This past week has given the world a preview of the demise of the entertainment industry. Charlie Sheen and Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, as one commentator said, stood on its coffin and hammered in nails, one in Detroit (where Mr. Sheen was booed off the stage) and the other at Rutgers University (where the Jersey Shore actor was paid $32,000 for a speech about partying and tanning). Charlie Sheen, showed that behaving badly in the company of porn stars can draw an audience, who paid hundreds of dollars to hear his rants. As for "Snooki", the questions were asked as why is a university giving $32,000 to a fake-tanned, large-breasted entertainer to talk about partying? For the faculty of Rutgers to let this person to speak from the same dais as scholars is an affront to every person in the auditorium, especially to the students in attendance that worked hard and long to receive their degrees.
At one time entertainment was directed to people of all ages. But now, as the public has become more exposed to sex and pornography, the industry has lowered its standards. Gratefully, Mr. Sheen will soon run out of venom and fade away. As to the faculty of Rutgers, the stupidness of their decision to bring in Snooki as a guest speaker will surely cost them thousands of dollars in donors’ money from the parents of the students that are still enrolled. (Arthur Rubinoff, Toronto. http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/04/05/tocays-letters-hammering-nails-into-the-coffin-of-the-entertainment-industry)
Like many people today, the Corinthian Christians rationalized their sinful thinking and habits. They were clever at coming up with seemingly good reasons for doing wrong things. They also lived in a society that was notoriously immoral, a society that, in the temple prostitution and other ways, actually glorified promiscuous sex. To have sexual relations with a prostitute was so common in Corinth that the practice came to be called “Corinthianizing.” Many believers had formerly been involved in such immorality, and it was hard for them to break with the old ways and easy to fall back into them. Just as it was hard for them to give up their love of human wisdom, their worldliness, their pride, their divisive spirit, and their love for suing, it was also hard for them to give up their sexual immorality.
In 1 Corinthians 6:12–20 Paul shows three of the evils of sexual sin: 1) It is harmful to everyone involved (1 Corinthians 6:12a); 2) It gains control over those who indulge in it (1 Corinthians 6:12b); and 3) It perverts God’s purpose for the body (1 Corinthians 6:13-20).
Since "The Body is the Lord’s" we must avoid sexual sin for:
1) Sexual Sin Harms (1 Corinthians 6:12a)
1 Corinthians 6:12a [12]"All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. ("All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything). (ESV)
In dealing with the illicit behavior of the Corinthians, Paul confronts the theology on which that behavior is predicated. Instead of living as forgiven, holy, and righteous believers, they indulged in sexual and social sins.
Instead of submitting to the rule of Jesus Christ, they condoned sin in the name of the freedom granted them in Christ. Instead of serving the Lord and their neighbor in genuine Christian love (Matt. 22:37–40), they served themselves (Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953-2001). Vol. 18: New Testament commentary : Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. New Testament Commentary (193). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.).
The statement, "All things are lawful" has quotation marks in the text because it was a popular saying of the day. It may have had its source in Gnosticism or in a misunderstanding of something that Paul had said or written. Gnosticism was a Greek philosophy that espoused the idea of a “dualism” between the body and the soul. The soul was recognized as good and of God, but the body was considered bad and not of God. In fact, the body was viewed as the jail that imprisoned the spirit. This notion affected behavior in two diverse ways. Some people decided the body needed to be punished, so they denied it practically all of its appetites. This was called asceticism and was behind many of the monastic movements. But the more popular reaction (Hedonism) was not to neglect the body but to indulge its every appetite with the feeling that what one did with one’s body had nothing to do with the soul or with one’s religion (Chafin, K. L., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1985). Vol. 30: The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 30 : 1, 2 Corinthians. The Preacher’s Commentary series (80–81). Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc.).
Using Paul’s previous language, the "All Things" here could refer to the adiaphora (the nonessentials: food, drink, days, circumcision, etc.), not with Christian ethics. These, which were Paul’s own words on a former occasion (to the Corinthians, compare 1Cor. 10:23, and Gal. 5:23), were made a pretext for excusing the eating of meats offered to idols, and so of what was generally connected with idolatry (Ac 15:29) (Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., Fausset, A. R., Brown, D., & Brown, D. (1997). A commentary, critical and explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments (1 Co 6:12). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.).
