Book: 1 Corinthians

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let’s pray together Lord God we thank you for this day another day to live Lord for you in your world but God we need your instruction we need your word to light the way for us God help me to be able to declare it now and work among your people so that we not only hear it but we become doers of it in Jesus name amen started off our last couple sermons with some song references today we’re going to do some poetry William Shakespeare was a famous English playwright from the 16th century you know him from his plays like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet but he also wrote a number of poems and one of his more unusual poems is sonnet 129 unusual because the poem is not like a love poem from man to woman it’s a meditation on sexual lust I want to read this poem to you it’s not very long it’s written in early modern English so it’s going to sound a little ant qued you might not get all the words but don’t worry about it just try and pay attention to the main ideas as I read Shakespeare’s Sonet 129 the expense of spirit in a waste of Shame is lust in action until action lust is perjured murderous bloody full of blame Savage extreme rude cruel not to trust enjoyed no sooner but despised straight past reason hunted and no sooner had past reason hated as a swallowed bait on purpose laid to make the taker mad mad in Pursuit and in possession so had having an inquest to have extreme a bliss in proof and proved a very woe before a joy proposed behind a dream all this the world well knows yet none knows well to shun the heaven that leads men to this hell that’s the end of the poem from what we can tell today Shakespeare was not a true Christian yet even Shakespeare could observe what lust and the immorality that Springs from lust is really like lust is extremely selfish it leads to many other sins lust is controlling it causes a person to do something he would otherwise never choose to do because it is so reckless and foolish lust is deceptive it promises joy and fulfillment but that Joy goes away like a vapor and leaves behind nothing but shame and regret but what is most startling is what Shakespeare asserts at the end of his poem in the final couplet even though many have discovered the world well knows Shakespeare says the truly evil and vain nature of lust it never satisfies this does not stop people from pursuing it and going back to it again and again since the fall of Adam and Eve immorality and lust have been characteristic of the sinful human race Romans 1: 24-27 says that increasing sexual perversion is the natural outcome of man’s Rebellion against his creator though different cultures throughout history have been more open or less open with this sin immorality has been a problem a major problem everywhere Humanity has existed across time our modern American culture is no exception our society not only excuses sexual sin but even celebrates it and promotes it but how should Christians live in such a perverse World consider what the Apostle Paul writes to Christians in the first century Christians who lived in an immoral society that was just as bad if not worse than our own listen what Paul says is the Christian calling Ephesians 5:3 but immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you some translations say should not even be a hint as is proper among saints that is Holy ones do you hear from Paul what the standard of Our Lord is when it comes to his people and immorality God says it shouldn’t even be named among you not even a little bit you should be walking in total sexual Purity and self-control I don’t know if that strikes you as crazy how can that be when we live in such world how can is this even possible can sexual Purity truly be expected of those who genuinely know God consider yourselves this morning have you realized even as Shakespeare did the evil destructive vain nature of sexual sin and lust and realizing this do you nevertheless still turn to it even regularly do you appreciate the seriousness of safeguarding yourself when it comes to immorality and have you come to realize that there actually is a better way a more Joyful Way way to live your life and Steward your sexuality and that is in a Chase life in obedience and to the glory of Jesus now the good news of the Gospel the good news of the Gospel of Salvation is that no matter how much whether if or how much you’ve already been caught up in immorality if you repent and believe in the Lord Jesus you will be forgiven you will be cleansed you’ll be saved but you must indeed repent and what does repent mean it’s a change of mind that results in a change of action changing the way that you live if we are indeed to fulfill the calling that we have from God which we can do which we must do must have our minds renewed by God’s truth and that’s what we’re going to seek to do this morning in our new passage please take your Bibles and open to 1 Corinthians 6 1 Corinthians 6 let’s hear our God speak to this issue of lust and immorality the title of my message today is lust a costly consumption lust a costly consumption our text is 1 Corinthians 62 to20 you find that on page 1,144 if you’re using the Pew Bible a few bits of background before we look at the text this text is part of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the mostly Gentile Church in Corinth part of Greece the Corinthians though true believers they have become as is evident as we look at other parts of the book increasingly proud selfish and excusing of sin partly due to adopting certain ideas from their ungodly culture now Paul writes this letter to the church in Corinth to correct their thinking and behavior on various issues and immorality is one of them so let’s see how Paul and the Lord through Paul addresses that issue in our text 1 Corinthians 6 12 20 all things are lawful for me but not all things are profitable all things are lawful for me but I will not be Mastered by anything food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food but God will do away with both of them yet the body is not for immorality but for the Lord and the Lord is for the body now God has not only raised up the Lord but will also raise us up through his power do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute may it never be or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her for he says the two shall become one flesh but the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him flee immorality every other sin that a man commits is outside the body but the immoral man sins against his own body or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God and that you are not your own for you have been bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body amazing text notice first here as we just consider the passage as a whole the words immorality and immoral they appear several times in this passage what exactly is immorality the Greek word used for it here is pora and it refers to any kind of unrighteous sexual activity it’s a very broad term it is the pursuit of any sexual pleasure or fulfillment outside of God’s design in marriage anything outside God’s design you see God created and he loves marriage and God designed sexual intimacy to be a blessed part of the one flesh Union of one man and one woman in marriage this physical Union is not only for procreation but also for pleasure as Proverbs 5 and Song of Solomon plainly indicate even within marriage sexual intimacy is to be is to be pursued not chiefly to satisfy one’s own desires but to satisfy the desires of the other spouse as Paul makes clear in the next chapter 1 Corinthians 7 so God’s original design for marriage and sex is good but every sexual Pursuit that violates God’s design God hates and he calls it immorality and this would include premarital sex or fornication adultery pornography solo stimulation homosexuality beastiality incest and prostitution but that’s not all immorality is lustful looks lustful thoughts lustful speech also comes under the category of immorality Jesus says you lust in your heart that counts as adultery Matthew 5:27 to30 and Paul says that coarse words lustful joking has no place in the Christian’s mouth in Ephesians 5:4 so understand that when this passage and when the scriptures refers to immorality it’s referring to all of this those external actions the lust of the heart and the core speech notice also as we consider the whole passage here that there are two commands two commands given first is in verse 18 flee immorality and the other is in verse 20 glorify God in your body these are really two sides of one command stewarding one sexuality as a Christian requires on the negative side fleeing immorality and on the positive deci side glorifying God glorifying God in your body you cannot do one without the other they go together but notice where the commands appear in our passage at the end near the end and this delay is significant even though obedience to these two commands is the intended outcome of Paul’s teaching Paul evidently wants to address Christian thinking about immorality before he addresses Christian Behavior it may also have been struck by three times in the passage Paul says do you not know what you think has a lot to do with whether you’re going to obey the Lord so we’re going to mimic Paul’s approach as we studied this passage here Paul presents three critical truths about the body that should lead us to flee imorality and glorify God in our bodies instead three critical truths about the body that should lead us to flee immorality and glorify God in our bodies instead we’re going to investigate these truths and then we’ll Circle back to talk about the two commands that’s our approach let’s take a look at the first critical truth why you should flee immorality and glorify God in your body instead and this truth appears in verses 12 to 14 number one our bodies matter to God our bodies matter to God there’s always a temptation as Christians to think that what we do in our bodies does not really matter to God this was certainly a Temptation in ancient Corinth popular Greek thought at the time was that the body was innately evil the body is evil physical is evil but the spirit is good it’s innately good and it’s separate from the body the body is kind of like a prison and the true self is the spirit so as long as one’s Spirit was right with the Divine what happened in one’s body the physical heart doesn’t really matter it’s popular thinking soon attached itself in the first century to Christian truth because Christians like Paul were preaching that faith alone in Christ is what saves it’s totally apart from good works or rituals things you see on the outside also physical issues like food drink circumcision they don’t matter to God what matters is a clean conscience and making sure not to cause other people to stumble into sin so you can see where popular Greek thought and the Christian message appeared to overlap and some Greek converts to the faith they began to believe that as one as long as one had faith in Christ it doesn’t really matter what one does with one’s body even ill even immorality could be tolerated or even Justified if someone still has the right spiritual beliefs situation like this appears to have Arisen in Corinth there were Corinthians suggesting that immorality as a mere function of the body doesn’t really matter to God and Paul responds to some of their thinking in verses 12 to 14 by apparently quoting some of their popular sayings and correcting those ideas why do I take that interpretation well it explains otherwise odd the odd uh way the passage proceeds the effort to deal with these Corinthian slogans explains the abrupt transition between verse 11 and verse 12 as well as the series of contrasts that verses 12 and 14 present we got a series of things that the Corinthians were repeating to themselves to justify immorality and Paul responding notice Paul’s oh I want to say this first notice the slogan that Paul confronts