1 Corinthians 6:12-20 Sexual Immorality
6/15/03 D. Marion Clark
Introduction
The scene is Malacandra (Mars). The human, Ransom, is having a conversation with an hross, a seal-like Malacandrian. In a roundabout way, Ransom has raised the question of hrossa overindulging in sexual relations. Hyoi, the hross, tries to comprehend the conception and responds thus:
“I have heard,” he said at last, “of something like what you mean. It is said that sometimes here and there a cub of certain age gets strange twists in him…I have heard of something stranger. There is a poem about a hross who lived long ago, in another handramit, who saw things all made two – two suns in the sky, two heads on a neck; and last of all they say that he fell into such a frenzy that he desired two mates. I do not ask you to believe it, but that is the story: that he loved two hressni.”
Ransom pondered this. Here, unless Hyoi was deceiving him, was a species naturally continent, naturally monogamous….At last it dawned upon him that it was not they, but his own species, that were the puzzle. That the hrossa should have such instincts was mildly surprising; but how came it that the instincts of the hrossa so closely resembled the unattained ideals of that far-divided species Man whose instincts were so deplorably different? What was the history of Man?”
The hross would be amazed with our world’s approach to sex. Raised in an unfallen world, he could not comprehend what for our society is but natural activity, and what, unfortunately, has become accepted even among Christians. Many of the Corinth Christians bought right into the world’s philosophy, just as many still do today.
Text
“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.
I’ve mentioned before the Corinthians’ strange theology that permitted them to engage in sexual immorality with a “good” conscience. Paul dialogues with that theology in this text, which helps us to understand their way of thinking. It appears that they had taken Paul’s own teaching about freedom from the law and applied it to mean that they could do just about anything. Paul himself taught that Christians are not under the law but under grace. In Romans 6:14 he says, You are not under law, but under grace. He has taught that we cannot earn our righteousness by the law, and, indeed, that the law only makes us guilty (Romans 3:20). Christ has set us free from a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1). And didn’t Paul say even in this letter that “all things are yours” (3:21)?
So, what do you have to say now, Paul? He responds. Yes, there is a sense in which all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful to do. And though all things may be lawful, we are not to become slaves to these things. We are to consider two consequences of our actions: their effect on others and their effect on us. The question is not what is lawful, but what is helpful for others. Remember the Golden Rule and the commandment to love one’s neighbor? Christ set us free, not to do whatever we want, but to do what is righteous and loving. Furthermore, we are set free from the slavery of sin so that we might be slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:18). The problem with the law is that sin had manipulated it to make us slaves. For a Christian, set free from the law and sin by grace, to engage in sexual immorality is tantamount to clamping the shackles of slavery to our own wrists and ankles. It defeats the very purpose of being released from the law.
Good response, Paul. Now another argument: 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The Greek text does not have quotation marks, by the way. The NIV and ESV put them in because the translators understand Paul to be quoting statements by the Corinthians. It is possible that the whole verse should be in quotes so that the Corinthians are making the following argument: “Since everything is permitted, and since food is for the stomach and the stomach for food (after all, God will destroy them both in the end, and since all bodily appetites are pretty much alike, that means that the body is for sex and sex for the body – because God will destroy them both in the end as well” (Fee, p. 255).
Do you follow the argument? Who cares what we do with the body? It is the spirit of the person that counts. The body will be destroyed; it is the spirit that lives on.
That, says Paul, is where you are wrong. 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.
God may or may not will destroy our bellies, but he will not destroy our bodies – don’t forget the resurrection. Gordon Fee, whose commentary I heavily rely on, taught me 1 Corinthians in seminary. I still remember him saying what he also wrote in his commentary on this text: “The Christian creed, based on NT revelation, is not the immortality of the soul, but the resurrection of the body” (p. 266). Our hope is not to be set free from the body, but from the body marred with sin. We look forward to getting rid of our present bodies that are subject to decay; but our destiny is not to be free spirits but have glorified bodies.
