CORINTHIAN ISSUES – MESSAGE 8
August 17, 2003

“Things You Need to Know About Your Body”

1 Corinthians 6: 9 - 20

We continue our study through 1 Corinthians, a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to a church, addressing their issues.  We’re looking at one issue at a time as we go through the entire book.

Recently, I found a magazine cover that reads, “Safe Sex Versus No Sex – the New Debate,” and I asked myself, “Where have they been?”  This “new debate” is not new.  We’re going to find in the Book of 1 Corinthians that the debates about sexual issues were going on even in the day of the Apostle Paul.

Today, as we come to the last part of Chapter 6, from verse 12 to the end of the chapter, we see Paul teaching about sexual immorality.  I’ll read the entire passage. 

“‘Everything is permissible for me’ – but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible for me’ – but I will not be mastered by anything.  ‘Food for the stomach and the stomach for food’ – but God will destroy them both.  The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.  By His power God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us also.  Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ Himself?  Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute?  Never!  Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body?  For it is said, ‘The two will become one flesh.’  But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.  Flee from sexual immorality.  All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own; you were bought at a price.  Therefore honor God with your body.”

The context

The context of this passage is very important for us in understanding what Paul says.  The city of Corinth was part of the Greek culture.  The Greeks believed that they had both a body and a spirit.  They believed the body was temporary – it would be around for a short while, then it would die and be gone.  They believed the spirit was eternal, and it would live on. 

The Greeks believed the body was evil.  Because it was evil, they thought there was nothing they could do about it, so they let it have whatever it wanted.  They believed that there was a separation or a “disconnect” between the body and the spirit, that one didn’t affect the other.

As a result of that thinking, the lifestyle in the Greek culture, and especially in Corinth, was a very immoral one.  The Greeks were satisfying the desires of the body.  Corinth was known as “Sex City,” or “Sin City.”  The world even coined the phrase “Corinthianize” to refer to sexual immorality.  “Anything Goes” would have been their slogan. 

They had many religions.  Most people in that culture were polytheistic.  One of the religions practiced by the people in Corinth was the worship of the goddess Aphrodites, the goddess of love, and there was a temple for her outside Corinth.  In that temple, there were a thousand young women.  They were basically prostitutes, but at the temple they were called prophetesses.  Part of worship at the temple involved having sexual relationships with these women.  There was no problem getting Corinthian men to go to church!

At night, the women in the temple carried on their side job.  They would come down to the city and walk the streets, satisfying men’s pleasures for a price.  It’s important to know that the people in this church had been brought up in that sexually immoral lifestyle and some were still living in it.  That’s why in verses 9 – 11 Paul wrote:

“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived:  Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And that is what some of you were.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Some of the people in the Corinthian church had probably gone up to the temple often to worship with the prostitutes.  Some had been adulterers and some had been homosexuals.  They had grown up in, lived in, and participated in that whole immoral culture which was part of their religion.  Then, they had come to Jesus Christ. 

It was hard for some of them to give up the sexually immoral lifestyle.  Apparently there were still people in the church who were hanging on to that lifestyle in one way or another.  That’s why Paul had to address this issue.   

In the text, you might have noticed that the word “body” appears eight times.  As you read through the passage, it becomes very clear that the subject is the body.  It doesn’t take a seminary degree to notice that in this passage Paul is talking about sexual immorality.  I want us to see the message that he gives to these people.  He first shared with them things they needed to know about their bodies now that they were Christians.  It was a primer on the body:  “Now that you are Christians, here are five things you need to know.”  Later, he would tell them what they needed to do because of that. 

Things you need to know about your body

The five things that the Corinthians needed to know about their bodies apply to our bodies as well.  First, your body is not meant for sexual immorality.  Verse 13 says, “…the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”  Your body was not made for sexual immorality.  God’s intention for your body was never that it be used in that way.  Instead, Paul said that your body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.  He was telling these believers that God cared about their bodies.  When they became Christians, He did not just save their spirit.  He was interested in more than that.  He was interested in every part of their lives, including their bodies.  He never intended for their bodies to be used immorally. 

That was a new and difficult idea to those in the Greek culture.  (Remember: Body and Spirit: no connection.)  So, you can see where it would be easy for these Christians to think, “Okay, now I’m a Christian, but that has to do with my spirit.  I’ve come to Christ in spirit.  God has my spirit, and that’s what He is interested in, but I can still participate with my body in the lifestyle around me.”  Paul says, “No, God is interested in the body.  He didn’t intend your body to be used for sexual immorality.  Your body is for Him as well.  There is no ‘disconnect.’” 

Verse 14 contains the second thing they needed to know about bodies.  “By His power God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us also.”  Paul wanted the Corinthians to know that their bodies would be resurrected.  Why is that important in this discussion?  Remember the cultural thinking:  Body = Evil, Temporary, Dies, Is Gone.  Spirit = Good, Eternal, Goes On.  Not so, said Paul.   Your body will be resurrected.  God cares for your body, and He has a plan for it.  It doesn’t just die and that’s it.  God will resurrect it. 

