Why is Sexual Immorality So Damaging?

1 Corinthians 6:16-20  18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."

Although one sin is not worse than another, Paul makes a distinction between sexual sin and all other types of sin.  Why?  Because when two people join themselves sexually it is more than just a physical act.  It is also emotional and most importantly spiritual.  Even back in Genesis it says, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh." Genesis 2:24

So when a man and woman become married they become one flesh. Sexual intimacy is an expression of this unique relationship physically, emotionally and spiritually.  So when one has sex outside of marriage they are breaking a sacred bond God has given them in holy marriage.  But sexual immorality is not just wrong for those who are married but all people. Why?

Paul clearly teaches our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit when we become a Christian. Remember the temple was where God dwelt by His Spirit in the Old Testament.  There was only one place in the temple where God would reside, the holy of holies.  The high priest could only go into the holy of holies one time a year to offer a sacrificial lamb for the sins of people.  All throughout the Old Testament we see all the preparation that must take place for the Israelites to come into God's presence because of His holiness. The holiness of God was not to be messed with and people died for not taking it seriously. 

If our body is a temple of this same Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God we can see why it is so important to take care of our body not only physically but spiritually as well.  When a believer engages in sexual immorality he or she is offering their body to something unholy.   When God called you be His own possession be bought you with a price through Jesus' death for you. You are under new management.  So when a believer offers themselves to a prostitute or some other form of sexual immorality (i.e. pornography) they are polluting God's temple with an unclean spiritual presence.  This is why Paul is so serious about this particular sin, especially in the Corinthian culture where sexual immorality threatened the church being a leavening force in society. He is so serious that he tells them to "flee" from it.  Don't even engage or fool around with it.

We see that the problems in Paul's day in Corinth are no different in our culture today.  Christians are tempted by all kinds of sexual immorality, both single people and those married.  Sexual immorality has caused all kinds of problems in our the church and in the lives and families of believers.  So we would be wise when we are tempted sexually to flee remember that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit where God dwells.