But sex is like fire. In a fireplace, it is warm and delightful. Outside the hearth, it is destructive and uncontrollable.

How can we define pleasure? There are few things harder to define. The book, "Christian Ethics for Today," reads, "Pleasure is that which is pleasant, and that which is pleasant is that which is pleasing. Pleasure is that which a man does simply and solely to please himself. Pleasure is what a man does when he does what he likes. He is doing this for no other reason than that he likes doing it."

For Christians, sexual pleasure is permitted only within wedlock. With regard to pleasure, the Bible suggests three things. No pleasure can be right if its effects on the person who indulges in it are harmful. Secondly, no pleasure can be right if its effect on others is harmful. Thirdly, a pleasure which becomes an addiction can never be right.

These three principles are summed up in the Ten Commandments. The Seventh Commandment says, "You shall not commit adultery." In the New Testament, Jesus says, "Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Anyone who violates this law commits sin, and there is penalty for sin.

Paul writes in his Epistle to the Colossians, "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming."

Why does the Scripture prohibit adultery, fornication and sexual immorality? God knew that only through moral standards can we build a healthy society.

According to the Associated Press, a study at John Hopkins University, School of Medicine, found that women are five to eleven times more likely to develop cervical cancer if they or their husbands have numerous sexual partners. Men who have many sexual partners are very likely to carry HIV home, and that up to 97 per cent of cervical cancers are infected with that virus. God commands what is moral because He is looking out for our welfare.

Therefore, spiritual surgery may be needed to avoid immorality. Jesus said, "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell." (Matthew 5:29).

Sexual intercourse outside of marriage is always wrong because those who indulge in it are trying to isolate one aspect of union, the physical, from all other aspects intended to make a total union of two people. As we have said earlier, there is nothing wrong with sexual pleasure any more than there is with the pleasure of eating. However, just as attempting to enjoy the pleasures of eating and tasting without swallowing and digesting is abnormal, so attempting to enjoy sex as an isolated physical sensation is wrong.