Paul borrows the saying and, playing off it, says, “It is so for me, too. Yet, freedom is not to be for self but for others. The real question is not whether an action is “lawful” or “right” or even “all right,” but whether it is good, whether it benefits. But to who’s benefit are we to most focus on? Truly Christian conduct is not predicated on whether I have the right to do something, but whether my conduct is helpful to those about me. (Fee, G. D. (1987). The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament (251). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.).
Every sin I as a Christian commit is forgiven in Jesus Christ.” But no sin is ever right or good, and no sin ever produces anything right or good. Sin can never be worthwhile, profitable or helpful. Helpful (sumpherô) is a compound Greek term which means “to bring together for one’s benefit” “to be to advantage.” (cf. 6:12; 7:35; 10:23; 12:7; II Cor. 8:10, the negative in 12:1). Just because a believer is free in Christ does not mean that every thing edifies other believers. We limit our freedom in love for the Lord and His church. We always seek and promote the health and vitality of the whole body of Christ (cf. I Cor. 12:7) (Utley, R. J. D. (2002). Vol. Volume 6: Paul’s Letters to a Troubled Church: I and II Corinthians. Study Guide Commentary Series (73). Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International.).
In the sense that believers are free and no longer under the penalty of the law in any way, all things are lawful for them. But the price for doing some things is terribly high, terribly unprofitable. Sin never brings profit; it always brings loss.
The particular type of sin Paul has in mind here (vv. 13–20) is sexual sin. No sin that a person commits has more built–in pitfalls, problems, and destructiveness than sexual sin. It has broken more marriages, shattered more homes, caused more heartache and disease, and destroyed more lives than alcohol and drugs combined.
It causes lying, stealing, cheating, and killing, as well as bitterness, hatred, slander, gossip, and unforgivingness.
Please turn to Proverbs 5
Illustration: Sex outside of marriage is like a man robbing a bank: he gets something, but it is not his and he will one day pay for it. Sex within marriage can be like a person putting money into a bank: there is safety, security, and he will collect dividends. Sex within marriage can build a relationship that brings joys in the future; but sex apart from marriage has a way of weakening future relationships (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (1 Co 6:9). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.)
The dangers and harm of sexual sin are nowhere presented more vividly and forcefully than in Proverbs.
Proverbs 5:3 [3]For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,and her speech is smoother than oil, (ESV) "UNTILL I MENTION ANOTHER PASSAGE, KEEP YOUR PLACE IN PROVERBS 5"
• The basic truth applies to a prostitute or to any other woman who tries to seduce a man. It also applies to a man who tries to seduce a woman. The point is that sexual allurement is extremely enticing and powerful. It seems nice, enjoyable, and good. It promises nothing but pleasure and satisfaction.
Notice what it ends up giving:
Proverbs 5:4-6 [4]but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. [5]Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; [6]she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it. (ESV)
• The first characteristic of sexual sin is deceit. It never delivers what it promises. It offers great satisfaction but gives great disappointment. It claims to be real living but is really the way to death. Illicit sexual relationships are always “unstable.” Nothing binds those involved except the temporary and impersonal gratification of physical impulses. That is poor cement.
• Another tragedy of sexual sin is that often those involved do “not know it” is unstable, do not realize perhaps for a long time that their relationship cannot be lasting. Thus they fall deeper and deeper into the pit of their doomed relationship, which makes the dissolution all the more devastating and painful.
The Bible’s advice for avoiding sexual involvement outside marriage is simple: stay as far away as possible from the persons and places likely to get you in trouble.
Proverbs 5:8 [8]Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, (Esv)
Involvement in illicit sex leads to loss of health, loss of possessions, and loss of honor and respect. Every person who continues in such sins does not necessarily suffer all of those losses, but those are the types of loss that persistent sexual sin produces. The sex indulger will come to discover:
Proverbs 5:9-11 [9]lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, [10]lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, [11]and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,
Finally, consider the solution:
Proverbs 5:18-19 [18]Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, [19]a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love. (ESV)
• Those who consider all sex to be basically evil, however, are as far from the truth as those who consider all sex to be basically good and permissible. God is not against sex. He created and blessed it. When used exclusively within marriage, as the Lord intends, sex is beautiful, satisfying, and stabilizing.
