‘A Chaste and Decent Life’: CTCR updates 1981 report

At its December 2022 meeting, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) unanimously approved A Chaste and Decent Life: An Update to Human Sexuality 1981. This update is a direct response to resolutions adopted in 2016 and 2019 by the Synod in convention. The resolutions asked the CTCR to address cultural challenges to marriage, aberrant views of sexual orientation and gender, and the vocation of the single Christian in a highly sexualized world.

Why was an update needed?

The report begins by acknowledging the abiding validity of the theological foundations laid out in the 1981 report. At the same time, it notes, “Many current assumptions about sexuality and marriage are markedly different than they were four decades ago.” To make this point, it highlights seven summary affirmations from 1981 and shows how each — quoting at length from contemporary literature on the topics — is undergoing dramatic opposition from the surrounding culture.

“Scripture has not changed, and our church body’s commitment to the inspired and inerrant teachings of God’s Word — including its teachings on human sexuality — has not changed, either,” said the Rev. Dr. Joel Lehenbauer, executive director of the CTCR. “As shocked and appalled as Christians may be by our culture’s increasing acceptance and endorsement of radical, dangerous, even irrational views regarding human sexuality, we also know that Scripture warns us about times like these and instructs us how to respond: ‘Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching’ (2 Tim. 4:2).”

The updated report takes as its starting point Martin Luther’s description of the Sixth Commandment in the Small Catechism as entailing a “chaste and decent life.” It frames the entirety of sexual activity in the context of the Apostles’ Creed, which reminds Christians that the Holy Trinity creates, redeems and sanctifies physical, human bodies, including what those bodies do sexually. Sexual sin is rebellion against God’s creation, yet through the forgiveness of Christ and the work of the Spirit, God’s children are called to live in accordance with His design for sexuality.

Finally, the report shows the role chastity plays in the Christian life and the struggle against sin:

“All Christians — male and female, married and single, adult and youth, widowed and divorced — should value chastity in all their sexual dealings. Chastity should govern how we view our sexual identity and sexual activity, our sexual thoughts and sexual behaviors, our relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ, with husbands and wives in the flesh.”

In his letter recommending the report, LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison encourages all church members to read and consider it: “This extensive update from the LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations on its own commendable statement on human sexuality from 1981 will assist the church to navigate the difficult current challenges to both chastity and decency. A Chaste and Decent Life guides the church through the turbulent waters of sexual identity issues and rampant sexual permissiveness.”

Read the updated report, along with past CTCR reports, at lcms.org/ctcr.

Posted April 28, 2023