Yes, animal.
Define "normal".
By "normal", do you mean a typical man after the Fall, or do you mean a born-again Christian man who loves his wife as Christ loves the church?
There's a world of difference between the two or, at least, there should be.
For a lot of men, desiring sex doesn't depend on whether she wants it at that exact second. And in some marriages if both had to strongly desire sex at the exact same time, they would almost never have sex.
And if you ask me, or even if you don't, one major reason for this is because men don't treat their wives right throughout much of the day and only come around when they selfishly desire to "have sex" or to "get their rocks off".
If you've never encountered such men, then I truly believe that you and I are living on different planets.
A woman is more than just a body.
She's a spirit being, and she has a soul.
How many "normal" men spend any real time actually caring about and ministering to their wives' spiritual and emotional needs?
Is that concept offensive to you?
To me, it's "normal" from a born-again Christian's point of view.
Seeing how God's covenant with his people is likened to marriage all throughout scripture, where do you believe that God/Christ puts his emphasis in relation to his bride on a daily basis?
Is it primarily in relation to our spirits and souls, or is it primarily in relation to our bodies which won't be changed until the second coming of Jesus Christ?
My point is that if more men truly cared about their wives' spiritual and emotional needs, then it's highly probable that their wives would be a lot more amorous towards them than they presently may be.
If you read the title, the thread isn't about getting your spouse to have sex with you, but having sex with your spouse.
I read the title.
Did you read where I twice mentioned that I was talking about more than just this thread, or about "threads like this one", or "many a different thread here"?
Sinning by not having sex is about turning your partner down, not your partner turning you down.
"Sinning"?
Here's your opening text:
I Corinthians chapter 7
[
3] Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
[
4] The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
[
5]
Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
In the actual example that I gave where my ex-wife used to have flashbacks of being sexually molested by her own father, who would have been "sinning" if she and I didn't "mutually consent" to abstain from any sexual relations at those times?
Would it have been her, seeing how she was the one who didn't desire sexual relations at the time, or would it have been ME for not giving a hoot about my wife's spiritual and emotional needs while only desiring to use her body to fulfill my own desires?
Here's a clue:
It would have been ME, but, thankfully, I'm not an animal, but a born-again Christian man instead.
Had I had the terribly wrong mindset that she was "sinning" at such times, and had I somehow demanded my "conjugal rights" to "have sex", then I would have caused her major psychological damage.
Do YOU ever consider such things?
If you don't, then massive shame on you.
Back to the implicit accusation against men who want sex when their wives don't that they are animals, that's degrading to an awful lot of normal men who just have a regular sex drive.
Well, seeing how you conveniently separated my comment from its actual context, I suppose that you can make it sound as degrading as you want to.
By the way, I'm not a fan of the term "sex drive".
Demons "drive".
Every man that I've ever met who has what you might deem "a regular sex drive" has had a problem with pornography somewhere in his background.
I'm
NOT saying that a man ought not have sexual desires towards his wife, but, again, his wife is more than just a body. If a man's primary focus is his wife's body, then there's something terribly wrong with him in my estimation, and I believe in God's estimation as well.
There are plenty of wives... and husbands also.... who could be better in this aspect of marriage if they would be willing to have sex when their partner wants it. Some women desire it after they have been 'warmed up' through some affection, and if they open themselves up, they can enjoy it. And there are probably plenty of men like that. I hear it's about 80% of men who want sex more than their wives and 20% of women who want sex more than their husbands. And things might shift with age. Few have exact same desire, and probably almost no couple have husband and wife with the exact same amount of desire for it at all times.
I'll keep my focus on men here.
There are MULTITUDES of men who need to learn to "nourish and cherish their wives" as Christ does in relation to the church. If they do, then, although I'm not a gambling man, I'd be willing to wager that their "sex lives" would increase dramatically.
I'll share with you an example from my past. I'm not proud of it in that I wasn't a Christian at that time, and in that it definitely falls under the category of fornication.
When I was 21 or 22 years old, one of my friends told me that his female friend wanted to "have sex" with me. I had had similar offers from other young women prior to this and after this, and I refused every single of one of them because I wasn't genuinely attracted to any of those women's hearts. This particular young woman, I liked. Anyhow, we did engage in sexual relations quite often, BUT she definitely wasn't used to a man like me. In other words, even before I became a Christian, I genuinely cared about what was in a woman's heart and mind, and that manifested itself constantly towards this young woman. I could tell that she was uncomfortable with it, but not in an offended sort of way, when I would spend time just holding her, or caressing her, or seeking to learn what was truly in her heart. As I did learn more about her, I started to do things like buy her gifts that I knew she would like, and she was definitely appreciative of the same, and I would have to say even more desirous than ever before to "have sex" with me...NOT that that was my motive. Again, the "sex" was already there. We eventually broke up because, as embarrassing as it is to say, my mother meddled in our relationship, and the young woman got totally turned off by the same.
Anyhow, I said all of that to say this:
EIGHT YEARS LATER, my phone rings, and it's this same young woman on the other end of the line. By this point in time, I had become a born-again Christian. I asked her why she was calling me after an 8 year hiatus, and I somehow knew exactly what her answer was going to be before she gave it. She told me that she was calling me because she had never met another man as passionate as me. Believe me, when she said "passionate", she most definitely was NOT simply referring to physical passion. Instead, she never met a man who actually cared for her spirit and soul in the manner that I did. We did meet once after that, but she didn't want to somehow rekindle our relationship after she learned that I had become a Christian. She was a Russian Jewess whose family had suffered much religious persecution while in Russia, and she was totally turned off by "religion".
I am sorry your wife had these difficulties. A husband who loves his wife would have to be patient about these things. Many woman... and men... who have not had the same trauma in their lives can be selfish about meeting their partner's needs.
Hey!
There you go.
We finally agree on something.
A lot of us use 'have sex' in a way that is not exclusive of 'making love.' We aren't wooing women in the forum, so there is no need for the overly lovey-dovey language unless you just want to use it. We are talking about sexual intercourse.
Oh, please.
In my own observations, I can say, without hesitation, that the VAST, VAST MAJORITY of "men" that I've personally met have no concept whatsoever of what it means to "make love" to a woman.
How to "have sex" or "get their rocks off"?
Sure.
Anyway, the focus of the thread is the idea that one can sin by defrauding one's partner, not how to extract more sex out of the other partner. Be that as it may, having one's marriage partner meet one's sexual needs can be helpful in that it can lessen temptation. Also 'two shall be one flesh' is a mystery that speaks of Christ and the church. That is one mystery some folks may which to frequently experientially meditate on in their marriage.
And that "mystery" has to do with a lot more than just desiring one's body.