Church in the City – Chapter 6
The Spiritual Mystery of Sex
September 22, 2024
It seems the world is fixated on sex.
God’s not embarrassed for us to talk about it and ask questions.
The question the world is asking about sex:
How can I have sex with more people and have the most pleasure?
The question the church should be asking:
How can I glorify God with my sexuality?
1 Corinthians 6:12-15 NIV
"Everything is permissible for me"-but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"-but I will not be mastered by anything. Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"-but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?”
“Everything is permissible for me”
Probably a common slogan or catchphrase for the Greeks in Corinth.
“Liberty to do anything.”
Our physical bodies are not separate from our spirits and souls.
Greeks – as long as my soul is at peace with God, I can do whatever I want with my body. Not true!!!
Jesus had a body that was real and then resurrected. Because Jesus was made human with a physical body, our bodies and what we do with them matters.
v. 15b - Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." 17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Sex that avoids commitment and intimacy simply leaves us broken and more alone than ever.
Matthew 19:5-6 NIV
'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? 6 So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
Sex is a gift that God wants to protect with marriage.
1st Corinthians 6:18 NIV
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
Flee from it!!
Repeatedly, Paul says to “stand firm” or “stand your ground” when talking about temptations.
Not so here – he tells us to run, run, run!!
1st Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV
“Do you not know that your body is a temple 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 body.”
Greek gods were placed inside the temples dedicated to them.
The Greeks would have never put another god in one of those temples!!
We’re not our own, we are carriers of the Spirit.
Honor God with our bodies
The temple of God has been redefined.
It’s personal to God what we do with our bodies.
What you do in my house is personal to me!!
1 Corinthians 6:17 NIV
“But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.”
We are destined for the resurrection!! We belong to God!!
