When I was in grade 10, I received a rare piece of advice from my English teacher Mr. Gubbels: "wait until you're married to have sex." He said it to the whole class, I don't remember why he said it or why we were even supposed to wait, but that message stuck with me. Perhaps the idea carried weight coming from the teacher I respected the most or perhaps God used that seed to protect me until I became a Christian and understood its significance years later. Either way I'm glad I waited and here's why.
Sex is more than just a physical act. Matthew 19:4-6 says that sex bonds a man and women together into one flesh. Every time we have sex with someone there is a spiritual, emotional, and physical connection that takes place. Nicky Gumbel from the Alpha Course, explains it like gluing together two pieces of corrugated cardboard. When you try to separate them you have little bits of cardboard from the other person stuck to you and you've lost some of yourself on them.
In addition to the bond that takes place, you also build up experiences and expectations from all of your relationships. When you do get married all of your previous partners get piled up onto your spouse. Instead of the new and special intimacy that God intended for you, you have a muddled connection filled with comparisons of every other person you've slept with. Its impossible not to project all of these other times onto your spouse.
Pornography does the same thing. Porn stars are paid over-actors who respond to sex in ways our spouses never will. But if we believe the lie that wives are supposed to act like caged animals or that husband are supposed to go and go for hours at a time, then we set ourselves up for disappointment and we rob our spouses of the intimacy that they deserve. Every time we choose pornography over our spouse we limit our ability to have rewarding sex with them.
"Honor marriage, and guard the sacredness of sexual intimacy between wife and husband. God draws a firm line against casual and illicit sex" - Hebrews 13:4
Clearly God has designed sex to be engaged in within the confines of marriage between a man and a women. If my words carry any weight, like my grade 10 teacher's did, my advice would be to just wait. Sex is not harmless, pornography is not harmless, they carry consequences that Hollywood hides. Life is long, marriage is supposed to be long, sex is short, don't let a few minutes of passion steal the full potential of God's gift of sex with your marriage partner.