Did Jesus have a sex drive?

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Did Jesus like any girls? I often wonder that. Some Gnostics say that Jesus had relations with Mary Magdalene, but I don’t believe it. However, it is hard to believe that Jesus lived for over 30 years without having any romantic attraction to girls–unless he was born without an heterosexual drive.

I also often find it amazing how Jesus as an human being never sexually gratified himself (since sexual self-gratification is a sin, and Jesus was sinless). It’s probably one of his most impressive yet upspoken of miracles (for obvious reasons).

Has anyone ever thought about these aspects of Jesus?
I’m just having difficulty understanding how Jesus was 100% man and couldn’t have had any struggles with lustful temptations. If Jesus had sexual temptations, where do we see them in the Bible? We see them with many of the Old Testament figures, so why not Jesus???
 
Thank you for posting this, it is a very interesting question. I have often wondered about this also. As far as I know there is nothing specific about Jesus and sexuality in the Bible. We can only ponder the question. It certainly is hard to imagine any human not having sexual feelings, as I have never in my life met one who didn’t. But since Jesus was both human and divine then perhaps he is the only one who didn’t! 🙂
 
‘I’m just having difficulty understanding how Jesus was 100% man and couldn’t have had any struggles with lustful temptations.’

i think it’s pretty safe to say that Jesus had lustful temptations. He did, however, respond to those temptations in a sinless way. one clue to His response, i think, might be found in His response to another bodily desire - food.

‘man shall not live by bread alone’, He quoted, ‘but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’.

i think it is precisely in His perfect obedience to God’s will and direction that He was victorious over the temptations He faced - sexual or otherwise.

God’s blessings be with you.
 
If as we believe that Jesus was Fully Human and Fully Divine. Then we must accept that he had a normal (Heterosexual) healthy sex drive. I can understand how difficult it is for some to believe that Our Lord was, is, and always will be just like us in everything but sin.

Peace

Tom F
 
Remember that human nature in its fallen state, after original sin, is disordered in its desires. This is called concupiscience. Jesus had no original or actual sin, and his natural desires were all perfectly integrated–that is, perfectly subordinated to his human will, and in accord with natural and divine law.
 
jeffreedy789 said:
‘I’m just having difficulty understanding how Jesus was 100% man and couldn’t have had any struggles with lustful temptations.’

i think it’s pretty safe to say that Jesus had lustful temptations. He did, however, respond to those temptations in a sinless way. one clue to His response, i think, might be found in His response to another bodily desire - food.

‘man shall not live by bread alone’, He quoted, ‘but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’.

i think it is precisely in His perfect obedience to God’s will and direction that He was victorious over the temptations He faced - sexual or otherwise.

God’s blessings be with you.
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This is a very thoughtful response and makes a lot of sense to me. Very well put! 👍
 
Tom F:
If as we believe that Jesus was Fully Human and Fully Divine. Then we must accept that he had a normal (Heterosexual) healthy sex drive. I can understand how difficult it is for some to believe that Our Lord was, is, and always will be just like us in everything but sin.

Peace

Tom F
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:amen: You are so right, Tom F! This can be difficult for us “to believe that Our Lord was, is, and always will be just like us in everything but sin.” Ain’t that a fact? We have so much to aspire to! 🙂
 
I agree that Jesus never sinned…even in the face of such temptation…but didn’t Jesus say that if you sin in the heart or mind…it is the same as actually committing the sin? For instance, if you lust about having sex with your next door neighbor…but don’t actually do it…it is just as bad, because the thought crossed your mind. With that said, if that is the case, if Jesus had lustful thoughts and temptations…then is that just as bad?
 
