Daily Bread 1 Corinthians 6
Daily Bread 1 Corinthians 6
Avoiding Sexual Sin
12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.
15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
Observation
AS Paul continues his letter to the Church to Corinth, he deals with two issues besetting the Church. First, in the issue of lawsuits, Paul urges the believers to reconcile with each other without going to court. He argues that the wisdom God gives the church living in authentic community together is greater than that in the world. He even goes as far as to say even if you are cheated by a fellow believer, let it go.
Then he raises the issue of sexual immorality, in its many forms in Corinth. There was both heterosexual and homosexual prostitution. Worst of all the Corinthians are justifying it by saying, “I am allowed to do anything, or eat anything in the Lord”. They were taking the doctrine of grace, and the freedom from certain cultic food laws, and perverting them to justify sexual immorality.
Paul exposes their false argument by saying putting food into one’s body is different than sexuality immorality. Paul reasons that the body is a home for God’s Spirit and as we offer our bodies to another person, we are opening our body to their spirit. In the bible our sexuality is meant to be enjoyed with one person, who we have promised to honor and be faithful to our whole lives. It is a union compared to Christ’s relationship with the Church, and it becomes a spiritual issue when we join this body with someone other than our spouse.
Application:
It is interesting that this particular sin of sexual immorality was a big deal in Paul’s time, as it is today. Paul uplifts the importance of our bodies because they are a temple of the Holy Spirit. What we put into our bodies, or who we share our bodies with, affects the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Since God is holy and as we come into a relationship with Him through Jesus we are joined with Him, it is important that we honor God with our bodies.
Often we here in today’s rhetoric, “This is my body and I can do what I want with it!” But this is not a biblical worldview. For the Christian, part of what it means to be a new creation in Christ is that we are to use our bodies for God’s glory and not for just for our own indulgence.
The worst distortion of God’s grace is that we can use our freedom to indulge in sin. Paul exclaims, “May it never be”. God’s grace frees us to not sin, not to return to sin.
Prayer:
God thank you for gift of grace and freedom to use our bodies to glorify you, not use them for sexual immorality. Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit who resides in our body, may we honor you with all that we are body, mind and soul. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Avoiding Sexual Sin
12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.
15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
Observation
AS Paul continues his letter to the Church to Corinth, he deals with two issues besetting the Church. First, in the issue of lawsuits, Paul urges the believers to reconcile with each other without going to court. He argues that the wisdom God gives the church living in authentic community together is greater than that in the world. He even goes as far as to say even if you are cheated by a fellow believer, let it go.
Then he raises the issue of sexual immorality, in its many forms in Corinth. There was both heterosexual and homosexual prostitution. Worst of all the Corinthians are justifying it by saying, “I am allowed to do anything, or eat anything in the Lord”. They were taking the doctrine of grace, and the freedom from certain cultic food laws, and perverting them to justify sexual immorality.
Paul exposes their false argument by saying putting food into one’s body is different than sexuality immorality. Paul reasons that the body is a home for God’s Spirit and as we offer our bodies to another person, we are opening our body to their spirit. In the bible our sexuality is meant to be enjoyed with one person, who we have promised to honor and be faithful to our whole lives. It is a union compared to Christ’s relationship with the Church, and it becomes a spiritual issue when we join this body with someone other than our spouse.
Application:
It is interesting that this particular sin of sexual immorality was a big deal in Paul’s time, as it is today. Paul uplifts the importance of our bodies because they are a temple of the Holy Spirit. What we put into our bodies, or who we share our bodies with, affects the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Since God is holy and as we come into a relationship with Him through Jesus we are joined with Him, it is important that we honor God with our bodies.
Often we here in today’s rhetoric, “This is my body and I can do what I want with it!” But this is not a biblical worldview. For the Christian, part of what it means to be a new creation in Christ is that we are to use our bodies for God’s glory and not for just for our own indulgence.
The worst distortion of God’s grace is that we can use our freedom to indulge in sin. Paul exclaims, “May it never be”. God’s grace frees us to not sin, not to return to sin.
Prayer:
God thank you for gift of grace and freedom to use our bodies to glorify you, not use them for sexual immorality. Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit who resides in our body, may we honor you with all that we are body, mind and soul. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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