Illustration: Sexual intercourse outside of marriage is always wrong. Why? Because those who indulge in it are trying to isolate one aspect of union—the physical—from all the other aspects that were intended to make a total union of two people. There is nothing wrong with sexual pleasure, any more than there is with the pleasure of eating. However, just as attempting to enjoy the pleasures of eating and tasting without swallowing and digesting is abhorrent and wrong, so attempting to enjoy sex as an isolated physical sensation is wrong (Green, M. P. (1989). Illustrations for Biblical Preaching : Over 1500 sermon illustrations arranged by topic and indexed exhaustively (Revised edition of: The expositor’s illustration file). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.).
Since "The Body is the Lord’s" we must avoid sexual sin for:
2) Sexual Sin Controls (1 Corinthians 6:12b)
1 Corinthians 6:12b [12] ("All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful). "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything. (ESV)
Paul was free in the grace of Christ to do as he pleased, but he refused to allow himself to be enslaved/mastered by anything or anyone but Christ. He would not become enslaved to any habit or custom and certainly not to any sin.
Romans 6:14 [14]For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (ESV)
• People inevitably become enslaved to their sins. Paul reminds them that embodied humans easily can become hostage to their bodily appetites (cf. 2 Pet. 2:19). One can only (serve one) master..., and Paul later declares that he has ... become enslaved in service to Christ and others (9:16–19) and pummels his body to maintain his devotion (Garland, D. E. (2003). 1 Corinthians. Baker exegetical commentary on the New Testament (229). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic.).
No sin is more enslaving than sexual sin. The more it is indulged, the more it controls the indulger. Often it begins with small indiscretions, which lead to greater ones and finally to flagrant vice. The progression of sin is reflected in Psalm 1:
Psalm 1:1 [1:1]Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; (ESV)
• When we willingly associate with sin, we will soon come to tolerate it and then to practice it. Like all other sins that are not resisted, sins of sex will grow, and eventually they will corrupt and destroy not only the persons directly involved but many innocent persons besides.
Finally, since "The Body is the Lord’s" we must avoid sexual sin for:
3) Sexual Sin Perverts (1 Corinthians 6:13-20)
Sexual sin not only harms and controls but also perverts. It especially perverts God’s plan and purpose for the bodies of His people. A Christian’s body is for the Lord; it is a member of Christ; and it is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
a) The Body is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:13-14)
1 Corinthians 6:13-14 [13]"Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"--and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. [14]And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. (ESV)
Food and the stomach were created by God for each other. Their relationship is purely biological. It is likely the Corinthians were using this truth as an analogy to justify sexual immorality. Perhaps this was popular proverb meant to celebrate the idea that “Sex is no different from eating: the stomach was made for food, and the body was made for sex.” The perusal of first-century cookbooks shows how sophisticated the sin of gluttony was. Immorality and gluttony went hand in hand at pagan feasts. Paul counters that neither food nor the appetite are indestructible (Carson, D. A. (1994). New Bible commentary : 21st century edition (4th ed.) (1 Co 6:9–20). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., USA: Inter-Varsity Press.).
Just as food is necessary if the stomach is to function, so is the Lord necessary if the body is to function. It is only as God enables us that we can live the kind of life for which we were meant (Morris, L. (1985). Vol. 7: 1 Corinthians: An introduction and commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (99). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.).
It is also true that that the food and the stomach relationship is purely temporal.” One day, when their purpose has been fulfilled, God will destroy/do away both one and the other/with both of them. That biological process has no place in the eternal state.
Not so with the body itself. The bodies of believers are designed by God for much more than biological functions. The body is not meant for sexual immorality. Sexual immorality comes from the word (porneia) which includes fornication or sexual intercourse outside of marriage (Johnson, A. F. (2004). Vol. 7: 1 Corinthians. The IVP New Testament commentary series (101). Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.).
God created the human body not for sinful pleasure but for his glory. He formed it in his image and after his likeness (Gen. 1:26), for service in his creation (Gen. 1:28). He instituted marriage for the propagation of the human race and for the enrichment of the marriage partners. He sees the use of the human body for fornication to be absolutely contrary to this purpose (I Thess. 4:3–5). The members of the Jerusalem Council knew that the Gentiles considered sexual immorality acceptable. Thus, to the decrees on food the council members added the moral law: “To abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from strangled animals, and from fornication” (Acts 15:29). Those Corinthians who flaunted their freedom in Christ considered themselves free to indulge in eating and in sexual gratification. But their sexual immorality violated the precepts of the Jerusalem Council and was a transgression of the Decalogue (Exod. 20:14; Deut. 5:18) (Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953-2001). Vol. 18: New Testament commentary : Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. New Testament Commentary (195). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.).
Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 6:14 that God raised the Lord, and will also raise us up by/through His power. Our bodies are designed not only to serve in this life but in the life to come. They will be changed bodies, resurrected bodies, glorified bodies, heavenly bodies—but they will still be our own bodies.
Please turn to Philippians 3
The stomach and food have only a horizontal, temporal relationship. At death the relationship ceases. But our bodies are far more than biological. For believers they also have a spiritual, vertical relationship. They belong to God and they will forever endure with God. That is why Paul says
Philippians 3:20-21 [20]But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, [21]who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (ESV)
• We need to take serious care of this body because it will rise in glory to be the instrument that carries our eternally glorious and pure spirit throughout eternity.
b) The Body is a Member of Christ (1 Corinthians 6:15-18)
1 Corinthians 6:15-18 [15]Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! [16]Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh." [17]But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. [18]Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. (ESV)
Once again, Paul asks a rhetorical question with the verb to know that demands an affirmative answer (see, e.g., vv. 2, 3, 9). He seems to refresh the memory of his readers by referring to earlier oral teachings. He asks whether they have any knowledge concerning their own bodies (John C. Hurd, Jr., The Origin of I Corinthians (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1983), p. 87.).
Please turn to Ephesians 1
The believers’ bodies not only are for the Lord now and in the future, but they are of the Lord, a part of the Lord’s own body, members of Christ. “We, who are many, are one body in Christ” (Rom. 12:5). Of Christ, God says:
Ephesians 1:22-23 [22]And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, [23]which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (ESV)
• We are, in this age, the living spiritual temple in which Christ lives. We are His body, the incarnation of His person in the church.
Paul’s next point follows logically. For a Christian to commit sexual immorality is to make the members of Christ … members of a prostitute/harlot. The Greek word pornç (prostitute) is an echo of the word porneia (fornication, sexual immorality [vv. 13, 19]; the colloquial English word porn derives from it). In the Greek culture of that day, prostitution and fornication were considered permissible activities.
Quote: Athenaeus, a writer in the second century A.D., quotes from a speech of Demosthenes: “We keep mistresses for pleasure, concubines for daily concubinage, but wives we have in order to produce children legitimately and to have a trustworthy guardian of our domestic property.” (Athenaeus Deipnosophistae 13.573b (LCL).)
Striking indeed is the contrast between the person who clings to a prostitute and the one who adheres to Christ. For instance, the relationship between a man and a prostitute is momentary, without love, devoid of responsibility, mutually destructive, decidedly egocentric, and shamefully immoral.
Conversely, the believer’s relationship with Jesus Christ is characterized by permanence, love, trust, edification, obedience, and purity. Prostitution makes one prone to disease and is degrading, sinful, and damaging to one’s soul. However, Christ exalts a person, encourages wholesome living, instructs him or her in the law of love for God and one’s fellow human being, and refreshes the believer’s spirit. An immoral person fails to enjoy matrimonial bliss, experiences failure in personal intimacy, substitutes sex for service to God, and indulges in vulgarity, obscenity, and sensuality. But a Christian builds loving and lasting companionship with his spouse, seeks fulfillment in serving others, loves his Lord, joyfully worships God, cultivates wholesome speech, promotes decency, and exemplifies virtue. “Thus we can understand why the Ephesian letter [Eph. 5:21–33] emphasizes that Christ and his church, as the bridegroom and the bride, constitute the union that is normative for marriage.”( J. Stanley Glen, Pastoral Problems in First Corinthians (London: Epworth, 1965), p. 93.)
The Corinthians actions were using a part of Christ’s own body in an act of fornication or adultery. The idea is incomprehensible to Paul, as it should be to every believer. The rhetorical answer as to whether we should do this is "never/may it never be!"
Sexual relations involve a union; the man and woman as it says in Ephesians 6:16, become one flesh. Paul uses the strong verb kollaô (joined/unites), a word used of close bonds of various kinds. In the literal sense it means ‘to glue’; it comes to have metaphorical meanings, but clearly it points to a very close tie (Morris, L. (1985). Vol. 7: 1 Corinthians: An introduction and commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (100–101). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)
They are joined to the extent that they become one flesh (see Gen. 2:24; etc.). Far from devaluing sex, the very opposite comes about. In this area Paul was far ahead of first-century cultural assumptions in perceiving the sexual act as one of intimacy and self-commitment which involved the whole person; not the mere manipulation of some “peripheral” function of the body.( D. S. Bailey, The Man-Woman Relation in Christian Thought (London: Longmans, 1959), 9–10.)