Thus, understand that God honors the body. Christ our Lord took on himself a body in order to redeem us in the body. That is what it means for the Lord to be for the body. The body, then, is made to be for the Lord. Romans 12:1 says, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
Let’s review the argument taking place. The Corinthians argue that it is permissible to engage in sexual immorality because as Christians they are free from the law and have authority to live as they please. Paul counters that Christians are set free for the very purpose of living righteous lives. The Corinthians further argue that, because the body is temporary, it is irrelevant what we do with our bodies. Paul counters that the body is not temporary, but is very much a part of God’s eternal plans as evidenced by Christ’s resurrection and ours to come.
Paul then presents another thought, using his “don’t you know” technique: 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.
This is his it’s-not-all-about-you argument. The honor of Christ is at stake. We are getting into mystery here. Our bodies are members of Christ; we are united to him in a spiritual union that includes our bodies. There is also a union that takes place in sexual relations. Paul quotes Genesis 2:24 to back up his contention about the union. Does he mean that the sex act itself constitutes the same union we associate with a marriage and the union we have with Christ? He means that to perform the act outside of marriage is to commit a profane act because it emulates the sacred union between husband and wife and between Christ and believer. The sex act is an expression of oneness. The man who engages with a prostitute is expressing a oneness with her – body and soul. He is pulling
away from Christ to join with a sinner, or worse yet, attempting to be united with both and so defiling the body of the Lord.
Paul goes on: 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. Don’t test the waters; don’t sow your wild oats; don’t play around with it; flee! You are harming yourself.
What does Paul mean by the sentence: Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body? Wouldn’t gluttony or drinking fit this description? What makes sexual immorality unique in its effect on the body? The key is found in the previous verses, 15-17, which speak of the sexual act as forming a union between the partners, a union which tears the fabric of union with Christ. Again, we are dealing with mystery. The sex act portrays the sacred spiritual union between Christ and the believer. It profanes the holy of which the believer now partakes because of his union in Christ. In other words, somehow sexual sin goes beyond physical sin into body and spirit.
And we do not have the right to subject ourselves to such harm: 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.
Do you think a temple is sacred? Your body is a temple; it is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit given to you by God. He has taken up residence and claims you for God. You were bought with a price, the blood of Jesus Christ. You are not the free men and women you think you are. You were bought out of slavery to sin to belong to someone else – God. You were delivered from service to sin in order to serve God. Before, you served sin with your bodies; now you are to glorify God.
Lessons
The Corinthians model Christians’ ability to rationalize, distort doctrine, and wed unbiblical philosophy with their Christian faith. How are we guilty of following their example? Do we have a problem with sexual immorality? Apparently so. Christian marriages have ended because of one of the spouses’ adultery. Christian men have yielded to the temptations of prostitutes, and both husbands and wives have had affairs.
But this is nothing new. Christians sin, and sexual sin is but one of many. The difference today, as opposed to the pre-1960s, is the sexual revolution that has occurred since the latter half of the last century. My generation was probably the last in which American society still upheld, at least on the surface, the Judeo-Christian sexual ethic that sex ought to be reserved for marriage. There were the wild boys and the loose girls, but they were recognized as wild and loose. Couples may have been sleeping together, but they at least tried to hide the fact. There was an understanding that sex outside of marriage was not proper.
Now the opposite is true. I remember counseling a young couple getting married. I asked them if their parents approved of the marriage. They replied yes, but both sets of parents did have one reservation; they preferred to couple to live together for awhile first. I never thought I would see the day when parents were concerned that their children were not sleeping around with others! Times have changed. Our society teaches that because sex is natural, it is good and ought to be practiced whenever someone is ready. How do we know when someone is ready? That’s easy; just follow your heart. But do understand this. If you are about to hit twenty, and you are still a virgin, then something is wrong with you; you need help. To be dating someone and not sleeping with that person…well, just don’t let that be known. If you are engaged and not having sex, then you do need counseling. That is unnatural.
