex relationships because they weigh Scripture, tradition, reason and experience differently.

Try this

Q1. Outline ONE Christian ethical teaching relevant to sexual ethics. (2 marks)

• What the marker wants. A named teaching with a source, for example the one-flesh union of marriage (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:6).

Q2. Explain how Christian denominations differ on divorce and remarriage. (5 marks)

• What the marker wants. At least two traditions, their positions, and the sources or reasons behind them.

Q3. Analyse how Christian ethical teachings on sexuality guide adherents in contemporary Australia. (8 marks)

• What the marker wants. Core teachings with sources, applied to current issues (marriage law, consent, safeguarding, contraception), with the diversity of responses analysed.