the beginning of verse 12 all things are lawful for me I don’t know about you that strikes me as a pretty sweeping statement right all things are lawful I have the right to do anything I want I am clean I have total freedom in Christ my spirit is right so nothing in the world or in my body can separate me from God that’s not too far from what some Christians say today but notice Paul’s response in verse 12 all all things are lawful but not all things are profitable or beneficial now this is interesting Paul doesn’t reject their slogan outright but he shows that it’s incomplete and that it arises from a fundamentally misguided perspective yes Paul says you Corinthians are clean in Christ and you have amazing Christian Liberty but do you remember that Christ called you to live wisely and always look for what is most useful or profitable immorality is inherently self-destructive according to Proverbs 5 it destroys Health it destroys wealth it destroys reputation it destroys relationships so how would giving free reign to your body or how would nonchalantly getting close to immorality fit in the Christian call to wise living but Paul has another response the same slogan he repeats it all things are lawful for me in the second half of verse 12 but then adds but I will not be Mastered by anything here is another fundamental Christian principle when we became Believers we renounced lordship of our lives and gave over exclusive authority to the Lord Jesus he is our Master now and he’s made quite clear that he’s not going to share his ownership and his control with anything or anyone else Matthew 6:24 so now Paul challenges the Corinthians and us with that principle how does indulging in immorality with your body fit with the reality of Christ exclusive jealous lordship immorality even as Shakespeare observed is inherently enslaving and controlling it demands greater and greater amounts of your time your resources how does that fit with the Christian calling to serve Christ Alone the next slogan that Paul deals with in verse 13 is somewhat longer and it really has two parts first food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food but God will do away with both of them here are two excuses given for the body and immorality first that immorality is necessary and inevitable it’s just like the stomach and food God they say made the stomach to enjoy different kinds of food and to nourish your body that’s the stomach’s purpose if you don’t eat you’re going to not only be unhappy but you’re going to eventually die in the same way God made the human body to enjoy and even to be nourished by many and different kinds of sexual experiences that’s what the body was apparently designed for we are sexual beings after all why else would God give us these passions in other words immorality is driven by biological need don’t try to stop it it’s natural it’s healthy and again don’t we hear this same idea in our own Society not only is it assumed today that people will be immoral but also that this is good you only give yourself a nervous disorder if you try to repress yourself you need an outlet for those god-given drives why else would God make the passion so strong don’t put limits on sex immorality is necessary it’s inevitable that’s the first excuse exerted but the second is that immorality is inconsequential the thinking goes like this the stomach’s not going to last forever and neither is food so does it really matter what foods you choose to eat or not to eat it’s all the same Destiny in the end might as well Live It Up why make it hard for yourself by refraining from food in the same way our bodies are not going to last forever and neither will SA so no matter how much we indulge or not the outcome is the same in the end therefore whatever we do in the body is not really going to matter in eternity why stress ourselves out with Chastity with resisting those Fierce Temptations those constant Temptations why not just relax and enjoy ourselves this apparently was part of the thinking in Corinth some in Corinth and Paul’s two-part response to this longer slogan we see this in verses 13 and 14 yet the body is not for immorality but for the Lord and the Lord is for the body now God has not only raised the Lord but will also raise us up through his power this is an amazing and unexpected response from Paul especially in the first part notice that Paul doesn’t simply retort that the body is made for sex and marriage you say the body is for immorality no the body is made for sex and marriage that’s not what he says notice he says it’s actually made for something much grander the body is made for the Lord himself your body is made for the Lord and the Lord was designed for your body Paul says to the Corinthians and us do you know what what is more necessary to your life your health your well-being than either food or sex Jesus Christ your body was meant for him and he was meant for your body so actually immorality it goes against the way that God created you it is not according to it as for the second part of Paul’s reply notice again that the Corinthian excuse is turned on its head yes our bodies and their appetites will one day come to an end by death but that is actually as Paul points out not the end of our bodies the same bodies that lived on the earth bodies that we chose to indulge or not to indulge in immorality those bodies those same bodies will be raised by the Lord in the same way that Jesus Christ’s body was raised so you cannot talk as if it doesn’t matter what we do with our bodies because we’ll just discard them in the end well guess what you’re getting that body back and your body these bodies that we’ll receive back they will be Eternal testimonies to the lives that we lived on the Earth by the way did you notice in verse 14 Paul does not say God will raise up our bodies through his power but instead he says God will raise us up through his power say what’s what’s the point of that why is that distinction important is Paul saying that our bodies won’t be raised only our Spirits no our bodies will indeed be raised just read over in 1 Corinthians 15 for a longer explanation of that rather by saying that we rather than merely just our bodies will be raised Paul is emphasizing something quite profound something that we can forget and that is you cannot distance yourself from your body you are not as some Greeks thought a soul imprisoned in the body like a shell rather you are your body you are a complex intermixture of body and soul Inner Man and outer man they are both you so you cannot say oh my whatever the body does that’s not me no that’s you that’s part of you so we must have none of this it doesn’t matter what I do in the body it certainly does matter what you do in the body because you are your body your body is part of you now let’s pause and think about what these truths mean for us you cannot claim that you are spiritually safe while you pursue immorality because God has called you to live wisely seeking that which most spiritually profits you and others and him you cannot remain nonchalant about whether immorality might place you into bondage for God will not tolerate you you being Mastered by anyone besides him and you cannot excuse your immorality as biologically or emotionally or psychologically or whatever you want to say you cannot excuse this as necessary because the Lord says that he and his will for you are more necessary than anything in this world and he cannot treat sexual sin as inconsequential because in one way or another you will wear the consequences of your sexual choices for eternity either in God’s new heavens and new earth or in Hell clearly then our bodies matter to God that’s the first critical truth there’s a second critical truth that should cause us to flee immorality and glorify God in our bodies instead and that’s in verses 15 to 17 number two our bodies are in Union with Christ if you’re a believer your body is in Union with Christ let’s take these verses all together verses 15 to 17 do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute may it never be or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her for he says the two shall become one flesh but the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him in these verses Paul draws our attention to the nature of our Union with Christ Paul essentially asks don’t you remember that when you became a Christian you were placed in to Jesus all of you was placed into Jesus Christ you spiritually became a member of his body you are part of him now and really this is how all the salvation Salvation blessings of God come to us as Christians we have become attached in something like spiritual marriage a spiritual marriage of total Oneness to the Son of God himself thus his everlasting life his righteousness his strength they pour into our lives via the UN ion meanwhile our sin goes to him which he paid off once for all triumphantly on the cross what’s his what’s his is ours what’s ours is his just like marriage now this is a mysterious Union that cannot be fully understood yet it is real it is plainly declared in the scriptures and it’s the foundation of our eternal life and hope well what does this have to do with immorality Paul basically asks us this question next having been made part of such an amazing Union with Jesus Christ will you then seek out a contradictory Union in these verses Paul contrasts two unions there’s total Union body and soul with Jesus Christ in the spirit and there’s total Union body and soul with a prostitute by the flesh both of these unions Paul indicates are versions of the fundamental one flesh marriage Paradigm established by God in Genesis 2:24 the two will become one flesh and by the way prostitution was the most common temptation to immorality in the ancient world at that time prostitution was cheap and readily available but what is said about prostitutes here it applies to any kind of immorality so don’t be like oh he’s only just talking about that no this this is talking about lust this is talking about immorality in whatever form it might appear The Prostitute is just an example even a symbol for all of that now notice what Paul says takes place theologically when a Christian indulges in immorality even goes to visit a prostitute the Christian takes away and that’s a good translation in The New American Standard 95 he removes he takes away the members of Christ out of Christ to make them members of a harlot to make them part of a harlot and what’s Paul’s reaction to this scenario what does he think about that should Christians ever do that may it never be absolutely not God forbid never why such a strong response Paul well Paul doesn’t draw out the implications for us directly because it should be obvious we can just explore this a little bit with our minds on the oneand can anyone conceive of a greater blasphemy than trying to unite Christ his members any part of him with immorality he’s the Holy One he’s the beautiful one he’s the unstained one and you’re going to try and stain him you’re going to try and pollute his members yet this is what is attempted anytime a Christian seeks out an indul is an immorality whatever form whether it’s in your heart or whether it’s in some external way the person not only robs Christ of the members that belong to him but he seeks to defile these members and even Christ himself with this heinous sin will a holy God endure this will he not care about that will he who dwells in in unapproachable light will say that’s okay if you pollute my body any Christian who loves Christ at all or has a shred of holy fear would not even dare consider such much less go through with it that’s one implication but there’s another if you remove yourself if you remove your members from Christ and unite yourself with Harlot how will you avoid Everlasting spiritual death because let’s face it Paul says that you cannot be United with Christ and a harlot at the same time you have to take away the members from One to join another you can either be members