• The Corinthians had not thought through the implications of their sexual laxity. Anyone who unites with a prostitute by that act becomes one with her. ‘Casual sex’ is anything but casual. It is an act of sacrilege. Temples like our bodies are not meant for profanations like this (Morris, L. (1985). Vol. 7: 1 Corinthians: An introduction and commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (100). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.).
Quote: In his Screwtape Letters C. S. Lewis says that each time a man and a woman enter into a sexual relationship a spiritual bond is established between them which must be eternally enjoyed or eternally endured. God takes sexual sin seriously because it corrupts and shatters spiritual relationships, both human and divine.
Christ’s people are, as it says in Ephesians 6:17, one spirit with Him. That statement is filled with profound meaning and wondrous implications. Because sexual union has a spiritual component, sexual activity outside marriage is a unique sin both against Christ (1 Cor. 6:15) and one’s own body (v. 18; see Prov. 6:26, 32). Within marriage, sexual union is not only allowed but has positive spiritual significance (Gen. 2:24; Eph. 5:22–33) (Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (2199). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles).
Here, Paul shows that a Christian who commits sexual immorality involves his Lord.
All sex outside of marriage is sin, but when it is committed by believers it is especially reprehensible, because it profanes Jesus Christ, with whom the believer is one (cf. John 14:18–23; 15:4, 7; 17:20–23). Since we are one with Christ, and the sex sinner is one with his partner, Christ is placed in an unthinkable position in Paul’s reasoning. Christ is not personally tainted with the sin, any more than the sunbeam that shines on a garbage dump is polluted. But His reputation is dirtied because of the association.
Paul’s counsel regarding sexual sin in Ephesians 6:18 is the same as Solomon’s in the book of Proverbs: Flee from sexual immorality. This short command is exemplified by Joseph in the house of his Egyptian master Potiphar, whose wife tried to seduce him. Joseph left his cloak in her hand when he fled from the house (Gen. 39:12) (Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953-2001). Vol. 18: New Testament commentary : Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. New Testament Commentary (200). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.).
The present imperative of the Greek here to flee, indicates the idea is to flee continually and to keep fleeing until the danger is past. When we are in danger of such immorality, we should not argue or debate or explain, and we certainly should not try to rationalize. We are not to consider it a spiritual challenge to be met but a spiritual trap to be escaped. We should get away as fast as we can.
Paul does not clarify on what he means by Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body. Other sins against the body, e.g. drunkenness or gluttony, involve the use of that which comes from outside the body. Many sins, such as substance abuse, gluttony, and suicide, have detrimental effects on the body. Paul’s words do not refer to disease and/or other damage caused by sin. Instead, his words are linked to the preceding discussion of 6:12–17. There Paul established that Christians’ bodies are joined with Christ so that they become “members of Christ” (6:15) himself (Pratt, R. L., Jr. (2000). Vol. 7: I & II Corinthians. Holman New Testament Commentary; Holman Reference (101). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.).
The sexual appetite arises from within The sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Most likely he is saying that, although sexual sin is not necessarily the worst sin, it is the most unique in its character. It rises from within the body bent on personal gratification. It drives like no other impulse and when fulfilled affects the body like no other sin. It has a way of internally destroying a person that no other sin has. Because sexual intimacy is the deepest uniting of two persons, its misuse corrupts on the deepest human level. And fornication involves ‘a degrading physical solidarity, incompatible with the believer’s spiritual solidarity with Christ’(Morris, L. (1985). Vol. 7: 1 Corinthians: An introduction and commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (101). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.).
c) The Body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 [19]Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, [20]for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (ESV)
As Christians our bodies are not our own. Paul puts sting into this verse by framing it as a sarcastic question. They are the Lord’s, members of Christ, and temples of the Holy Spirit, who has been given by God to indwell us. For the Jew, this was the place where God dwelled among his people until the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70. For the Christian, not a fixed geographic site but the body of the individual believer is the place where God’s Spirit is pleased to dwell (Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953-2001). Vol. 18: New Testament commentary : Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. New Testament Commentary (202). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.).