The third thing they needed to know about their bodies is found in verses 15 – 17:  “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ Himself?”  The Corinthians had to know that their body was united with Christ, and so Paul said, “He who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.”  That made sense, even in the Greek culture:  “I united with Christ, I became a Christian, in spirit I have united with Him.” 

Paul was saying they needed to know that your body is also united with Christ.  Your body is a part of Christ; He has all of you, not just your spirit.  He then went on to say in verse 15, “Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!”  Why would you take something that belongs to and has been united with Jesus in salvation and unite it with a prostitute?  “Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body?  For it is said, ‘the two shall become one flesh.’”  When you became a Christian, your body, as well as your spirit, were united with Christ.  Why would you let that body unite with a prostitute?    

The fourth thing Paul reminded the Corinthians about their bodies comes out of verse 18:  “All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.”  Paul’s message was that sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 

Probably the first thing that comes to our mind is that the potential is often there for physical harm against your own body as a result of sexual immorality.  But also, I think Paul’s thoughts include the violation of your body’s purpose.  Because your body is not made to have sexual relations with anyone other than a marriage partner, every time you have sexual relationships outside of marriage, you’re violating its purpose.  That’s quite a statement about the body:  Sexual immorality is a sin even against your own body. 

The fifth thing you need to know is found in verse 19:   ^“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own; you were bought at a price.”  The Corinthians needed to understand this about their bodies, now that they were Christians.  Their body was a temple – a dwelling place – of the Holy Spirit. 

Yesterday, at Promise Keepers, Wellington Boone presented this same text.  He asked us men to put our hands on our bodies and to look down at those bodies, to understand that God lives there, because the Spirit of God is living there.  He paid a price for that dwelling place – the blood of Jesus.  Your body belongs to Him.  That’s a powerful truth about the body. Every time you and I are tempted sexually outside of marriage, we need to look at this body and remind ourselves who it belongs to, who lives there.  It’s the temple of the Holy Spirit, and it belongs to God. 

Those are the five things the Corinthians, as Christians, needed to know about their bodies.  You and I, as followers of Christ today, need to know them, because all five are true of us.  

Things you must do

Now, Paul gives just two instructions, based on these five truths about the Christian’s body.  First, verse 18 tells us to flee from sexual immorality, and have nothing to do with it.  In any form and in any way, have nothing to do with it – flee, run, get away.  It’s wrong.  You’ve probably been in very tempting situations, and you’ve heard the Holy Spirit living in you telling you to run: get out, stay away, don’t do it, leave, stop.  Do you ever hear that voice?  If you as a believer hear that voice during a time of temptation, pay attention and follow God’s instruction:  Run! 

Instead of heeding that voice and running, Christians often do the opposite:  They stay.  We decide we can handle it.  Friends, when we hear that voice telling us to get away, we need to flee from sexual immorality. 

The second instruction appears in the last verse of the passage:  “…you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”  Whatever your body does or wherever it goes, you must honor God. 

As followers of Christ, you and I now have this instrument, this tool, this resource – our body – that we can use to honor God.  The Scripture says, “Honor Him, with your body.”  It belongs to Him; His Spirit lives there; He bought it; He cares about it; He has plans for it.  Honor Him. 

In the context of this passage, every time you and I make the sexually pure choice, we honor God.  Every time we run from sexual immorality, we honor God.  Is that what you want to do?  It’s what I want to do. 

Challenges for us 

Our faith relationship is connected to our body.  Our faith relationship with Jesus Christ should have a direct effect on what we do with our body.  If it does, we will flee immorality, and we will honor God with it. 

Just a few words about standards:  We all know that there are unchanging standards in God’s Word.  They are there for our good, and not because God wants to make our lives miserable or take away pleasure.  We need to learn them, we need to make them our own, and we need to follow them.  We need to start listening to the right voices.  You know as well as I do that when it comes to moral standards and specifically the area of sexuality, there are many voices out there, every direction you turn.

Make sure you listen to the right voice.  First of all, listen to God’s unchanging standards.  Second, listen to the voices of those who hold to those unchanging standards.  Listen to the right voices. 

As you know, a man named Gene Robinson was recently chosen as a bishop in the Episcopalian Church.  He was selected to that position amidst great debate and turmoil.  As he stood with his homosexual partner before the assembly in Minneapolis receiving this position, there was one group of people who celebrated, and others who were on their knees, grieving.  In a radio interview, he was asked this question by the interviewer:  “Mr. Robinson, what about the Scriptures used by those who oppose your appointment?  Don’t they say that the homosexual lifestyle is wrong?”  Mr. Robinson’s answer, after a pause to gather his thoughts, was, “You know, God is doing a new thing today, and it’s wonderful.” 

God is not doing anything new today.  God doesn’t change His standards, and He doesn’t give us permission to change His standards.  His standards for sexuality are set.  He has set the boundaries, and within these boundaries sexuality is good and right, and it is what He intended.  Outside those boundaries, it is wrong, and it always will be. 

You and I belong to God.  We are to flee sexual immorality and honor God with our bodies.  

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