Fellowship | Glorify God in Your Body - 1 Corinthians 6:9-20 | February 18

INTRO

Hey family! How are we all doing?

It’s a blessing to see your beautiful, shining faces today.

We are now three weeks into a series on fellowship, how do we belong together? How do we live for Jesus as a family in a culture and world that is by and large opposed to God? How do we relate to one another as the family of God? Practical togetherness if you will.

In case you forgot or if you were not here last week, we are going to be talking a fair amount about sex today. So if you're a parent and have a little in the room that you’d prefer not to ask you a bunch of questions on the ride home, you’re more than welcome to have them join the others across the hall. If that doesn’t bother you, they are welcome to stay. It’s going to be a pretty PG-13 message, not to worry.

So today, we’re talking about sex, as I mentioned. And in the coming weeks we’ll address other topics such as marriage, calling, and others. Paul has gone from more general exhortation in the earlier chapters to now dealing with very specific concerns and threats to fellowship that are existing in the Corinthian church. It’s true, some of these concerns don’t necessarily concern us, but nevertheless there are plenty of principle takeaways for us through these chapters. And I think that you’ll find today that this topic is probably the most directly transferable to our modern context. Sex has been on the minds of humanity since before the fall. People are so often most concerned with when, how, and with whom they may have sex that it hardly ever crosses their mind to ask why and if.

I’m sure we’ve all heard the arguments, and perhaps many of us have recycled them for ourselves. Why does it matter? It’s not hurting anyone? You don’t want to get in the way of love, do you? You do you. Do what feels good. Follow your heart! Right?

And you would find good company amongst the Corinthians as well. Today, we’ll see them making some of the same arguments to justify the pursuit of their desires. But I’m not sure if being in agreement with the Corinthians is such a good place to be.

Let me give you a bit more context to the world of Corinth.

CONTEXT

Corinth had a bit of a reputation one might say. It was a port town. Corinth is actually an Isthmus where they figured out how to portage boats 3 miles across land to avoid the difficult, treacherous, and much further sale around Greece. They actually rolled boats on land for three miles. The Corinthian games were the second largest spectacle in the area next to the olympic games in Athens or the Athens games, I’m not sure if they were exactly the same thing as the olympics. So it had a huge economy of commerce, it was a melting pot of cultures from around the world, and with the games there was a fair amount of gambling I’d say.

Picture it as the Las Vegas of the old world. So sin city–yes. But in a much bigger way. It’s difficult to believe, but much more was permissible in the ancient world than even today. So Las Vegas on steroids. Not so much what happens in Corinth stays in Corinth. More like what happens in Corinth, eh–we could probably guess.

There was an expression that existed in this time and that was “playing the Corinthian”. And this was a euphemism for drunkenness and debauchery essentially. In theatrical productions there was usually at least one character who was always absolutely wasted. This character was always portrayed as a Corinthian. That’s the reputation Corinth held.

Beyond that, sexual expression was varied and vast–out of control really. As we read in these letters and we’ll talk more specifically about in a bit, the Corinthians church particularly struggled to pull away from this sexualized culture. There was a large temple to Aphrodite on the hill and every evening the temple prostitutes (both women and men) would process into town to sell themselves, their bodies. Perhaps the most akin to Corinth in the rest of the Bible would be Sodom and Gemorrah. Now, I don’t intend to get into a discussion about Sodom and Gomorrah really.

I really just want to make the point that when people are surrounded with a world of their own creation they tend to forget God and instead embrace whatever is justifiably good in their own eyes - cities are concentrations of human achievement and so they have the potential to magnify all that humanity has to offer. In some ways good, but historically speaking, usually pretty bad. And so you get this ominous statement foreshadowing the ensuing destruction in Genesis 13:12 when we read, “Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.”

Abraham dwelt in the wilderness. So there's this dichotomy of cities vs wilderness, where God does most of his work through those He encounters in the wilderness. The wilderness gets a bad rap because we see it as times of struggle, but really that is where we hear God best.