of Christ’s body or you can be a member of the harlot’s body immorality body you can’t do both either Christ can be your master or Mor it can be your master can’t have both Jesus won’t share someone might ask wait Pastor Dave you’re saying that I can lose my salvation by engaging in immorality no true Christians many true Christians have fallen into immorality that’s even evident in the scriptures but what this passage is clearly saying is this it is totally inconsistent God is saying it is totally inconsistent for for someone to say that he’s attached to Christ when that person then goes and attaches himself to a harlot now as I said there is wonderful forgiving and transforming Grace for all who repent and believe in Jesus he cleanses and he enables you to walk a new in Holiness praise God CU we who have stumbled into sexual sin many times we need that hope but let us not kid ourselves into thinking that God overlooks regular unrepentant immorality or let us not insist that we are repentant when no lasting change ever takes place in our lives oh Jesus I feel bad every time I do it do you stop does it make you feel bad enough to stop it’s worth mentioning now something that appears right before our passage 1 Corinthians 69-10 emphasizes the either or nature of Union with Christ Union with Christ and immorality look at 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived neither fornicators nor idolators nor adulterers nor a feminite nor homosexuals these are just different categories of immorality and he mentions some other ones and he says None of these will inherit the kingdom of God people who walk in this way people what this can be characteristic of them this marks their lives don’t be deceived they are not going to enter the kingdom of God don’t you know that this is a sobering word that we need to hear today you cannot have Christ and sexual immorality too you cannot claim Union with Christ while you regularly seek out Union with a prostitute such is indeed a costly consumption immorality will cost you your soul it will bring God’s vengeance you know something that’s kind of interesting and sobering if you look up the word immorality in the New Testament what you see in the context almost all the time is a promise of judgment or death to those who refuse to repent of it God even designates him himself as the special Avenger of those of those who defraud others by immorality God treats this sin seriously we must as well and we must ask ourselves which Union do I want when Union with Christ is so much better when it results in lasting life joy and blessing why would you ever settle for the shortlived thrill and the long lasting shame and poison of immorality if you’re going to choose Christ will it mean persevering during times of Temptation will it mean saying no to the flesh when your flesh is crying out for immorality yes but it’s worth it this is the union that’s worth it not this both the fact that our bodies matter to God and our bodies are in Union with Christ should cause us to flee immorality and seek to glorify God with our bodies instead now there’s a third critical truth that should motivate us towards these actions and that’s what we see in the last part of our passage verses 18 to 20 number three our bodies must not be desecrated our bodies must not be desecrated in this last section Paul points out three ways that immorality unacceptably desecrates a person’s body and I’ll give you these three reasons as sub points three ways threea immorality first desecrates man’s created dignity ver desecrates a man’s created dignity look at Verse 18 flee immorality every other sin that a man commits is outside the body but the immoral man sins against his own body now we’ll get back to the phrase fle flee immorality in just a moment but the rest of the verse do long puzzled interpreters in what sense is immorality a unique sin against one’s own body how is immorality different from gluttony drunkenness or even suicide which would also seem to be sins against one’s own body why is immorality in its own special category those are difficult questions to answer my view is that the uniqueness of sexual sin has to do with how it improperly joins people who are not actually married in body and soul this act fundamentally degrades people from their originally created dignity as image bearers of God therefore Those who commit immorality are consequently Afflicted with this sense of uncleanness and shame that seems to come from within and doesn’t go away significantly Paul says in Romans 124 and 126 the immorality dishonors the bodies of those who participate in it there something that dishonors degrades the body when it’s subjected to immorality God doesn’t want to see his image so desecrated and neither should we that’s the first reason our bodies must not be desecrated the second is the second way it can be desecrated 3B immoral it desecrates the spirit’s holy dwelling immorality desecrates the spirit’s holy dwelling now look at verse 19 first part or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God now I sometimes hear well-meaning Christians misapplying this verse do you really want to eat that double cheeseburger don’t you know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit now look we should Steward our bodies well when it comes to our diet for the sake of Christ but physical health or appearance is not at all what this verse is talking about Paul is rather drawing attention to another amazing salvation blessing we have Union with Christ but we also have indwelling of the Holy Spirit we’re told here that the body is the temple or the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit which is like what uh Paul has already said in Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3:16 Paul referred to the entire church as the temple of God and of the Holy Spirit here apply here Paul applies the same metaphor on an individual basis you yes you listening today if you believe in Jesus Christ you are the dwelling place of God’s spirit you in your body but what does it have to do with the context the discussion on immorality because sexual sin is a desecration of God’s Temple of the spirit’s Dwelling Place in you this isn’t about cholesterol this is about sexual sin don’t you know that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit how can you desecrate that Temple by sexual sin As One Pastor put it indulging in immorality is like taking making a prostitute straight into God’s holy of holies that’s how God sees it because you are his Dwelling Place even in your body knowing this being reminded of this it should not only grieve anyone who loves God and is grateful for the holy spirit Spirit who indwells us empowers us and enlightens us that we would ever consider or do something like that but it should also sober us just as with the discussion about Union with Christ because how did God react to the desecration of his temple in the Old Testament when people brought sin right into the temple or they engaged in hypocritical worship while they were in in unrepentant of sin how did God regard that how did he respond to that do you remember he let his Temple be destroyed he says I’d rather have my glorious physical Dwelling Place laid to ruins and to have it continually polluted by this sin will a holy God act any differently with us if we continue to defile the Holy Temple The Dwelling Place of God’s spirit when we won’t repent of immorality finally there’s 3C immorality desecrates the son’s redeeming blood immorality desecrates the son’s redeeming blood look at the end of verse 19 going into verse 20 or do you not know that you are not your own for you’ve been bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body here Paul reminds us that our bodies if we are in Christ they don’t actually belong to us they’re not actually ours in truth everyone’s body belongs to God in one sense because God is the creator he owns you because he made you but the bodies of Believers belong to God in a special way because of the Redemption of Christ Bible talks about our Salvation using various metaphors and Redemption is one of them it has to do with slavery you were spiritually speaking formerly enslaved to sin and Satan Romans 6 but the Son of God by his incredible salvation work he redeemed you he paid the price for your freedom he bought you back and what was that price it was his shed Blood on the cross it was his sacrificial death as a criminal taking your place bearing and fully paying the wrath of God that was due you for your sin that was the price of your Redemption and he paid it but when he paid it he didn’t merely set you free to do as you please okay have a nice life rather your ownership passed to him you’re no longer having sin and Satan as your master now Jesus is your master after all he bought you he paid the price we have now become if we believe in Jesus we have become slaves of Christ and slaves of righteousness we are fully owned by God Body and Soul now most forms of slavery in the world are oppressive and evil but to be a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ is Happy servitude we are because he is our Master he is our owner we are under his eternal care and protection and amazingly though we are only unworthy slaves he says and you’re going to reign with me when I set up my kingdom I’m giving you places of Honor right alongside me these are wonderful realities this is part of the good news of the Gospel of salvation but they mean that our bodies are not our own to use and abuse as we would like or as we see fit no our bodies belong to Christ therefore to submit ourselves any part of us to immorality is theft it’s theft of our master’s property it’s defacement of our master’s property and it’s a blasphemy against our Redemption now if you love Christ and if you believe in Jesus you love Christ could you really treat Jesus Redemption so ungratefully let us fear desecrating the blood bo bodies that we have in Christ by going into sexual sin and not repenting of it to review the truths we’ve seen thus far number one our bodies matter to God number two our bodies are in Union with Christ and number three our bodies must not be desecrated we don’t want to violate our created dignity we don’t want to pollute the spirit’s holy dwelling we do not want to blaspheme the son’s redeeming blood this is all to change our thinking about immorality and to motivate us to something in response obedience to the two commands what commands let’s look at them again back at Verse 18 we see the first command from Jesus the first application of these critical truths about the body and that is first flee immorality flee immorality this is a present tense verb that implies continual action flee and keep on fleeing what does it mean to flee means to run away like your life depended on it because in a way spiritually it does your Eternal Soul your place in God’s kingdom it depends on whether you’re going to go to immorality or not therefore do as Proverbs 5 says don’t go near the door of temptation’s house keep your way far give Temptation a wide birth if you can help it if you can see it coming do this for Christ’s sake and do it for your own obviously one implication of this is that if you are currently involved in immorality you must turn from it you got to stop doing it don’t start doing it again and run away from anything that’s going to encourage you or drag you or push you to do it run away from it like your life dependent on it be like Joseph famous right Genesis 39 literally ran out of pifer’s house when Pier’s wife tried to entice him when nobody else was around he got in trouble for that he got falsely accused he got thrown in prison but he didn’t worry about that part he said what I’m worried about is being enticed in immorality I got to flee now what does this command to flee mean practically for us give you a few examples fleeing immorality means getting radical to remove or mitigate sources of Temptation in your life this is going to vary for each person