Problems Plaguing a Local Church,
Part 13
In our message, HELPFUL THINGS (1 Cor. 6:12-20), after addressing dealing with an immoral brother in their midst and handling disputes in a godly manner, the Lord then spoke to the issue of sexual purity for the church as a whole.
“All things are lawful for me” was a popular phrase in Corinth which some in the church were using to justify a false view of Christian liberty (1 Cor. 6:12a). While it is true we are free in Christ because Jesus has set us free from sin and death, God wants us to “stay free” from all sin to include legalism and license (Gal. 5:1 NLT; Gal. 5:13-18, etc.). That is, even though we are free from ceremonial laws of the Mosaic Covenant, “all things are not HELPFUL,” beneficial or good in our lives as we seek to walk with God (1 Cor. 6:12, caps my emphasis; Rom. 6:1, etc.). This is especially true for the topic of sexual purity which God addresses here today in the Bible (1 Cor. 6:19-20, etc.). As His kids we are called to “abstain from every form of evil” to “not be brought under the power of anything” (1 Thes. 5:22; 1 Cor. 6:12b NET, etc.). When we sin and hurt, God is also deeply pained (Eph. 4:30, etc.) because we are “one spirit” with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). It is important to note all Christians sin (1 John 2:1), and in the case of sins that have become an idol in our lives like the love of money we are called to “flee” from it immediately (1 Cor. 10:12, 14; 1 Tim. 6:9-11, etc.). Sexual immorality is unique in that God says we should make it our habit to “flee” from it always and immediately without exception (1 Cor. 6:18a) as Joseph did (Gen. 39:1-12; 1 John 1:9; Rom. 8:2-4; 12:1-2, etc.). That means recognizing with God that “not everything is good for us” in the world around us as we seek to follow Jesus (1 Cor. 6:12 NLT; Eph. 6:10-18, etc.). Those things that are not good like lies from the enemy we need to throw out so we can love one another and love God (Rom. 12:9, etc.).
A second slogan from the culture which some in the Corinthian church were using to justify committing immorality was, “Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods” (1 Cor. 6:13a). They falsely argued, since there are no restrictions now for us in food under the Mosaic Law, why must there be restrictions on sex which is just another physical desire? The Lord explains, first of all, there will not be any hunger or pain in heaven so the ‘want’ of the stomach won’t exist in that sense there (1 Cor. 6:13; Matt. 12:34; 15:17-19; Rom. 14:17, etc.). Secondly, unlike food which is made for the stomach to digest, “the body is NOT [made] for sexual immorality;” it is made “for the Lord!” (1 Cor. 6:13 caps my emphasis; Rom. 12:1-2, etc.). All of us, “spirit, soul, and body” is designed and made for the purpose of glorifying God (1 Thes. 5:22-24; Eph. 1:6, 12, 14, etc.). We are His and He is ours (1 Cor. 6:13b, 17, etc.). Because we are made in the image of God and His temple and because our bodies are eternal with “the Lord… rais[ing] us up [physically] by His power” one day like He did Jesus (i.e. 1 Cor. 6:14), we should honor our bodies today. The idea here is since our bodies have such a wonderful origin, and an even more wonderful future, how could we use them for evil purposes?
“Do you not know” is then used a fourth time in this chapter making an indisputable fact by God to keep us from deception (1 Cor. 6:15a, consider also 1 Cor. 3:18; 6-9-10). Because our “bodies are members of Christ,” we are called to never “make them members of a harlot” or prostitute! (1 Cor. 6:15). Contextually, some of the brothers in Corinth may have been committing this sin with the shrine prostitutes of the goddess Aphrodite (history shows us there were a thousand such prostitutes assigned to that false god) or some other idol in their culture, but this applies to any sexual sin of any kind which includes relations with ANYONE who is not one’s spouse as God continues to explain “… do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For ‘the two,’ He says, ‘shall become one flesh’” (1 Cor. 6:16). Christians who commit sexually immorality violate the marriage covenant by becoming ‘one’ with someone who is NOT his or her spouse. This includes the so-called ‘living together’ of our culture today and it encompasses any sexual activity outside of the marriage covenant established by God at the beginning of creation (Gen. 2:24, etc.). Such a sin deeply affects the inner life of the person involved because it is in violation of God’s will and design (1 Cor. 6:9-10, etc.). But it is also important to note rape and other forms of sexual immorality outside of marriage DOES NOT constitute a marriage as the account with Dinah, for example, shows us in the Bible (Gen. 34:1-9, etc.). Marriage involves a commitment (an oath before God) and occurs at the that time when the Lord joins a man and woman together not in a contract, but in the covenant of marriage that He established at the beginning of creation (Matt. 19:4-5; Mark 10:6-7, etc.). It is designed to be lifelong (Matt. 19:6; Mark 10:8; Eph. 4:32, etc.), using God’s gift of sex in the right way helping a couple, committed to each other, in their union with one another that no one else possesses (James 1:17; Prov. 6:27-29, etc.). In the same way, God possesses a deeper union with each of His children and with each of us than any other person on the planet as we are “one spirit” with Him by grace through faith (1 Cor. 6:17). When we hurt, He hurts (Eph. 4:30). Committing sexual immorality always grieves Him and “takes” from God what is His (namely us) from Him (1 Cor. 6:15-16; John 10:10, etc.). But, as with all sin, God promises to never leave or forsake us (Eph. 4:30b; Heb. 13:5-6, etc.).
Because sexual sin negatively impacts the soul and often times has lifelong consequences that do not go away, the Lord commands us as His children to make it our habit to “flee” it at all times (1 Cor. 6:18a). This also means we should make it our habit to throw away or minimize things in our life that are not “helpful” (1 Cor. 6:12). In direct opposition to God’s command here, we see here a third slogan that was being used by some in the Corinthian church to justify ‘living’ with someone that was not their spouse. They said, “Every sin that a man does is outside the body” (1 Cor. 6:18) [Note: the word ‘other’ in some translations like the ESV and NIV is not in the Greek]. Using this expression from the culture in their day they argued since sin is outside the body, it is not that serious and won’t really affect you spiritually. We have similar arguments made in our culture today (i.e. ‘you deserve to be happy,’ or ‘God made you that way- you can’t help it,’ etc., etc.). God corrects such lies showing the opposite is true: that is, “sexual sin [as with other sin is]… against one’s own body” and should therefore be avoided at all costs because of its negative impacts on ones life (1 Cor. 6:18; James 3:17; John 10:10, etc.). “Run from sexual sin!” (1 Cor. 6:18a NLT).
We then have the last of six “Do you not know” statements in chapter 6 to keep us on the right track and avoid the errors of our culture (1 Cor. 6:19a). The Bible says here “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19). In 1 Cor. 3:16-17 we saw that the local church as a whole (plural- y’all) is the temple of God, but here we have a distributive expression meaning the body of each one of us as Christians is individually the temple of holy God! Each one of us is the holy of holies where holy, holy, holy God dwells! That is, He “is in you”- each one of you as Christians and “we are not [our] own” because God “bought [us] at a [great] price” with the precious blood of Jesus when He died for our sins on Calvary (1 Cor. 6:19-20; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19, etc.). We should therefore live for Him today making it our habit to flee from things that are not beneficial in our lives and replacing them with HELPFUL THINGS like prayer and the reading of the Bible to strengthen ourselves in Him (1 Cor. 1:23-25; 6:19-12, 18-20; Rom. 12:1-2; Eph. 5:18; Jude 20-21; Matt. 28:19-20, etc.).