It’s a basic human motivation to protect things that we consider valuable. If you drop a penny in a muddy ditch, you probably wouldn’t consider it worth rescuing. On the other hand, if you dropped a ten dollar bill, you’d probably be willing to risk mud on your shoes in order to retrieve the bill. If your yard has a lot of weeds you may not be too concerned with what happens to it. But if you invest time and money into a garden, you build a fence around it to protect if from damage from rabbits and deer. The more valuable something is, the more you protect it.

God places great value on the sexual connection between men and women. He created our bodies and souls to work together and his design was to preserve this connection of body and soul within the relationship of marriage. When we use sex casually in ways for which it was not designed, we are sinning, first of all, against God but we are also hurting ourselves. The Bible says, Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. God knew that a gift as valuable and powerful as the soul-connection of sex needs protection so that it can fulfill its God-given purpose. The fence he built to protect that union is high – the permanent and exclusive relationship of commitment called marriage. Both spiritual connection and sexual connection will flourish within its sheltering walls.