Alba 6-1-2025
WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT YOUR BODY
I Corinthians 6:12-20
I found this story of two rednecks who lived in snow country, named Bubba and Isabella. They got up one morning and did their customary thing, they turned the radio on to get the local weather report and drink a cup of coffee.
The weather man said, “There will be 3 to 5 inches of snow today and a snow emergency has been declared. You must park your cars on the odd numbered side, so the snow plows can clear the other side.” Bubba said, “Isabella, I am going to put my car on the odd number side of the road.”
The next day, they turned the radio on and got the coffee going and the weather man said, “There will be 2 to 4 inches of snow today and a snow emergency has been declared. You must park your cars on the even numbered side of the streets so the snow plows can clear the other side.” Bubba got up from his coffee and told Isabella he was going to put his car on the even number side of the road.
Three days later, again they both are sitting down with their cups of coffee and the weather man says, “There will be 6 to 8 inches of snow today and a snow emergency has been declared. You must park your cars on the..."” and then the power went out and Bubba didn't get the rest of the instructions.
He said to his wife, “What am I going to do now, Isabella?” Isabella said, “Bubba, why don’t you just leave the car in the garage today!” It sounds like he wasn't thinking real clearly. And neither were the people in the church in Corinth. That is why the apostle Paul wrote his letters to that church. Things were going on in that church, and they were all bad. They were divided over which preacher they would follow. They were proud of a man who had an immoral relationship with his father’s wife. And instead of putting him out of their fellowship, they boasted about it.
They were confused over how to distinguish between dealing with fellow Christians and dealing with those who are outside of Christ. They had legal battles between one another and were taking them to court. And now, as we continue to look at I Corinthians chapter six, they don’t seem to understand the inconsistency with practicing sexual sin and being a Christian.
As in the case of Bubba, some people have cars, but seem that they do not have enough sense to have one. And... everyone has a body, but sometimes it makes you wonder why God gave them one. Because, they do not seem to have enough sense to know how to use it. In this first letter to the Corinthians eight times Paul used expression “Do you not know?” Again and again he had to say to them, "Didn’t anyone ever tell you about these things? Haven’t you been informed?
Could it be that the Christians at Corinth really did not know better, and had to be informed? After all, they had been saved from gross heathenism, dreadful superstition, and loose moral living. Perhaps they really didn’t know how to behave with their bodies as Christians. Or it could have been that the Corinthians were ignoring certain information given to them.
People today are also acting as if they have never been informed, or are ignoring what they should know. But as Christians, we have no excuse. Because there is a lot that the Bible says about our bodies. I Corinthians 6:12-14 says this: “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.” That clearly says to Christians:
1. Your Body Is For the Lord and He Is For Your Body
An argument can be made that Christians have been set free from rules and regulations. Paul does not disagree with that. He simply points out that not everything we are capable of doing is beneficial for us. The phrase “all things are lawful for me” is believed to be a Corinthian slogan. The Corinthian church existed in the midst of a permissive society, where the philosophy of “If it feels good, do it,” was the norm.
Apparently another Corinthian slogan was “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food.” So when it came to the use of their bodies, the Corinthians insisted that “All things are lawful”, “Everything is permissible” (1 Cor. 6:12) or “I have the right to do anything” (NIV) or “I am allowed to do anything” (NLT). A common belief among the people of Greece was that the flesh was separate from the spirit.
To them, the important thing was the soul, the spirit of man; the body was a thing that did not matter. Thinking this way meant you could do as you pleased with the body. They believed you could have fun with the flesh as long as you did right with the spirit. The idea is that if the soul is all that matters, then what a person does with the body, morally or immorally, is of no significance.
That led even Christians to believe that you can have it all. You can have wild Saturdays and worshipful Sundays. But Paul gives a different and godly way of thinking. In Philippians 3:19, when Paul was talking about people who live as enemies of the cross of Christ, he stated that their “end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame”.
Our bodies are not made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. The Christian is not free to do as he or she pleases. That really isn’t freedom, but rather it is a form of bondage.
For example, if you want to skydive without a parachute, you certainly could say you have attained freedom from the parachute. And at first, it would feel great – no restraints, no restrictions, no hang-ups… But you can’t fight the consequences, even if you change your mind. Gravity is going to work. And you will, in the end, go splat. So Paul is saying that the question is not whether things are permissible or lawful. The issue is whether it is good or bad. Paul cautions us that everything is not beneficial, nor should we be mastered or controlled by anything.
This is why Scripture forbids gluttony and drunkenness, because both of those things can destroy our bodies and hinder our service to God. Later in this letter, in First Corinthians 9:27, Paul tells how he deals with this issue. He says, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection”. Yes, there is a lot that the Bible says about our bodies.
Paul continues in I Corinthians 6:15-17 and says, “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 harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.” That clearly says to Christians:
2. Your Body Is a Member of Christ
Nearly every TV show, every secular music video, nearly every popular song, and nearly every movie coming out of Hollywood shouts the message: “It’s your body! If it feels good do it! Sex is just a physical act like any other physical act. If your body desires sex, then fulfill that desire as often as possible.”
The sexual anthem of our day is: “I’ll do what I want. It’s my body.” The pro-abortionists cry out that a woman has a right to her own body, and that no one should interfere with what she does with her body. But there is little regard for the rights of the unborn child and its body which has a completely different DNA than its mother. You have heard the slogan: “My body, my choice”. It’s a completely false statement. God’s firm response is: “No it’s not. Your body is Mine.”
