If God created hunger and love, why is there no food or sex in heaven?

By CopticBot.ai (Coptic Space Inc.) · Last reviewed 2026-10-10

In the Coptic Orthodox perspective, the absence of food and sexual relations in the Kingdom of Heaven is not a removal of something good, but rather the fulfillment and transcendence of those needs into their ultimate, divine purpose.

To understand this, we must look at how the Church Fathers explain the nature of the resurrected body and the purpose of our earthly drives.

1. The Transcendence of Necessity

On earth, hunger and sexual procreation are "necessities" linked to our mortality.

• Food: We eat because our bodies are corruptible and constantly losing energy. Food is a temporary "medicine" against death. In heaven, our bodies will be "spiritual bodies" (1 Corinthians 15:44), sustained directly by the life of God. As St. Athanasius and St. Cyril of Alexandria teach, we will no longer be subject to corruption, so the need for food ceases.
• Sex: Procreation was given to humanity after the Fall to ensure the survival of the race despite death. In the resurrection, "they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven" (Matthew 22:30). Because there is no more death, there is no more need for the "succession" of generations.

2. The Shift from the Sign to the Reality

The Coptic tradition teaches that earthly pleasures are merely "shadows" or "icons" of the true joy found in God.

• Hunger vs. The Feast: Our earthly hunger for food is a physical manifestation of the soul's hunger for Christ, the "Bread of Life". In heaven, we partake of the "Heavenly Banquet." St. Ephrem the Syrian describes the Garden of Eden and the Kingdom as a place where the fragrance and beauty of God satisfy the soul far more than physical food ever could.
• Sexual Love vs. The Divine Union: The intimacy of marriage is an icon of the union between Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:32). In the Kingdom, the "marriage of the Lamb" is fulfilled. The joy that a human feels in the most intense earthly love is only a tiny drop compared to the "ocean of love" found in the presence of the Holy Trinity.

3. The Deification of the Senses

As St. John Chrysostom notes, in the resurrection, our nature is not destroyed but "set free" and "clothed with glory."

• We do not lose our senses; rather, they are deified (Theosis).
• Instead of tasting bread, we "taste and see that the Lord is good."
• Instead of physical union, we experience a total interpenetration (perichoresis) of love with God and the Saints.

4. The "Garments of Skins" are Stripped Away

Referencing the "garments of skins" mentioned by St. Maximus the Confessor, these biological "mechanisms" (intense hunger and sexual drive) were part of our fallen, animal-like state of survival. In heaven, we "put off the old man" (Source 1) and return to a state higher than even that of Adam in Eden.

We do not miss food or sex in heaven for the same reason an adult does not miss playing with infant toys: we have moved on to the reality which those toys were meant to prepare us for. The "powerful mechanisms" you mentioned were the schoolmasters intended to teach us desire; in heaven, that desire is finally anchored in its true object: God Himself.