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dumspirospero:
I agree that Jesus never sinned…even in the face of such temptation…but didn’t Jesus say that if you sin in the heart or mind…it is the same as actually committing the sin? For instance, if you lust about having sex with your next door neighbor…but don’t actually do it…it is just as bad, because the thought crossed your mind. With that said, if that is the case, if Jesus had lustful thoughts and temptations…then is that just as bad?
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if i may?

i believe He may have appreciated the beauty of certain women. how could He not?

there is a difference between having the thought in your mind for a moment or two - again, how could He not? and taking said thought captive and having the thought in your mind and letting it linger there and subsequently turning it into a lustful fantasy.

i think He had desire, yet it was not disordered. He was the model of perfection in all ways and the Bible said He was like us in all ways, save for sin. i also believe where He may not have exactly been the most handsome man in the world, His spirituality made Him exceedingly desireable to be near - think of how it is when you meet someone filled with the Spirit - don’t you want to be near them? doesn’t that make them so much more attractive? (it does to me!!) i think that may have been the case with Jesus; He always had women with Him or near Him.

i don’t see how there couldn’t have been attraction, it just never led Him to sin.

pax
 
Jesus was normal, just not average. He’s the gold standard.
He had to have struggled with the same temptations as we do, but unlike many of us, he had a deep appreciation that none of us is an object. Think back to when the devil tempted him. He never argued the desirability of what he was being tempted toward. He responded instead to the call to the higher good.

He loved prostitutes, but because he loved them, he never had sex with any of them. You can see why they must have responded so strongly to that incredible gift, of being loved by someone who had no interest in either using them or judging them, when their lives had to be so full of men willing to do both.
 
Jesus was tempted with every wile of Satan, as the beginning of Mark’s gospel attests. Being sinless, and free from original sin he was also free from concupiscence, or sinful desires and thoughts which plague the rest of us. He was therefore free to love completely, without disordered passions getting in the way. Therefore is a model for us of what real love can be and should be.
 
It is uncomfortable for some of us to think about this question (well, at least for me it is) because there is an unspoken assumption that somehow, being sexual at all is at least somewhat wrong.

But that is not so at all. “In the beginning. . . he made them male and female”. That was before the fall.

Each of us is sexual 24/7, 365 days a year. It is an integral part of what it means to be human. Biologically, it’s right there in our DNA, in every single cell of the body. Whether we are celibate or married, our sexuality plays an important part in who are.

So, of course Jesus, Son of Mary (a most blessed female) had a sex drive. We just need to revamp our understanding of what it means to be sexual. In fact, it may well be worth meditating on the life of Jesus (and Mary too) as a sexual being. Rather than a lack of it, I suspect that here on Earth they lived out their sexuality more fully than any of the rest of us ever have.
 
Though an excellent question for contemplation, I see that there is a flaw in your question. “Did Jesus have a sex drive?” No, Jesus didn’t have a sex “drive”. He had a holiness drive, or a Holy Spirit drive. That is also to say, all Jesus’ “drives” were rightly ordered. Or even better yet, Jesus had only a holiness drive, considering the modern notion that a “drive” insinuates that a person is driven toward the end by which their drive is orientated. Thus a “sex drive” would orientate a person to having sex.
All of which says nothing to mention the fact that Jesus was also complete in His mission orientation as well, being the “Christ” and all. Therefore, in choosing to completely fulfill the will of the Father, Jesus would come to recognize that the Father had not it in His will that Jesus have sexual relations, and thus Jesus would put the idea of sex (procreation and God imaging unity) far from His mind as it would only become a distraction to His messianic mission.

Personal Application:

Theologically speaking, if one’s understanding of the meaning and purpose of relationships, marriage and sex are “rightly ordered” (such as for myself seeing the family in the image and likeness of the Trinity, and any thought obscuring the image of the family would be practically tanamount to desecrating one’s understanding of God) toward the things of God and one’s heart is devoted entirely to God through the cultivation of the virtues for personal holiness, I believe that we also can acheive a Christ-like view of others, and more directly toward the opposite sex.

In essence, if we give our all; our heart, mind and strength to God, we to will soon find ourselves being transformed into the likeness of the Only Begotten Son (Whose “drive” was perfect) and so made adopted sons and daughters of the Father.

