Lesson 5.0: The Problem Of The Proper Use Of The Body Series

November 27, 2012

Commentary on First Corinthians

By: Tom Lowe

Lesson 5.0: The Problem of the Proper Use of the Body

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6.12-6.20

Section 5.0-A: We Have Been Changed

12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

Section 5.0-B: We Belong To the Lord

13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.

15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.

16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Introduction

The Corinthian believers were ignorant of some basic truths of the Christian life.

Section 5.0-A

We Have Been Changed (12). We are not what we once were, so why should we live as we once lived? It is a matter not of “What is lawful?” but of “What is helpful?”

Section 5.0-B

We Belong To the Lord (13–20). He made the human body, He dwells in believers by His Spirit, and He purchased us at the Cross. The believer’s body belongs to God and must be used to glorify Him.

Commentary

Section 5.0-A: We Have Been Changed

12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

All things are lawful unto me,

Paul is not referring to things that are sinful and ungodly. There are many things which believers could do which would not harm them individually and would not be contrary to the laws of God and of spiritually; but for the sake of other believers and those who are not Christians, we do not dare to do those things.

I am not suggesting that our feeling some things are not wrong will make them right; but there are places where an individual believer could go which would have no ill effects on him—yet if another believer having a different temperament, and perhaps saved from a different background would attend or visit the same place, it could bring to mind old sins and cause temptation that could be the cause of the weaker brother’s stumbling.

The thirteenth verse seems to relate to that early dispute among Christians over making a distinction between meats, and to Paul’s warning against fornication. The connection seems plain enough if we listen to the famous determination of the apostles (See Acts 15:19-29), where the prohibition of certain foods was joined with that of fornication. Now some among the Corinthians seem to have imagined that they were as much at liberty to practice fornication as they were to eat all kinds of meats, especially because it was not a sin condemned by the laws of their country. They were ready to say, even in the case of fornication, All things are lawful for me. Paul opposes this destructive behavior: he tells them that many things that are lawful in themselves were not at all appropriate at certain times, and under particular circumstances; and Christians should not only consider what they can legally do, but what is appropriate and proper for them to do, considering their profession of faith, character, relations, and hopes. Furthermore, they should be very careful not to carry this maxim too far, where they would be brought into bondage, either to a crafty deceiver or a carnal inclination.

It is likely that some of the Corinthians had argued that the offence of the man, who had his father's wife, as well as the eating the things offered to idols and attending idol feasts, was not contrary to the law, as it then stood. To this the apostle answers: Though such a thing is lawful, yet the case of fornication, mentioned 1 Corinthians 5:1, it is not expedient—it is not agreeable to modesty, decency, order, and purity. It is contrary to the social norms of the best and most enlightened nations, and should not be tolerated in the Church of Christ.