But Corinth is a city. It’s a huge city in fact. And all that concentration of human achievement has removed God and exalted pleasure above all else. So, the Corinthias had some of their own guiding principles in life and that’s what we’re going to take a look at this morning as Paul writes to address and correct these untruths that had proliferated the Corinthian church and were causing a break in fellowship.

Scripture

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 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. 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. 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.

HEART OF THE GOSPEL

First, before we get too much further, I just want to remind you of something we talked about last week, and that is that Paul begins with the heart of the gospel. Such were some of you. He reminds us of who we were–who we once had been–to make the solid point that we are no longer those people so don’t return to that dead life.

This is the heart of biblical Christianity: “such were some of you.” The heart of Christianity is that God saves sinners through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God says, “I’m going to swallow up your disordered desires in something greater, and more beautiful, and more desirable, so that you can walk in a way that pleases me in your brokenness.”

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” Ephesians 2:1-7.

So, that’s the foundation, the heart of Biblical Christianity that we all have a past of sin. But God intervened so that we are not slaves to those desires any longer. We have been called into freedom. That’s you. That’s me. That’s everybody. And that’s what we’re doing today. We are firmly establishing ourselves on the foundation of Christ as we speak truth into the lies that the surrounding culture would have us believe, spoken some 2,000 years ago in a way not too dissimilar to what we hear today.

ALL THINGS ARE LAWFUL (PART 1)

“All things are lawful for me!”

Let me tell you what’s happening here. Some of our English translations do a better job than others at trying to help us interpret this correctly. What follows is a series of arguments, or sayings, that the Corinthian believers would say. Some translations have them in quotes. Some may even add the words “you say”. That’s because Paul is writing an imaginary dialogue between him and the Corinthian believers. They would say “all things are lawful for me” as a way to defend their behavior. Most specifically their sexual promiscuity and adultery.

“All things are lawful for me.” “Do what feels good”, we might hear today. “Follow your heart.” “If it’s wrong then I don’t wanna be right!” Is that something people say anymore? I don’t know.

If it feels good to your body, then why deny yourself? The curse of our culture is that physical pleasures are desired more strongly than spiritual joy. We settle for the temporary and forsake the eternal. Why? Probably because with the eternal there is at least some amount of waiting that must take place and we are a people who so hate waiting. Everything we create in life is to operate more quickly with more convenience. We hate waiting. So we say follow your heart. If you desire it, chase after it.

Do you know what the Bible says about the heart?

Jeremiah says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus adds that “from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:21-23).

Our hearts are deceptive, snakey, cheats who rob us of true joy by way of temporary pleasure. And we are utterly enslaved to them (our hearts).

Let’s have a quick word on slavery, because I think we mostly understand it to be a truly terrible thing. But that is what we settle for at the heart of the “you do you” culture. Have you encountered this phrase, “you do you”. This is probably the most egregious offense to a life surrendered to Christ that is so prolific within the church. Not outside but within the church I hear this truly horrible advice pedaled under the mask of sage wisdom. Can I ask you a question, “how has that typically worked out for you?” What’s your track record? I can tell you, given the opportunity, I’m going to choose selfishness and pleasure at the expense of others apart from the intervention of the Holy Spirit, every single time.

In Romans 6:16 Paul says, “Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” “This is the great test of whether we are enslaved or free — can we say no to the slave driver in our bodies who wants us to keep on looking and keep on lusting.”

“All things are lawful for me,” the Corinthians say.

Paul’s response, “but not all things are helpful.”

“‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything.”

I won’t be a slave to the desires of my heart. I won’t determine good and bad–blessing and curse for myself but I will trust in the Lord.

ALL THINGS ARE LAWFUL (PART 2)

“All things are lawful for me.”

Here we have the same argument but with two responses. And there seems to be a nuance of meaning between the two. We sort of addressed the latter, first. But, if we expressed the other in our updated modern mode we might say, “I’m not hurting anyone.” “We are two consenting adults, why should it matter if we have sex before we’re married?” “My body, my choice. I’m not breaking any laws. Why shouldn't I?”

