Some people will say that, so far as a sexual relationship is concerned, all that matters is that two people be in love. The trouble is, however, that what seems like love often falls very far short of the true meaning of love. Everything that the Church has to say about sex is that it should be an expression of genuine love. Love is what the Bible is all about and what the Church is all about. Unless people understand what true love means, they cannot understand what sex means.
Sexual morality is education in real loving.
The purpose of sexual morality is not to condemn or prohibit, but to point the way to love, which is the heart of the Gospel of Christ. Sexual morality protects people from the hurt and the pain that loveless sex can bring to them. Sexual morality is a programme for helping people to distinguish true love from its counterfeits. It keeps love from being wasted. An old Irish phrase for sexual sin described it as 'making a spoiling of love'.