exactly how this looks but you got to think about relationships situations entertainment technology social media there is nothing that is truly essential for you in your life except Jesus Christ if there’s something then that is Hing you towards sexual sin what must you do with it cut it off and throw it from you that’s what Jesus says Matthew 5:29 to30 say oh but that’s going to make my life hard listen to jesus’ exhortation would you rather enter into the kingdom maimed or would you rather be intact and have your whole body thrown into hell obviously this isn’t talking about literally Ming your body but it’s talking about cutting off sources of Temptation get radical remove or mitigate sources of Temptation in your life fing immorality also means changing your thought life what good will removing external sources of Temptation do if you don’t remove or do something about the internal sources of Temptation you must put off you must fundamentally put off and continually put off whenever they try and come back into your mind unprofitable and lustful thoughts and you must replace them with helpful thoughts based on God’s truth think about God think about serving Christ think about enjoying his creation to his glory this is another application of Philippians 4:8 think on what is good don’t think on what’s going to drag you to sin you must change your thought life fleing fleeing immorality also means changing where you look for Joy where you look for Comfort especially when life gets hard many people turn to sexual sin when they’re looking for Comfort when they feel depressed when they feel anxious when they feel angry when they feel hopeless immorality seems like it’s going to provide that Comfort but anyone who’s ever indulged can tell you it is short-lived and it only brings further pain and shame you must find comfort you must find your contentment you must find your joy from another source that’s actually reliable and the only place is Jesus Christ change where we look for joy and comfort fing immorality also means if you’re married rejoice in your spouse enjoy your spouse instead of immorality Proverbs 5 commands you enjoy the person that God gave you as your own special source of refreshment your own Fountain your own sistern or well that person was specifically designed for you don’t look for anybody else God gave you your own special designed for you person enjoy that person and be a source of enjoyment for that person and if sin has marged your relationship with that person well repent and seek reconciliation with that person so that your relationship can grow and you can enjoy one another fing immorality also means getting help from mature brothers and sisters in the church you knew I was going to say this right immorality is a very difficult and entangling sin it is using the good design of God and it’s using it against against you to draw you away from God it is a very difficult and entangling sin but God gave you an amazing resource in Jesus church in your brothers and sisters who also have God’s spirit they can help you they can encourage you they can instruct you they can help keep you accountable they can rescue you you need them as a Biblical counselor I’m very familiar with a fact and that is most people who struggle with sexual morality do not overcome until they get help from another person now if help is not available to you God is still sufficient you’re not doomed to sin but if help is available to you and you won’t take it do you really want to overcome there are other ways we can flee immorality but certainly those five those five should be things we put into practice I’ll repeat them to you get radical remove and mitigate sources of Temptation from your life change your thought life change where you look for joy and comfort especially when life gets hard rejoice in your spouse if you’re married and get help from mature brothers and sisters in the church now that’s just the first commit man flee immorality let’s look briefly at the second which we see at the very end of our passage verse 20 glorify God in your body I love this you know when it comes to the issue of sexual Purity often the instruction is framed mostly framed in negative prohibitions and warnings don’t do this or these are going to be the consequences and that’s not bad that’s actually biblical and necessary if you study the passages in the scriptures that have to do with this sin you’re going to find that most it’s negative instruction this is important for us we need a holy fear when it comes to this issue but that’s not all there is as we you can even tell from this second profound positive command from Paul not just stay away from something but do something else instead something wonderful you see these exhortations from God today about sexual Purity they’re not just a duty they are a duty but they’re an opportunity they’re an opportunity for you to experience Delight you have an Avenue for Joy being opened up to you right now how so well your body and its sexuality they are not simply burdens to be endured they are an opportunity to enjoy God and display his Worth to the world 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says or rather let me put it this way when you as 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says learn how to possess your own vessel in sanctification and honor yes you’re different from other people in some ways but all of it’s under God’s sovereignty when you learn how to possess your own vessel in sanctification and honor you powerfully glorify God you put his strength and his worth on full display for the world our perverse world doesn’t understand that they don’t know what to do with that they say how can you do that why would you do that you say because of my Lord when you say no to immorality and you say yes to chaste obedience to Jesus Christ you not only glorify God but you get to know more you get to fellowship with and you get to please by your obedience the one who saved you Jesus in short you get to walk in Joy with Jesus when you’re obedient this is what you were designed for this is what you and your body were meant for and you know what it is the only way to true and Lasting Joy I tell you something that has really struck me over the years is that one of the main draws towards immorality is the thought that somehow God is forcing you to miss out there’s all this Joy there’s all this fun there’s all this satisfaction that God say I can’t have oh I guess I’ll try and endure listen one of the things that God emphasizes throughout his scriptures is that he denies no good thing to him who walks uprightly God is no killjoy he promises that he will only give the best to his children you are not missing out when you choose not to go near immorality you know who’s missing out those who go to it those who do go near it those who are like H you know it’s not a big deal or I just have to I just got these passions they’re the ones who are missing out you know why because they don’t get the joy of Walking With Jesus the way you overcome immorality ultimately is by choosing a Greater Joy if you just try and grit your teeth put a whole bunch of rules in place it’s not going to be enough yeah sometimes you have to grit your teeth and can endure and rules are helpful certain safeguards are helpful but you need something better to motivate you you know what that better thing is it’s the Lord It’s the joy of walking with him there’s a statement from scripture I often think of about various things but certainly when it comes to sexual imorality in Hebrews 13:10 it says we have an altar from which those who serve the temple or we could say those in the world have no right to eat we’ve been given the best why would we give that up for something far worse it actually brings destruction with it we have an opportunity it is our calling but it’s actually an invitation to Joy don’t simply flee immorality embrace the positive glorify God in your body you say when I say no to sexual sin when I present my body when I present my mind in chastity in self-control in persevering Holiness to the Lord I get him I get to enjoy fellowship with him and I don’t lose his Joy that’s got to be your motivation that’s how you’ll overcome God will enable you to overcome but you have to believe that his way is better now finally let me say this I need to repeat this because I don’t want you to get the wrong impression no matter what you’ve done with your body maybe today you’re like Pastor Dave you don’t even know how unclean I am you don’t even know how solid my body is I don’t the Lord does but you know what’s the most wonderful truth no matter what you’ve done no matter how many times you’ve indulged in immorality even as a Christian if you will repent and believe you will be cleansed you will be forgiven there will be no stain on you anymore God forgives it all consider this you know who is one of the groups that repented when Jesus came to the world and found entrance into his kingdom prostitutes he says many of them are getting in while you Pharisees are ding at the door or just look at another verse that appears right before our passage I didn’t read it yet because I was saving it for now right when Paul says don’t you remember that the unrighteous not inherit the kingdom of God including all the sexually immoral look at what he says next in verse 11 such were some of you but you were washed but you were Sanctified but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God in this church are people who have been in bondage to sexual sin before some are maybe still struggling but you know what what’s true of these ancient Corinthians has now become true of us such we were were we were the immoral ones we were the ones enslaved to immorality but Christ brought us out Christ cleansed us and caused us to walk a new in sanctification and honor and he can do the same for you but you must repent and believe you must give up this sin you must give up that Idol of sex and say that this is the thing that I need this is the thing that’s going to make me happy this is the thing that’s going to satisfy no it’s not and every time you seek it out like like it’s going to guess what you’re going to be disappointed if you’ll give that up and say Jesus is going to be my satisfaction only he is allowed to be my Lord I will trust him because he will enable me to overcome if you will do that you will be saved but we’re going to need to help one another with this but he’s given us his help by his word today let’s hear it let’s believe it let’s obey it allow me to pray Lord we thank you for this hope filled word Lord we are sobered by it we need to appreciate that we cannot have immorality and you as well we cannot allow immorality to continue in our life we must repent of it and those that we’ve defrauded by immorality we must where appropriate confess and make it right but thank you God that you not only forgive and cleanse but you do give transforming Grace so that when our flesh cries out and says you need this you can’t get away from this we can say by Fai faith I don’t need this I need Jesus Christ and he’s going to enable me to endure I want something better I want something better than immorality could ever give me Lord if there are any Brethren who are still struggling with this right now God I pray that they would take you at your word they would put off this sin and they would get help from mature brothers and sisters in this church and Lord for those who don’t know you and maybe have been afraid to come to you because of sexual sin I pray Lord that they would be like those ancient prostitutes or even like these ancient Corinthians and say there’s total forgiveness and cleansing offered in Jesus Christ if Paul can if Paul can say I’m the worst and God saved me then the Lord can save me as well no matter how stained with sexual sin I am oh God what a privilege to then stand as a as a trophy for you a testimony to what you’ve done Lord help us to walk in joyful obedience in this area in Jesus name amen