Earlier Paul had referred to the church as a whole as God’s temple (3:16), but here body is singular, so that each believer is a temple in which God dwells. The word is naos, which means the sacred shrine, the sanctuary, the place where deity dwells.... This gives a dignity to the whole of life, such as nothing else could do. Wherever we go we are the bearers of the Holy (Spirit) the temples in which God is pleased to dwell. This rules out all such conduct as is not appropriate to the temple of God. Its application to fornication is obvious, but the principle is of far wider application. Nothing that would be amiss in God’s temple is seemly in the child of God (Morris, L. (1985). Vol. 7: 1 Corinthians: An introduction and commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (101–102). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press).
Paul calls for sexual purity not only because of the way sexual sin affects the body, but because the body it affects is not even the believer’s own. Understanding the reality of the phrase the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God should give us as much commitment to purity as any knowledge of divine truth could.
Quote: Gordon Fee commented that: "The presence of the Spirit means that God himself, who created us with bodies in the first place, has taken keen interest in our whole life, including the life of the body. The creation of the body was pronounced good in the beginning; it has now been purchased by Christ and is sanctified by the presence of God himself through his Holy Spirit. We must therefore “sanctify” it as well … by living the life of the Spirit, a life of holiness". (Gordon Fee as cited in Barton, B. B., & Osborne, G. R. (1999). 1 & 2 Corinthians. Life application Bible commentary (89). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House)
The Shekinah glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle (Ex. 40:34) and the temple (1 Kin. 8:10, 11). Now, the glory of God in the person of the Holy Spirit dwells within every believer (John 14:16, 17) and thus inhabits the entire church. The OT priests took great pains to maintain a pure sanctuary for God’s presence. Every Christian ought also to care diligently for his body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, in order to honor God and the church (Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (1 Co 6:19). Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.).
Please turn to 1 Peter 1
We no longer belong to ourselves because as 1 Corinthians 6:20 says we have been bought with a price. There is possibly an antithesis to the price paid to a prostitute. The verb is in the aorist tense, which points to a single decisive action in time past. Paul mentions neither the occasion nor the price, but there is no need. Clearly he is referring to Calvary, where Christ gave his life to purchase sinners (Morris, L. (1985). Vol. 7: 1 Corinthians: An introduction and commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (102). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.).
1 Peter 1:18-19 [18]knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, [19]but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. (ESV)
• The imagery (here) of the purchased slave underpins the point that Christian believers belong to a new master, or owner, to whom they must give account for everything (Thiselton, A. C. (2000). The First Epistle to the Corinthians : A commentary on the Greek text (475). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.)
• We have been redeemed from those things which enslave. Why would we ever voluntarily submit ourselves again to such slavery. Christians have a freedom that millions addicted to various sins, can only dream about. What an evangelistic opportunity!
Christians’ bodies are God’s temple, and a temple is for worship. Our bodies, therefore, have one supreme purpose: to glorify God. This is an AORIST ACTIVE IMPERATIVE, an urgent command, not an option (Utley, R. J. D. (2002). Vol. Volume 6: Paul’s Letters to a Troubled Church: I and II Corinthians. Study Guide Commentary Series (77). Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International.).
With the command to glorify God in your body, the word your is plural, but the words body and temple are singular (1 Cor. 6:19). It may be that Paul is here describing not only the individual believer, but also the local church. Each local assembly is a “body” of people united to Jesus Christ. The conduct of individual members affects the spiritual life of the entire church (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (1 Co 6:9). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.).
To glorify God in our body means so to use our earthly body that (people) may actually see that our bodies belong to God. We refuse to use them for sinful acts, we reserve them wholly for obedience to God (Lenski, R. C. H. (1963). The interpretation of St. Paul’s First and Second epistle to the Corinthians (271). Minneapolis, MN.: Augsburg Publishing House.).
• In a broader application, stated positively, a commitment to health and the eating and exercise habits involved would take on religious dimensions. Stated negatively, it would also mean that the abuse of our bodies with alcohol or other drugs or by overeating represents a failure to take seriously the truth that our bodies are the temple of Christ (Chafin, K. L., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1985). Vol. 30: The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 30 : 1, 2 Corinthians. The Preacher’s Commentary series (84). Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc.)
• In all of this, it is a call to live so as to bring honor to the person of God, who alone is worthy of our obedience and adoration.
(Format note: Outline & some base commentary from MacArthur, J. (1996). 1 Corinthians (145–153). Chicago: Moody Press.)
