Expert: Dean Gade - 9/7/2007

Question
QUESTION: Is a Christian expected to have sexual intercourse during long period of fasting and prayer?

Kind regards.



ANSWER: There is no expectation here. To have sexual intercourse or not is to be determined by "agreement" of the couple.

  We are only advised that NOT having sexual intercourse for a long period of time CAN leave a person open to temptation to go elsewhere for sex.

1 Cor 7:5-7
5 Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 I say this as a concession, not as a command.
(from New International Version)



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for your prompt response sir.

I think that from 1 Cor. 7:5 as above "... except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer" needed to be emphasized.  

I still think that there should be no sexual intercourse during the time you both agreed to devote yourselves to prayer.

Hope to still hear your opinion.

Kind regards.

Bola


Answer
There are no laws for us to follow concerning prayer and/or fasting.  We do these things of our own volition to seek some spiritual benefit for ourselves either by the self-discipline or from the Lord Himself.

If a couple decide and agree that there is to be no sexual intercourse during the time set aside for prayer, then it is good.   If another couple decide otherwise, that is good also.

These matters are as St. Paul writes about them:

Rom 14:1-6
2 One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4 Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

5 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
(from New International Version)