In this sermon, Pastor Dave Capoccia examines the apostle Paul’s teaching on the body and sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. Paul presents three critical truths about the body that should cause believers to flee immorality and glorify God in their bodies instead.

1. Our Bodies Matter to God (vv. 12-14)
2. Our Bodies Are in Union with Christ (vv. 15-17)
3. Our Bodies Must Not Be Desecrated (vv. 18-20)

Full Transcript

I’m very glad to be able to open the word with you again today. Some of you have asked me why I’ve chosen to preach on the text that I have. Basically it’s because as I’ve trained as a biblical counselor and pursuing certification with ACBC as a biblical counselor, I became aware that there are certain struggles that Christians commonly face. They often show up in biblical counseling. Anger, anxiety, and others – they are some of the most common issues. So I thought it would be profitable to at least broach those topics even from the pulpit. Obviously I can’t say everything what the Bible says about those issues right now. Lord willing, we can come back and address those more fully in a class later. I’m hoping that we can do a counseling class along those lines. Today’s topic is another very common issue in biblical counseling, as it is I think in Christianity as a whole. So I trust at this time will be profitable for us all.

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we need you. We need You every hour and we need Your Word. It is our food. It is more important than physical food. Lord, I pray that You’d help me to deliver this food to Your people. Help me to be able to explain this clearly, accurately, and well. And Holy Spirit, I pray that You would convict, encourage, transform hearts as a result. You’re the One with the power. Use these means now just as You have ordained. In Jesus’s name. Amen.

William Shakespeare – ever heard of him? The famous English playwright from the 16th century. You probably know him for his famous plays like “Romeo and Juliet”, “Hamlet”. He also publish many poems. One of his more unusual poems is Sonnet 129. I say this is unusual because the poem is a meditation on sexual lust. Listen to what Shakespeare wrote in this short poem. Now this is early modern English poetry. So don’t worry if you don’t get every word. I know it’s a little bit hard. Just listen to the main ideas. This is the poem:

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action: and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight;
Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad.
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

What we can tell about Shakespeare today, he was not a true Christian. Nevertheless, even Shakespeare could observe what lust and the immorality that springs from lust is really like. Lust is selfish. It leads to many other sins. Lust is controlling, causing a person to do the opposite of what is wise. And lust is deceptive. It promises joy and fulfillment, but it just leaves regret and emptiness instead. But what is most startling about Shakespeare’s poem is the admission he makes at the end. Even though many have discovered and experienced the truly evil and vain nature of lust, that does not stop them from going back to it again and again.

Since the fall of Adam and Eve, immorality and lust have been characteristic of the sinful human race. Romans 1 actually, Romans 1:24-27 says that increasing sexual perversion is the natural outcome of those who rebelled against their creator. God actually gives them over to that, he says. And although different cultures throughout history have been more open or less open about sexual sin, make no mistake it has been a problem in every culture in every place of the world throughout time. Our modern American culture has no exception. Not only is sexual sin excused today, it’s even promoted and celebrated. In this we see all around us, don’t we? I don’t have to prove that to you.

But how should we as Christians live in such a world? Consider what the apostle Paul write to early Christian, Christians who lived in a society and a world that is not much different from our own in terms of immorality. It was just as bad, perhaps worse. Listen to what he writes to the Christians in Ephesians 5:3:

But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;

Wow – is such really possible? Can purity and self-control be expected of those who say they truly know God? Consider for yourselves. Have you realize how evil, destructive, and wasteful immorality is? And if you have realized it, do you nevertheless keep turning to immorality? Do you appreciate the seriousness of safeguarding yourself against sexual sin? Have you discovered that there is a better and more joyful way, that is the way of the Lord and a chaste life?

Now, I should say at the outset, the good news of the gospel, my friends, is that there is forgiving, cleansing, and transforming grace in Jesus Christ. No matter what kind of immorality you’ve been involved with, the Lord is able to cleanse and change you. But how did that come about? It comes about by faith and repentance. And repentance is often the part that’s missed. What is repentance? It is the change of mind that leads to a change in action. Your mind needs to be transformed in the way you think about immorality.

To help us in this process, I think it’d be good to examine again the teaching of the Scriptures when it comes to this topic. So please take your Bible and open to the book of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Let’s hear God speak on the issue of immorality. The title of my message today is “Glorify God in your body”. That’s ultimately what we want to do as we have our minds transform in the way we think about our bodies, the way we think about sex, and the way we think about immorality.

Our text is specifically 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. Before I read it, a few quick words of background. This text is part of the apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, a group of mostly gentile Christians in Corinth, which is in Greece. The corinthian, though they are true believers and Paul affirms that in the beginning of this letter. He says I thank the Lord for you. They’ve nonetheless become increasingly proud and selfish and excusing of sin. This appears to be because they have adopted certain worldly ideas and called it Christianity. Paul writes this letter to the church, the letter of first Corinthians, to correct their thinking and their behavior on various issues, including immorality. Let’s hear what Paul said specifically to them in 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. Here’s the Word of the Lord:

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you’ve been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

As we just examine this passage in general, let us first look at the words immorality and immoral that appear several times. What exactly is immorality? It’d be useful for us to define that term. The Greek word used for immorality in our translation is “pornea”. It refers to any kind of unrighteous sexual activity. How do you know what’s unrighteous sexual activity? Anything that goes against God’s original design for it in marriage. Any pursuit of sexual pleasure or fulfillment outside of marriage is immorality.

See, God created marriage. He loves marriage. It ultimately pictures Christ and the church. God designed sexual intimacy to be a blessed part of that one flesh union of marriage – one man and one woman in covenant together. This physical union is not only for procreation, but also for pleasure, as Proverbs 5 says, as we read earlier, and Song of Solomon. Even within marriage though, sexual intimacy is to be pursued not chiefly to fulfill one’s owns desires, but actually the desires of the other spouse, which is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:3-5. Your body is not your own; it actually belongs to your spouse.

God’s original design for marriage and for sex is good. But every sexual pursuit that violates this original design from God, God hates and He calls it immorality. These include outward acts such as premarital sex, adultery, pornography, solo stimulation, homosexuality, bestiality, incest, prostitution, and rape. That’s not the only place – also internally. Jesus said that lustful looks or thoughts or desires are immorality of heart, adultery of heart. And they are sin before God. That’s Matthew 5. And even lustful and coarse words are immoral, according to Paul in Ephesians 5. So all of this is being brought to bear when you see the term immorality in the Scriptures.

Notice, as we continue to look at this passage in general – 1 Corinthians 6:12-22, we have two commands here. There’s a command in verse 18 – flee immorality. Then there’s the command in verse 20 – glorify God in your body. These two commands really go together. You can’t do one without the other. But notice where they appear in the text – kind of towards the end of this section. This delay is significant. It shows us that even though obedience to these two command is the intended outcome of Paul’s instruction, nevertheless he wants to address the thinking first. He wants to make sure we’re thinking about immorality rightly before we respond with proper behavior.

So we’re going to mimic Paul’s approach as we study this passage. We’re going to investigate or we’re going to listen as Paul presents three critical truths about the body that should lead us to flee immorality and glorify God in our bodies instead. We’re going to investigate these three truth, and we’re going to circle back to look at the commands as application. I believe this is what Paul intended.

What are the three critical truths we need to know, we need to appreciate, and embrace? I give them to you in outline. Number one – our bodies matter to God. Number two – our bodies are in union with Christ. And number three – our bodies must not be desecrated.

Take a look this first critical truth as it appears verses 12 to 14. Why did you flee immorality and glorify God in your body instead? Number one – our bodies matter to God. Now these first few verses need a little bit of background to help you appreciate them. There’s always a temptation as Christians to think in one way or another that what we do in the body does not matter. Things physical don’t matter to God. This certainly was a temptation in ancient Corinth due to popular Greek thought. Popular Greek thought at the time was dualistic. It saw the body and things physical as evil or inferior while the spirit, things intellectual, things spiritual, were superior and good innately. They also saw these things that separate from one another. And the body was kind of like a prison for your true self, which was your soul or your spirit. As long as your spirit was right with the divine or the forces of the world, your body didn’t really matter.

