1 Corinthians 6:12–20
Someone may say, “I’m allowed to do anything,” but not everything is helpful. I’m allowed to do anything, but I won’t allow anything to gain control over my life. Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food, but God will put an end to both of them. However, the body is not for sexual sin but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. God brought the Lord back to life, and by his power God will also bring us back to life. Don’t you realize that your bodies are parts of Christ’s body? Should I take the parts of Christ’s body and make them parts of a prostitute’s body? That’s unthinkable! Don’t you realize that the person who unites himself with a prostitute becomes one body with her? God says, “The two will be one.” However, the person who unites himself with the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Stay away from sexual sins. Other sins that people commit don’t affect their bodies the same way sexual sins do. People who sin sexually sin against their own bodies. Don’t you know that your body is a temple that belongs to the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, whom you received from God, lives in you. You don’t belong to yourselves. You were bought for a price. So bring glory to God in the way you use your body.
Paul says that the kingdom of God is for those who have been made pure by Jesus Christ. Sex outside marriage, male prostitution, sodomy and indecent acts all make us impure. Paul knows that the Corinthians used to behave in those ways, but now they are clean.
Paul is being challenged by Christians who say it doesn’t matter what they do. They are ‘free’. Their bodies don’t matter any more, because their souls are safe with God. And anyway, anything they do can be forgiven …
Paul agrees that it is a wonderful thing to be free. Because Jesus died for us we are forgiven our sins and released from guilt. But our freedom isn’t a permission to do whatever we like. Paul sees our freedom as a liberty to do what’s right. We’re not owned, obsessed or driven by any habit or passion, except the power of the new life of Jesus within us.
Paul teaches that our bodies are not just bins for food and tools for sex. Our bodies belong to the Lord. They are part of his own body now. It is unthinkable to use a Christian body, which is part of Jesus, for sex with a prostitute.
Does Paul think our bodies don’t matter? Quite the opposite. He believes they matter very much. God made us with bodies and Jesus had one when he shared our life on earth. Our resurrection bodies will be part of our identity in heaven. For now, our bodies are the place in which we meet with God and from which we serve him—in other words, they are temples of God’s Holy Spirit.
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PASTOR ANDRA HIGGINBOTHAM