Is Sexual Immorality is Different Than Any Other Sin? 1 Corinthians 6:18-20

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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. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20

We know that sexual immorality was rampant in the city of Corinth. We know that the Corinthians were already proud of a man who had sex with his father's wife. At the very least they didn't do anything about it. One of the ways they rationalized their freedom to commit sexual immorality was that just as they were free from the food restrictions of the Old Testament, should they not be free from the restriction to have sex with only their wives. Note this was mainly a freedom that the men exercised not the women. 

But Paul says, "Not so fast". The difference between eating food and having sex with someone is great. Why? Mainly because the body is part of who we are and closely linked to our soul. Unlike some of the false teaching in Jesus' day, where they viewed the soul as good and the body as bad, because it was the source of evil desires. Jesus showed the importance of the body, when his own body was raised from the dead. If God didn't care about the body, then He would not have raised Jesus in bodily form at the resurrection. And He would not have given the promise of a new body in heaven to all who believe in Him. 

As Paul said to the Romans, "In view of God's mercy offer your bodies as a living sacrifice." But most importantly Paul says the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, the temple was where God dwelt in the holy of holies. For Paul to say that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit would have been a radical idea in his day. 

So than why is sexual immorality worse than any other sin? First of all, we must look at the purpose of sex. Genesis gives us a clue when it says when a man and woman marry, the two become one flesh. This is not only a physical and emotional union, but a spiritual one as well. It was meant for pleasure but also had the purpose of procreation and fulfilling the command to be fruitful and multiply.  

 There is great unifying power within the sexual union. God designed it to involve not only bodies but hearts and lives. Sex was designed to consummate the lifetime union between a man and woman. Jesus said, “What God has joined together let no one separate” (Matthew 19:6; Mark 10:9). (Got Questions,org)

Though marriage is not recognized as a sacrament in the Protestant church, it is "sacramental" in its very essence. The union between a man and woman in marriage is a holy thing because God has joined two people together in a way that we don't even fully understand. It is a mystery how two people become one in marriage as consummated in sexual intercourse.  So, when a person commits adultery (sex outside of marriage), they are taking this holy and sacred gift from God and offering to another person outside of the covenant they have made with their spouse (in God's presence).  They are defiling the temple of their body and breaking the covenant of trust which they bound themselves to in holy marriage. 

You only need to look out in our current culture to see why God put a special boundary around sex between a man and a woman.  Look at the result of our rejecting God's plan for sexual intimacy in the context and covenant of marriage. 

When we use sexuality for entertainment or to satisfy lust, we cheapen the beauty of this powerful gift and defy the One who designed it. We also reap the consequences of our sin. Our sexual disobedience has produced a world staggering under the weight of disease, abortion, perversion, child molestation, addiction, and sexual exploitation. God created boundaries for our good so that we could enjoy His gift as it was designed to be enjoyed. (Got Questions.org)

Sex is a gift. God gave it to us enjoy in the context in which he created for it to be enjoyed ... marriage, But the Corinthians thought their freedom in Christ gave them the right to be free to have sex with anyone they wanted. In the end what they thought was freedom brought them into bondage to the same sinful nature Jesus had freed them from. God had set them apart as holy and different from the world, but by engaging in this behavior one could argue there was really no difference between them, and the people around them who did not know Christ!   

Statistics show us that sexual immorality among Christians is just as common as with non-Christians. According to Pew Research half of  the US. Christian population considers "casual sex" acceptable. I guess the apostle Paul might say the same thing to us today!