This was a common Greek thought, and this popular thinking soon attached itself to the Christian faith. Because you see, Christians like Paul were coming around and preaching that you need faith in Christ. Faith in Christ alone is what saves, not any works, not any rituals, none of those physical things. Moreover Paul taught, the teachers of God taught that issues like food, drink, circumcision, again these outward external physical issues, they ultimately don’t matter to God. What matters is a clean conscience and making sure that you don’t cause your brother to stumble. You can see where this Christian truth and this pagan idea seemed to overlap. So some Christians began to think, some Greek converts: well as long as I have faith in Christ, as long as I’m right with God, it doesn’t really matter what I do in the body. I can even indulge in immorality. Immorality can be excused, tolerated, justified if I have the right spiritual beliefs and relationship with God.

A situation like this seems to have arisen in Corinth. There were Corinthians suggesting that immorality, as it’s just a function of the body, doesn’t really matter to God. And Paul is responding to this kind of thinking in verses 12 to 14 by bringing up the slogans or common sayings is that were being circulated in the church, not by everybody probably, but by some in the church to justify the body doesn’t really matter. This helps explain why there’s such an abrupt transition between verse 11 and verse 12. It’s pretty abrupt. And also as we look at verses 12 to 14, there’s a series of contrast presented. It’s almost like Paul keeps on contradicting himself. Why is he doing that? That’s because he’s responding to or appears to be responding to what some of the Corinthians were saying.

Notice the first saying or slogan that Paul confronts at the beginning of verse 12. People were saying – all things are lawful for me. That’s a pretty sweeping statement, isn’t it? I have the right to do whatever I want. I’m clean in Christ. I’m free in Christ. The body doesn’t matter. This isn’t too far even from what some Christian say today. But notice how Paul responds. He says – all things are lawful for me, but not all things are beneficial. That’s an interesting response. Paul doesn’t do what we think he might do – just come right out and reject their slogan. But he shows that it’s incomplete and that it comes from an improper perspective, a misguided perspective. Paul is saying – yes, you Corinthians are clean in Christ and you do have amazing freedom in Christ, but do you remember that Christ called you to live wisely and always to look at what is the most profitable choice in any situation? what is the most useful, what is the most profitable action? Immorality, even as Greg read earlier from Proverbs 5, is inherently destructive. It is self-destructive and it’s destructive to others. It destroys health. It destroys wealth. It destroys reputation, and it destroys relationships. Even before he’s really dealt with the issue, he says – Corinthians, how does giving free rein to your body, how does just open yourself up to immorality fit with this basic calling you have as a Christian to do what is most profitable?

Paul has another response this slogan though at the end of verse 12. He says:

All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

And isn’t this another fundamental Christian principle? When we became believers, we renounced lordship over our own lives and we transferred that lordship to Jesus, to God, to whom that lordship rightfully belongs. Jesus is our exclusive Master now. And He’s made it quite clear in His word that He will not share mastery with anyone else or with any other power. You can go back to that passage we looked at last week. No man can serve two masters. Because this is true, Paul now challenges the Corinthians and us with that principle. How does indulging in immorality and giving free rein to your body fit with this basic Christian calling? Immorality is inherently enslaving and controlling. It demands greater and greater amounts of your time, your attention, and your resources. How does this fit with your calling to serve Christ and Him alone? Not to be under the control of something else.

Next slogan Paul deals with in the beginning of verse 13 is somewhat longer. It actually has two parts. He is basically quoting from them:

Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them.

There are two excuses given here for the body and for immorality. The first is that immorality is basically necessary and inevitable. I mean, it’s just like the stomach and food, they say. God made the stomach for food, to enjoy all different kinds of food. In the same way, God made the human body for sex and for all different kinds of sex. That’s what the body was designed for. The stomach was designed for food; the body was designed for sex. But you can’t get that in God’s limited marriage design. So in other words, immorality is a biological need. Don’t try to stop it. It’s natural. It’s healthy. Again, don’t we hear the same idea in our society today?

The second excuse though is that morality is also inconsequential. Because again, think about the stomach and food, they’re saying. Stomach is not going to last forever. Food is not going to last forever. So does it really matter what foods you choose to eat or what foods you choose not to eat? It’s all the same destiny in the end. You might as well eat what you want. In the same way, they’re implying, our bodies are not going to last forever and our sexual relationships are not going to last forever. So no matter how much we indulge or whether we indulge, the outcome is the same in the end. So whatever we do in the body is eternally inconsequential. So why not just enjoy ourselves? Why fight so hard to restrain the body? It doesn’t matter in the end.

Listen to Paul’s two part response to these excuses. His response is in verses 13 to 14. He says:

Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.

This is really interesting. The first part of Paul’s response, he’s accomplishing the equivalent of a judo flip. Paul doesn’t simply retort that the body is made for sex in marriage, but actually he said it’s made for something much grander – for the Lord Himself. Paul says to us and to them – you know what is more necessary to your body and to its life than food or sexual relationships? Jesus Christ, knowing Him and walking with Him. Your body – listen now, this is true for all of you. Your body was meant for Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ was meant for your body. You want to talk about creative purposes? Indulging in immorality isn’t fulfilling your creative purpose. That’s actually going against it. Your body was created for the Lord, for serving Him and knowing Him.

As for the second part of their excuse, again Paul turns the Corinthian words on their head. He says – yes our bodies and their appetites will one day come to an end, but that is not the end of our bodies. The same bodies that lived on the earth, bodies that we chose whether to indulge in immorality or not, those same bodies will be raised by the Lord in the same way that the Lord’s body was raised. So don’t talk as if it doesn’t matter what we do with our bodies because we’re just going to discard them. You’re going to get it back. And then your body will be an eternal testimony to how you chose to live on the earth.

By the way, did you notice that Paul doesn’t say God will raise up our bodies through His power, but rather God will raise us up through His power? Is that an important distinction? Is Paul saying that it’s not our bodies that are going to be raised, it’s just our spirits? Actually no. Go to 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul says much more about the resurrection. He’s quite clear – our bodies, our actual bodies, will be raised. Why doesn’t he say that here? Because Paul is emphasizing that you cannot distance yourself from your body. This whole Greek idea, which is still around today, that the soul is imprisoned in the body like a shell, is wrong. Rather, you are your body. That’s not all that you are, but that’s part of what you are. You are a complex interconnection of body and soul. You have an outer man and you have an inner man. These are both terms used to describe the Christian experience in the Bible. But they’re both man. They’re both you. So therefore, let us have none of this “it doesn’t matter what I do in the body”. It certainly does matter what you do in the body because you are your body. And whether you choose to be immoral with your body or not matters to God and has eternal consequences.

Now friends, think about what these truths mean for you. You cannot claim that you are spiritually safe while you pursue immorality. God has called you just like He called the Corinthians. You are to live wisely. You are to do what is most profitable for My sake, for your sake, for other’s sake. You also cannot remain nonchalant about whether immorality or something else places you in bondage. Because God says I will not tolerate anyone or anything being master over you except Me. You cannot excuse immorality as biologically or emotionally necessary because God says He and His will is more necessary than anything else in life. And you cannot treat sexual sin as inconsequential because in some mysterious sense, you will wear the consequences of your sexual choices for eternity. Clearly then, our bodies matter to God and that should change the way we live.

There’s a second critical truth that Paul presents next as to why we should flee immorality, to cause us to flee immorality and instead of glorify God in our bodies. Number two – our bodies are in union with Christ. This is really profound. Look again at verses 15 to 17. I’m going to discuss these verses all at once.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.” But the one enjoying himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

These verses Paul draw attention to an amazing theological fact – our union with Christ. Paul is essentially asking – don’t you remember that when you became a Christian, all of you was placed into Christ? You spiritually became a member of His body. This really is how all salvation blessings come to us, because when we believe in Jesus and we have faith in the Lord, it’s not so much the faith that saves us, it’s how that faith attaches us to the One who has the power to save us. In a mysterious way, through faith we’re attached to God Himself, the Son of God, in a kind of spiritual marriage. We become one with the Lord. And just like in a real marriage, a human marriage that we experience in this world, everything that belongs to one spouse now belongs to the other spouse. That’s really good news for us because what belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ? Life, eternal life, righteousness, strength, blessing – all those get passed over to us. They pour into our lives because we’re attached to Jesus. Now what do we have to offer Him? Sin, death, humiliation. He took that all, and what did He do with it? He paid it at the cross. He suffered that. He suffered the wrath of God that was due our sin for our rebellion against our Creator. And He suffered the most extreme humiliation because we’re now attached to Him. He cares for us as His own body, as Ephesians 5 says. This is a mysterious union that cannot be fully understood, and yet it is real and it is the foundation of our hope and eternal life.