Our bodies are not our own and neither are our choices, for every decision ought to be surrendered to the will of God. With His own shed blood on that cross Jesus purchased us and redeemed us from sin, Satan’s clutches, and the eternal consequences of rebellion against God. Jesus has a claim on you and me. We are His.
After our conversion our bodies become His body. Look again at verse 15. “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” We are members of the “body of Christ.” Romans chapter six teaches that in baptism the old sinful self has been buried, and now we are new creatures in Christ Jesus. You see, in baptism the believer’s body is to be understood as joined to Christ’s own body that was raised from the dead. We belong together. And it is a mutually exclusive relationship. For example, you can’t be a member of the United States and al Qaeda. It is an incompatible union. It is a betrayal.
The only way you can give your body to a harot, a prostitute, is if you first take it away from Jesus. You have to be removed from Jesus, because you cannot unite Jesus to a prostitute. So if you debate about whether or not to be sexually immoral, you have to understand what you are choosing, and what you are rejecting. You are making a choice between Jesus and prostitutes? That is a choice between holiness and sexual immorality.
Soon after a couple were married, the groom stopped wearing his wedding band. “Why don’t you ever wear your ring?” the young bride asked. “It cuts off my circulation,” he replied.
“I know,” she said. “It’s supposed to.” When are committed fully to our partner in marriage, the expression of that is physical, spiritual and emotional, all three.
And when we are united with Christ, it is more than just a spiritual sense, it is in a physical sense as well. If Jesus is to be Lord of our lives we must be fully surrendered to Him, and recognize that our bodies are not our own, but His. We should not want to do anything with our bodies to taint that union.
With sexual sin, there is no winning. Verse 18 says sexual sin hurts your own body. The sexual world will tell you that you need sex to be fulfilled. That is a lie. Yes, it is a gift of God. But it is not given to all. It is not indispensable to our humanity. Jesus was perfect in His humanity yet remained single. Having said that – there will still be times when a sexual temptation presents itself. Paul, a single man, knew this, and his advice to the Corinthians was very clear. He said, “flee”. Run away from sexual sin!
Also Romans 6:12-13 says, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” Yes, there is a lot that the Bible says about our bodies.
Paul continues in I Corinthians 6:19-20 saying, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” This clearly says to Christians:
3. Your Body Is the Temple of the Holy Spirit
Temples are places of worship. Temples are places of sacrifice. Temples are dwelling places for God.
In the Old Testament, God had a temple for His people. In the New Testament, God has a people for His temple. The body of every believer becomes, at the moment of salvation, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Just as God dwelt in the temple in Jerusalem under the Old Covenant, the Spirit of God dwells in our bodies under the New Covenant.
On the Day of Pentecost, Peter was preaching and said, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit comes to indwell us and make our body a sacred habitation. Our bodies are God's temple.
When God told Moses His design for the Tabernacle, He made it clear in no uncertain terms that He demanded purity both in the construction materials as well as in the priests. Before the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies, he had to offer a sin sacrifice for himself. Thankfully, such a sacrifice has already been made for us. Verse 20 says we have been bought at a price. That price was the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as payment to provide forgiveness to us for our sins. We have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot (I Peter 1:18-19). Therefore we are to glorify God in our body and in our spirit, which are God’s.
In the Bible, that which is holy is never just something that has been through a ceremony or ritual; but something that has been dedicated to our Holy God, and therefore is intended to reflect His nature and character. The Holy Spirit is the presence of the Living Holy God who works in and through us to make us more and more like Him.
In Titus 3:5-6, Paul speaks of the “renewing of the Holy Spirit” in the Christian. The word “renewing” has the meaning: renovation; a complete change for the better. If the Holy Spirit is in us, we are in the process of being made more and more like Jesus. It is not always easy. We do not always succeed completely. We are not a finished product. We are not everything we are going to be. But through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, we are changed from what we once were.
So, does the Bible have something to say about our bodies? Yes indeed. Our bodies were designed to bring honor to God. They are beautiful in His sight, even with their imperfections. God purchased our bodies at a high price in order that they could be a magnificent cathedral to His glory.
And the day will come when Jesus will return, and as Philippians 3:21 says, He “will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”
So honor God with your body.
CLOSE:
In 1982, ABC Evening News reported on an unusual work of modern art: a chair affixed to a shotgun. It was to be viewed by sitting in the chair and looking directly into the gun barrel. The gun was loaded and set on a timer to fire at an undetermined moment within the next hundred years.
The amazing thing was that people waited in lines to sit and stare into the shell’s path! They all knew that the gun could go off at point-blank range at any moment, but they were gambling that the fatal blast wouldn’t happen during their minute in the chair.
Yes, it was foolhardy, yet many people who wouldn’t dream of sitting in that chair live a lifetime gambling that they can get away with sin. Foolishly, they ignore the risk until the inevitable self-destruction." [Jeffrey D. King, Parma, Ohio. Leadership, Vol. 4, no. 4.]
When we are tempted to sin, let us think of the cross where Jesus shed His blood for us. Remember His sufferings, remember His pain that He bore in His body for us so that we, in our bodies, could belong to Him.
