Intercourse wasn't even mentioned. Paul rarely spoke that boldly about sexual issues. He literally said "Women exhanged natural uses for unnatural ones".
Intercourse wasn't even mentioned. Paul rarely spoke that boldly about sexual issues. He literally said "Women exhanged natural uses for unnatural ones".
Don't go all Janet Reno on us by looking at a couple words in isolation. I was referring to "intercourse" in the translation in the text above. The use of the word in that translation, though, is consistent with the text as seen in the NIV translation below and "uses" is, indeed, referring to sexual relations, sexual intercourse, boinking, screwing, the horizontal mambo, the beast with two backs, getting down and dirty, going down, riding the skinboat to tuna town, whatever the phrase used to denote the activities included in this class of acts (see v. 24 which gives the context for the specifics of verse 26 and 27--note the "therefore" and "because of this").
And "rarely" is irrelevant. The operative words are "clearly" and "appropriately". When something is stated clearly and in the right context, it need not be stated more often than that. The few places Paul speaks specifically to sexual sin, it's evident that the context warrants it (his overview of G-d's relationship to the world or sexual immorality in the Corinthian church, to mention two instances).
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.