What is this have to do with immorality? Paul is asking us to consider this question. Having been made part of such an amazing union with the Lord Himself, will you then seek out a different and contradictory union? In these verses, Paul is presenting and contrasting two different union. You have, on the one hand, total union body and soul with Christ through the Spirit. And on the other hand, you have total union body and soul with a prostitute through the flesh. Both of these unions are a version of that fundamental one flesh marriage paradigm established by God in Genesis 2:24. That’s what Paul quotes in verse 16. By the way, prostitution was the most common temptation to immorality in Corinth. But a prostitute here really stands for any kind of immorality. Don’t think this is just talking about physical actual prostitution.

Because of these contrasting unions, notice what Paul says is essentially taking place, theologically spiritually taking place, when a Christian goes to visit a prostitute. Paul says the Christian takes away. That’s a good translation of the Greek verb here -not simply takes, takes away. He removes the members of Christ, which is what he is, which is what he became by union with Christ. He removes those members. He removes himself from union with Christ and he instead makes those members, makes Christ’s members, one with a harlot – members of a prostitute. What’s Paul’s reaction to this theoretical scenario? Should such a situation ever take place? Paul says – may it never be. Absolutely not, God forbid, never. All those would be proper translations.

Why such a strong response, Paul? Clearly, he’s showing this ought to be unthinkable to us. But he doesn’t specifically draw the implications. Nevertheless, we just think about it. We can see those implications, can’t we? I think there are two. On the one hand, because of these realities, because of the reality of union with Christ, can anyone conceive of a greater blasphemy against the saving Lord than to try to unite Him with immorality? This is what is attempted any time any Christian, even any one of you, seeks out immorality. That person not only robbed Christ of the members that belong to Him that are His, but he then seeks to defile those members and even Christ Himself in blatant sin. What would the Lord think of this? Will the perfect holy One whose eyes are flame of fire, whose feet are burnished bronze, according to John’s vision in revelation, will He excused this? Will He tolerate this? Oh it doesn’t matter if you defile Me, I’m only the holy One. Any Christian who loves Christ at all or has a shred of holy fear would not dare even consider such a blasphemy, such a blasphemous act, much less carry it out. That’s one implication.

And on the other hand, the second implication – if you remove yourself from Christ and unite yourself with a harlot, unite yourself with immorality, how would you experience anything but eternal and spiritual death? If you caught it when Greg was reading Proverbs 5 earlier, prostitutes are associated with death. Their way goes down to death. They themselves are on that way and they don’t know it. And when you go with them, you go down to death. Union with Christ is life and righteousness. Union with a prostitute, union with immorality, is uncleanness and death. And you have to choose one or the other. Let’s face it, Paul says you cannot be united with Christ and a prostitute at the same time. You have to remove your members from one to be joined to the other. You can be a member of Christ’s body or you can be a member of a harlot’s body. You can have Christ be your Master or you can have immorality be your master. You cannot serve both.

I might ask – wait are you saying that I can lose my salvation through immorality? No, I’m not saying that. What I am saying and what the Lord is saying is that it is totally inconsistent for someone who says he’s attached to Jesus Christ to then go and attach himself to immorality, himself or herself. Yes, true Christians can fall into sexual sin. As I said, there’s forgiving and transforming grace in the Lord. Praise God for that. We need that. That gives us hope. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that God understands, that God overlooks immorality. And let us must not kid ourselves that we are repentant when nothing changes in our lives. Every time, every time I participate, I’m just so sorry and I don’t ever want to do it again. But if you keep on doing it, that’s not repentance. A true change in mind leads to a true change in action. After all, what does 1 Corinthians 6:9 say? I didn’t read this yet, but just go back right before our passage. Paul says:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,

Most of those things on that list are immorality, in the the beginning part of that list.

My friends, here is the sobering word from the Lord. You cannot have Christ and immorality too. You cannot claim union with Christ while you regularly seek union with a prostitute. So which do you want? Obviously union with Christ is so much better. All life and blessing and joy is in Him. So why would you faithlessly choose instead the short-lived pleasure in the long-term poison of a harlot? Both the fact that our bodies matter to God and the fact that our bodies are in union with Christ if we know Him, they should cause us to flee immorality and seek to glorify God in our bodies instead.

There’s one more critical truth that should motivate these actions and we see this in verses 18 to 20. This last section, I think we can divide into some points. Let me give you the main point first. Here’s the third point – our bodies must not be desecrated. Our bodies must not be desecrated. And as I was saying, we can break this last section into three sub-points, three different ways where we can unacceptably desecrate our bodies and God says don’t do it.

The first one is in verse 18. This is 3a. Immorality first desecrates man’s created dignity. Look at verse 18. Paul says:

Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.

We’ll will come back to the phrase flee immorality in just a little bit, but the second half this verse has long presented a puzzle to interpreters. What does Paul mean? In what sense is immorality a unique sin against the person’s own body? How is it different than other sins against the body like drunkenness or gluttony or even suicide? That’s a difficult question to answer. There’s no unity among interpreters on that issue. Certainly there is something unique though about sexual sin. My view as to why it is a particular sin against the body is that sexual sin joins people body and soul, not just body. The one flesh union that God designed in marriage is not just physical. It joins people body and soul in an inappropriate way because they’re not actually married. Thus, it fundamentally degrades people. It degrades people who were made in the image of God. There is something about that improper union that degrade the image of God. And thus immoral persons are afflicted with this deep sense of uncleanness and shame. It seems to come from within and never go away. The reason I say this is partly due to what Paul says in Romans 1:24 and 1:26. He’s talking about how immorality results when people rebelled against God. And he says – God gives them over to dishonor their bodies, to desecrate their bodies among themselves. There’s something about immorality that uniquely desecrates the body, and I think it has to do with God’s image. God doesn’t want to see His image desecrated, and neither should we. That’s the first way that our bodies must not be desecrated.

A second way, 3b – immorality desecrates the Holy Spirit’s dwelling. Actually let me say it this way – desecrates the Spirit’s holy dwelling. Look now at verse 19:

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God,

We’ll just stop right there. I don’t know about you, but I sometimes hear well-meaning Christians misapplying this verse. What, you’re going to eat that whopper? Don’t you know your body’s a temple of the Holy Spirit? Well, it’s true that we should steward our bodies well, and sometimes that means eating more or less healthy. That’s not what this verse is talking about at all. It’s not talking about your body’s health or its appearance. It’s talking about sin. Paul is drawing attention to another amazing salvation blessing, and that is indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If you’ve been saved by God, if you’ve been united to Christ, then you’ve also receive God’s Holy Spirit inside of you to empower you, to enlighten you, to cause you to follow after the Lord. He dwells in you just like God dwelt in the temple in the Old Testament. You are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Interesting, earlier in 1 Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul talked about the whole church being the dwelling place of the temple of God, and it actually applies on an individual basis too. You, your body, is the temple of the Holy Spirit. That’s an amazing reality.

Why is that significant when it comes to immorality? Well because sexual sin, this is what Paul’s implying here, sexual sin which is committed with the body, it desecrates the Holy Spirit’s temple. It defiles it. As one pastor puts it – indulging in immorality is like taking a prostitute right into God’s holy of holies. Because that’s what your body is as a temple of the Holy Spirit. That’s how God sees your immorality if you turn to it. Now this reality, of course again, it should grieve anybody who loves God, who’s grateful for salvation, who’s grateful for the Holy Spirit and all of the Spirit’s work, of the Spirit’s guarantee of an inheritance.

But again, it should also sober us, because how did God feel about the temple’s desecration by sin in the Old Testament? People of Israel didn’t follow the Lord faithfully. They literally brought sin into the temple. How did God respond? In judgment. God not only removed His glory from the temple. He removed His presence from the temple, but He allowed his temple, His physical temple, to be destroyed. He said – I’d rather this temple that I set up on my own special grace, I’d rather it be destroyed than to continue to allow My name to be dishonoured by the sin that goes on here. God is a holy God, and He doesn’t change. Should we expect Him to act any differently with us if our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit?

There’s one other way that we must not desecrate the bodies that God has given us. The third way, 3c, that immorality desecrates and it is immorality desecrates the Son’s redeeming blood. Look now at the end of verse 19 into verse 20. I’m going to borrow the beginning of verse 19 just for the sense:

Or do you not know…that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price.