Spreading the peace and love of Christ,
Through Him, with Him and in Him,
In the unity of the Holy Spirit,
Justin S. Steele
 
i am having a difficult time understanding why anyone is taking offense to this thread so much so as to rate it so low by the star-system - to me, someone who struggles with temptation of many kinds, and especially to someone who is struggling in the area of sexual temptation - would this thread not serve as an encouragement? i wish i had been able to read something like this two years ago, when i was in the throes of the worst temptation of my life. it would have been a great encouragement and very reassuring.

the dialogue between all participants has been mature and even-keeled; i am having a tough time understanding why it is rated so low, or should it simply not matter to me?

:confused:
 
martha martha:
i am having a difficult time understanding why anyone is taking offense to this thread so much so as to rate it so low by the star-system - to me, someone who struggles with temptation of many kinds, and especially to someone who is struggling in the area of sexual temptation - would this thread not serve as an encouragement? i wish i had been able to read something like this two years ago, when i was in the throes of the worst temptation of my life. it would have been a great encouragement and very reassuring.

the dialogue between all participants has been mature and even-keeled; i am having a tough time understanding why it is rated so low, or should it simply not matter to me?

:confused:
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It should never matter what rating a thread has…
You asked a question.
You got responses.
Good ones to, so it seems.
Enjoy the exchange for what it is.
 
read Pope John Paul’s “Theology of the Body” it is a great discription of the effects of the Fall of Man on human sexuality

Jesus did not have a fallen Nature. Like Adam before the Fall, Jesus would have valued a woman completely as a person and not as an object of sex.

To Lust is to have sexual desires outside of God’s plan for Sexuality. It means to view someone not a whole person to be loved and to give oneself to as a unifing gift, but as a means to a self gratifing end

Therefore is not possible for Jesus to have lustful thoughts, as likewise for Adam or Eve to view each other lustfully “Naked without Shame” is how it is described in Gen.

Lust is an aspect of of the Fall, and as Jesus was never Fallen, ergo, Jesus did not Lust.
 
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steelebeam:
Or even better yet, Jesus had only a holiness drive, considering the modern notion that a “drive” insinuates that a person is driven toward the end by which their drive is orientated. Thus a “sex drive” would orientate a person to having sex.
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I think that is only a partial understanding of what the sex drive is. We have reduced it in our modern culture to simply a desire for physical interaction. . . . I think that the physical aspects of sex, sexuality, and the sexual desire is only one aspect. I would say that the physical side of sex is the physical manifestation of something much deeper.
 
martha martha:
i am having a difficult time understanding why anyone is taking offense to this thread so much so as to rate it so low by the star-system … i am having a tough time understanding why it is rated so low, or should it simply not matter to me?
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Hey–everyone gets a vote. If you don’t like the low rating, then vote for a rating you think it deserves.
 
martha martha:
i am having a difficult time understanding why anyone is taking offense to this thread so much so as to rate it so low by the star-system -
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For myself, I never pay attention to the ratings or rate threads myself.

Another thought as to ‘sex drive.’ Even putting aside the fact that Jesus was not subject to a fallen nature, it is good to remember that not every epoch was as sex obsessed as our own.
 
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Prometheum_x:
It is uncomfortable for some of us to think about this question (well, at least for me it is) because there is an unspoken assumption that somehow, being sexual at all is at least somewhat wrong.

But that is not so at all. “In the beginning. . . he made them male and female”. That was before the fall.

Each of us is sexual 24/7, 365 days a year. It is an integral part of what it means to be human. Biologically, it’s right there in our DNA, in every single cell of the body. Whether we are celibate or married, our sexuality plays an important part in who are.

So, of course Jesus, Son of Mary (a most blessed female) had a sex drive. We just need to revamp our understanding of what it means to be sexual. In fact, it may well be worth meditating on the life of Jesus (and Mary too) as a sexual being. Rather than a lack of it, I suspect that here on Earth they lived out their sexuality more fully than any of the rest of us ever have.
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This is a beautiful post–thank you. I so agree! 🙂
 
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