I do want to speak more directly to marriage and the purpose of sex, but I want to provide a response to this mistaken idea that casual sex or even sex outside of a covenant relationship doesn’t cost anything. It takes a while for science to catch up with the Bible, but researchers and neuroscientists are discovering the true cost of casual sex. I want to real quick read you just the description of a book called “Hooked: New Science on How Casual Sex is Affecting Our Children”. This is a book written by a couple of Gynecologists. I’m not sure if they are believers, but the book is scientific in nature–not religious.

It says, “Society tells us that sex is an act of self-expression, a personal choice for physical pleasure that can be summed up in the ubiquitous phrase: “hooking up". Millions of American teenagers and young adults are finding that the psychological baggage of such behavior is having a real and lasting impact on their lives. They are discovering that “hooking up” is the easy part, but “unhooking” from the bonds of a sexual relationship can have serious consequences.”

You can’t say it’s not hurting anybody because you are a body and you are causing yourself hurt. There is a cost to how we use our bodies. This goes beyond a focus on sex for sure, but this is the context of these verses. Every decision has its cost–takes its toll on our lives. “Don’t be a prude,” you may say. “It’s just sex!” There’s no such thing. It’s all of these phrases and ideologies that the world concocts to justify decisions and choices that are quite literally writing checks that your body can’t cash. More on how a covenant relationship changes that and actually provides the perfect context for sex.

But first, as I mentioned, science takes a few thousand years to catch up with the word of God. I want to bring to your attention to this, as God addresses it within the first few pages of the Bible. After the fall in Genesis chapter 3, God pronounces a curse upon the snake and on the ground. It’s interesting, God never curses man. Sure there are some consequences from their choices, but no cursing. Isn’t that strange. We usually read a curse upon man in there, but that’s not the idea that is being communicated.

What He does say to the woman is, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

Some of you might be thinking, “that sounds pretty cursey to me!” Part of that is how our translations get these verses so incorrect. Thankfully, praise God, there are only a rare few places our translators have surely missed the mark so drastically. This is one of them. Maybe even the worst of them. The main way, and what is most relevant to our discussion, is that the word where it says childbearing is not a word in Hebrew that is ever associated with pregnancy or birth. What it is most commonly used for is “conception”–or as we might contextualize for our purposes today–”sex”. Or relations as may have been said in times past. How does that make any sense?

What God is saying is, “You remember that be fruitful and multiply command? I’m not going to remove that blessing from you. You’re going to multiply. Only now, as a result of your actions to decide blessing and curse on your own terms, these relationships that will lead to your fruitfulness are going to be full of pain and hardship. You’re going to try to control your blessing with sex and with scheming in relationship and it’s going to hurt a lot of people.”

And that’s what happens for the next 50 chapters. Family after family is going to use and abuse each other to try to reach out and take hold of their own blessing rather than trusting God that there is enough. And that’s what we continue to do as we set the boundaries for sex on our own terms. We reach out to take hold of what is good in our own eyes, and we leave devastation in our wake.

FOOD FOR THE STOMACH AND THE STOMACH FOR FOOD

Yeah, but–but, it doesn’t matter what we do with our bodies. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food.” Our bodies are separate from our spirits and will be destroyed but our spirits will live on and they’re what really matter - we’re just bags of flesh. This is the last argument from the Corinthians which Paul addresses. In the church we encounter this argument a lot, whether it be the casual “You do you, who am I to judge,” or an overemphasis on grace and not wanting to be known for what we are against but rather what we are for, or perhaps even the shaky theology built solely around and at the expense of other truth that “God is love!” This is what our bodies were made for. Indulge. It doesn’t matter. Your spiritual life is separate. Serve God with your spirit and do what you want with your body.

I’m not sure where this came from but it summarizes excellently what I’m trying to say. Pro tip, if you’re trying to communicate something someone else has probably already said it better. “Hooking up is the ultimate descent into mechanized sex, since it attempts to turn human beings into objects. For the hook-up culture, the sex act is seen as a physical release and another form of entertainment. The very phrase “hooking up” darkly calls to mind someone connecting physical objects such as a computer and a printer. The underlying, very tragic message is that people are just bodies.”

Your body is a part of who you are.