Here Paul reminds us that our bodies, if we are in Christ, don’t actually belong to us. In truth, everyone’s body belongs to God in a certain sense because He’s the Creator. He made you. He made your body. It belongs to Him. But in another sense, the bodies of believers uniquely belong to God because they have been redeemed. They’ve been bought by the Son. You see, formerly, those of us who are now in Christ, we were enslaved. We were enslaved to sin, to our own passions, to Satan, to the world system. Romans 6 and Ephesians 2 talk about that. But then the Son of God, Jesus, in His incredible salvation work, he redeemed us. He bought us back – that’s what redeem means. What was the price of our redemption? The blood of Jesus on the cross, His suffering, his death, even under the eternal infinite wrath of God. He paid all of that in order to buy us back from that slavery. However, our redemption is not such that we suddenly became free and can just do whatever we please. Rather, ownership was transferred. Formerly, we were slaves to sin, to Satan. Now, Romans 6 says, we are slaves of righteousness. We have become slaves of Christ. Unlike most slavery in the world, slavery in Christ is happy servitude. When He’s your master, you know that He will love and care for you eternally. And amazingly, one of the things that He promises His slaves in the New Testament is that He will one day cause us to rule and reign with Him in His kingdom. We are who are unworthy slaves. This is what He accomplished by His redemption work on the cross – His life, death, and resurrection. These are wonderful realities, but they mean that we are not our own. Our bodies are not our own. They belong to Him. They are His property.

What does this mean for immorality? It means our bodies are not ours to use or abuse as we see fit with sexual sin. And if we instead do that, it is theft of our Master’s property and a blasphemy of the great price that He paid to obtain us for Himself. It is a blasphemy against the redeeming blood of Christ. Again, if you love Christ, can you bear to blaspheme Him that way? And will the Lord bear with our dishonoring Him in such strident way? We must fear desecrating the blood-bought bodies that we have from christ.

Let’s review the truths we’ve seen this far. Paul has shown us, first of all, that our bodies matter to God. Second of all, that our bodies are in union with Christ. And third, that our bodies must not be desecrated, not desecrated by violating our created dignity, by defiling the Spirit’s holy dwelling, by blaspheming the blood of Christ’s redemption. These truths are not just presented to us to educate us, but to move us to action, to move us to change, to obey the Lord’s commands. What are those two commands? Back to verse 18, we see the first one. Paul says:

Flee morality.

Doesn’t this just makes sense after all we’ve seen? This is the present tense verb, meaning not just to do it one time, but you keep on doing it – continuous action. Keep on fleeing. What does it mean to flee? It means to run like your life depended on it. That’s the way we should treat immorality. Because in a way, the same picture is true – your eternal soul depends on how you treat immorality. We have to do as Proverbs 5 says. Solomon counsels, God counsels – do not even go near the door of her house. Where temptation is coming or might come, give that situation a wide berth because you don’t want to dishonor the Lord.

Obviously, if you’re currently involved in immorality, fleeing immorality means that you must stop. Don’t give any excuses. Stop. Stop doing it. Don’t start doing it again, and run away from anything that will encourage you to do it. Be like Joseph in Genesis 39, who famously runs out of Potiphar’s house when Potiphar’s wife tries to entice him when nobody else is around. He left his cloak behind. That got him in trouble, but he says – better that than for me to fall into sexual sin and dishonor my Creator and my Lord.

What are some practical ways that we can do this? I’ll just give you some. What’s it mean to flee immorality practically? It means removing or mitigating sources of temptation in your life, sources of sexual temptation. This is going to be different for every person. It maybe people. It maybe relationships. It maybe situations. It maybe entertainment, and maybe social media, and maybe technologies of different kinds. Whatever it is, you either have to change your use of it in such a way that it’s no longer temptation to you or you have to get rid of it. You say – that seems kind of radical. It’s nothing different than what Jesus said. Matthew 5: if your right eye causes you to sin, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it out, cut it off. Why? Better for you to be maimed and get eternal life than to be whole and to be damned forever.

Remove sources of temptation, but also fleeing means changing your thought life. You can remove all the external sources of temptation but if you don’t deal with the internal thoughts, you’re going to go right back. You have to change the way you think. You have to put off unrighteous thoughts, unprofitable thoughts, lustful thoughts, and then replace them. You can’t just be like – ok can’t think about that, can’t think about that. Because what you going to do? You’re going to think about it. You have to think about what God calls you to think about. Philippians 4:8, right? Think about what is true, what is lovely, what is praiseworthy, etc. Ultimately, those things are related to the Lord. God has given you plenty of things to think about in this world, that’s right and that leads you to glorify God. That’s what you want to think about instead.

Remove sources of temptation, change the way you think, but also change where you look for comfort when life gets hard. I know that many people turn to immorality because they’re looking for comfort. They feel depressed, discouraged, anxious, angry. They feel like immorality will give them some respite. Of course though, as anyone knows who’s ever done that, it is a short-lived comfort that brings greater pain in the end. You must change where you look for comfort. Ultimately, your comfort has to come from the Lord, and He is more than sufficient to give you comfort. Paul says He is the God of all comfort, who comforts the depressed. You’re going through a hard time, go to the Lord. Don’t go to immorality. He will give you true comfort, but you have to have faith.

Another way is – if your married, do what Proverbs 5 says. Rejoice in your spouse rather than immorality. God gave your spouse to you, partly so that you can enjoy that sexual relationship. That’s a safeguard for you. Now sometimes that’s not possible, not available. Or maybe you have a strained relationship with your spouse. God is still sufficient for you. If you do have a strained relationship, let this promise from God, this is intended blessing from God, being motivation for you to seek reconciliation, to repent and to seek to make peace with your spouse. So that you can enjoy marriage as God meant it to be.

One final practical way of how we can flee immorality is get help from your brothers and sisters in the church. Immorality is an uniquely difficult, enslaving, and entangling sin. But God gave you a resource that can deliver you out of it. He gave you the church. Go to your mature brothers. Go to your mature sisters, depending on what your gender is, and ask them to help you. God put these people around you to encourage you, to instruct you, to pray for you, and ultimately to help you achieve victory. Many people don’t truly put immorality to death until they get help from others. God gave you that resource because He knows you need it. You’ve got to take advantage of it.

So those are some practical ways as we see this first command. In light of these truths about the body, flee immorality. There is the second command, and this we’ll just talk about briefly. Look at the second one in verse 20. This is how he finishes the whole thing:

therefore glorify God in your body.

You know when it comes to the issue of sexual purity, often instruction about it is framed in the negative, full of prohibitions and warnings. And that is right. That is biblical. That is necessary. We need a holy fear of God and of sin. There’s something profound about this second command because as you might notice, it’s positive. It’s not saying – don’t do this. Actually, do this instead. See, these exhortations from God are not a mere duty, a mere warning. They are an entreaty. They are an invitation. They are an opportunity leading to your delight. How so? You see, your body and its sexuality, they are not merely burdens to be endured. They are a way that you can enjoy God and put Him on display to the world. God calls you, God calls me to live in a wise and self-controlled way because He says that glorifies Him. It’s not a neutral thing that you can sometimes slip away from and sin against God. It is something that actually glorifies the Lord. He says – I am pleased by that. You are showing how worthy I am in how you steward your body.

Let us embrace this call from Christ. It is the way to joy. It is so often the temptation of immorality is you’re missing out. There’s some pleasure, there’s some good that God is keeping you away from. And so you need to go against God. But the truth is of course the opposite. Those who refuse to live in a holy way with their sexuality, they are the ones who truly miss out because they miss out on the chance to glorify God in their bodies, to walk with the Lord, to know the Lord, to revel in the joy of the Lord continually. I want that for all of you. Paul wanted that for the Corinthians. God wants that for you.

The psalmist says – taste and see that the Lord is good. That’s true, even when it comes glorifying God in our bodies. Let me say again. If you just think about your life and what you’ve done in the past, what you’ve done with your body, all the immorality that you’ve indulged in, take courage. The Lord is able to forgive. He is able to clean. It doesn’t matter how unholy you’ve been with your body. Yes there’s some consequences that will never go away, but you can be completely clean in Christ. Think about it. In Jesus’s own ministry, who were the ones who often flocking to Him and being saved? Prostitutes. If you just go back to 1 Corinthians, 6:11. I read you that list where he says the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Look at all these immoral types of people – they will not inherit. And then look what He says at the end:

Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ…

This is the Lord speaking you today. Take hold of this invitation from God. Turn from immorality. Flee from immorality, and turn to Christ by repentance and faith. Glorify God in your body and you will not only know the joy of the Lord, but you will inherit eternal life.

Let’s pray.