That’s our society. It is a nonChristian society and so its views are understandable. What’s wrong with sex if people enjoy it? There’s no law against having fun. Besides, it is only a natural, physical act. How can a normal body function and craving be wrong; it’s just the body, which dies anyhow. And don’t I have a right to do what I want with my own body? Nobody else owns it. It’s mine. I’m not hurting anyone else.
Hhmm, sounds familiar, doesn’t it. That’s what the Corinth Christians were saying. They were simply rephrasing what they had learned from their pagan culture. They were simple doing what Christians today are doing – buying into the world’s philosophy. Thus, there are Christians who live together outside marriage; Christians who have affairs and/or divorce their spouses to pursue other lovers. The greatest pressure is on our young people who are made to look foolish, prudish, and abnormal if they should let it be known that they try to be chaste. Where in previous generations, young people had to defend having sex outside marriage, now they must defend not having it; and many Christians are giving in or buying in to the culture.
Again, as we noted with homosexuality, there is no biblical case to justify sex outside the marriage bond. One biblical criteria for designating sexual activity as immoral is it being outside the framework of marriage. One may argue that love makes a sexual act moral. Fine, that is the world’s argument; it is not in scripture, however. As we noted in last week’s sermon, love ought to be part of the sexual relationship, but love does not have the power to override the divine order for sexual relations. Again, as much as we would like to appeal to the heart as the judge for right and wrong, scripture teaches us to distrust the heart and look to God’s clear teachings in the Bible for what is right and wrong. God’s Word instructs the heart; the heart does not instruct divine principles.
Here is what I want to leave you with – hope. Since we are sinners, sexual temptations are very real. In a congregation of over 200 people, I know that a number of you must not merely be struggling with the possibility of yielding to it, but you have already given in. The mere craving may be such as to have led you into sin. For some of you, troubles in your life may have pushed you into it – depression, loss of job, a broken relationship. Your life may have become routine, boring; sex provided an adventure. You may be single and the pressures and temptations of the world are pressing in on you to give in. You may be craving a relationship. I knew of a godly woman in her thirties active in church who ran away with a man who showed her attention and perhaps her only chance for marriage. Whoever you are and whatever the reason, you may have fallen. Others of you may be teetering on the edge; you have an interest in someone who perhaps is showing you attention. You are already caught in the web of pornography and are being pulled into deeper scandal.
Get help now. As I said last week, I will say now, you can speak to me. You certainly will not be the first, and I can’t imagine you even being original. In Christian circles, sexual immorality is a scandalous sin, but it is by no means a rare one, as proven by the clergy. You can be helped. Men and women, young people, you can withstand the temptations, and you can reclaim control of your lives so that you experience real loving sexual relationships in the bounds of marriage, and healthy, moral relationships before and outside marriage.
The gospel extends to you true hope – both of forgiveness of sin and power to withstand it. Christ has done the work of providing forgiveness; he also has sent his Holy Spirit to dwell within you to give you power to live holy lives. He has also given you the church, the body of brothers and sisters to come alongside you and help you be strong. The church is not a place to act like we are strong. It is a place to draw strength. Men and women, we need to help each other in this area. We need to encourage and strengthen one another. We need to be agents of hope for the gospel.
I also need to give a warning to those of you who think you are beyond sexual temptation. Men and women have fallen after years of good Christian marriages. Men and women noted for their godliness and love for the Lord have fallen. I think now of the author of Magnificent Marriage, the respected deacon who left his family for another woman, the Christian counselor who committed adultery with a client, the PCA ministers caught in adultery, and the list could go on. You are never in more danger than when you think you could never commit such a sin. Pride goeth before the fall. Protect yourself always.
Remember: No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it (1 Corinthians 10:13).
That is a great verse that many of us have memorized. Realize this though: That “way of escape” includes the church; it includes us being used by God to help one another.