Your body is a part of who you are. And the body is for the Lord! Your body has been given to you for one reason: to be an instrument for glorifying Christ (6:20). The way you use your body and the way you take care of your body should communicate that the glory of Christ is all-satisfying. And so too, your sexual appetite falls under this authority. “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”

Why does God record for us in Hebrews 12:16–17 the tragedy of Esau with these words: "Do not be . . . like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears"?

What did Paul mean when he wrote to the Philippians, "I tell you now with tears that many live as enemies of the cross, whose end is destruction and whose god is their belly" (Philippians 3:18–19)?

Going back to what we talked about earlier. This mistaken argument is going to lead you into slavery to the pleasures of your body. With every choice you are making yourself a slave either to pleasure which is fleeting and you will spend your life seeking it, or to God who is eternal and present for you always.

GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODIES

Here’s the big idea. And I promise we’re almost done.

“Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

Speak in such a way, and live in such a way in these bodies that others see what you do in your body — they see your good deeds — and they give glory, not to you, not to your body, but to your Father in heaven, and his Son, Jesus Christ.

The goal of this message is the fulfillment of 1 Corinthians 6:20 in your lives. "You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

MARRIAGE AND THE PURPOSE OF SEX

Now a quick word on sex and marriage. We will talk more specifically about marriage next week. And I know some of us have had great marital hurt in our past. Let’s not define truth by our past experiences. Marriage is meant for a covenant relationship where I give myself completely, exclusively, and permanently to my spouse. That’s what marriage is or what it should be. It is complete. It is exclusive. And it is permanent.

Sex is the fulfilling of our wedding vows and is designed to stick us to our spouse and keep sticking us to our spouse. Marriage is distinguished from other chosen relationships by its permanence. Marriage is a commitment made for a lifetime, till death do us part. If we throw that away on casual sex or pornography, what we are doing is training our brains to find relationships and intimacy very difficult. We train ourselves to be attracted and aroused to what is different. We see that escalating with every generation that is more sexually “unencumbered” than the last. We are losing our togetherness–our fellowship.

Sex in marriage is designed in such a way that we become more and more addicted to “the same”. And that is such a great and satisfying place to be.

John Piper said it this way, “You don’t shake hands with all the people you nod to. You don’t hug all the people you shake hands with. You don’t kiss all the people you hug. And I would argue that there is a pearl of great value, a pearl of emotional, spiritual, physical intimacy, which can only be placed in one container without being debased and ruined, and that is the strong, permanent velvet-lined case of marriage.”

You do nothing before you’re married, you get married then you do everything. That’s how the Bible defines sexual expression. Which are the actual words Paul is using in these verses–sexual expression. Sexual expression of any kind is contained within the precious vessel of marriage and it exists to draw you together completely, exclusively, and permanently or else you would live in a position of constant performance anxiety for fear that you “partner” as people are prone to say these days, leave you when you stop doing it for them.

OUTRO

“You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

I know it seems like a lot of what we’ve read in 1 Corinthians today could be about a lot of subjects. Why is it that we focused so heavily and almost exclusively on the topic of sex? It’s because that’s what Paul is talking about whether it is directly apparent to us at first glance.

The “you were bought at a price” language speaks to the purchasing of a sex slaves to set them free. That’s the context. For some reason, and I’m sure we can speculate as to why, we are so fixated on sex as a culture and through the ages. When, how, and with whom we have sex is one of the greatest dangers to fellowship within the church and it has caused so, so many to turn away from God to reach out and take what is good in their own eyes.

Oh, what an offensive word to our rebellious human nature. The body in which you dwell is not yours to do with simply as you please. God bought your body from the curse of sin by the payment of his own Son, and now your body exists to serve one all-encompassing purpose: “Glorify God in your body.”

As Paul said in Romans 6:12–13, “Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.”

You are invited to bring your sin to Jesus to be washed to be cleansed. You are invited to bring your sin to Jesus to be forgiven to be made righteous in God’s sight. You are invited to bring your sin to Jesus to be set apart so that you can begin to have a former way of life.

God is concerned about what you do with your bodies. He created them, he bought them, he owns them, he indwells them, and what we do with them demonstrates to the world who our Lord is.