Sermon Tone Analysis

Salt and Light: Living Righteously in a Highly Sexualized Culture

Text: 1 Corinthians 6:9-20

Theme: In a highly sexualized culture, Christians need to be Salt and Light.

Date: 10/27/2013File Name: Salt_and_Light_02.wpdSermon

ID: 24

I. THE BIBLICAL TEXT

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you.

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful.

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

“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other.

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?

Never!

Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”

But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

Flee from sexual immorality.

Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

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

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

So glorify God in your body.”

(1 Corinthians 6:9–20, ESV)

1. the Apostle Paul spells out some of the practical consequences of belonging to the

Lord Jesus in a society where sexual immorality is taken for granted

2. in brief, the duty of the believer is to flee from it

II.

THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

1. the Christian doctrine of human sexuality teaches that our sexuality is a gift from the \

Creator who knows best how it is to be expressed and experienced by His creatures

2. in the passage under consideration this morning, the Apostle Paul first reproves the

Corinthian Christian’s behavior, then he corrects it and teaches them a proper understanding of human sexuality so that they may repent and live righteously

a. Paul outlines five principles in developing a theology of biblical sexuality

A. 1st, CHRISTIANS ARE NOT TO LIVE THEIR LIVES according to the accepted principles

of the world (vv.

12, 13), but by an intelligent and balanced application of Christian principles

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful.

“All things are

lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.

“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other.

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”

(1 Corinthians 6:12–13, ESV)

1. the believers at Corinth had taken their Christian liberty to a level not supported by the

Scriptures

a. the statement ‘All things are lawful for me’ (v.

12) is in quotation marks because it

seems to have been a popular saying among the Corinthian Christians, pointing to the believer’s freedom in the Lord Jesus

1) their contention seems to be that their new-found freedom in Christ gave them the

licence to do whatever they wanted

2. unfortunately, the Corinthians views on human sexuality had been tainted by the culture

in which they lived rather than molded by the Savior whom they now served

a. Corinth, as you know, was a cosmopolitan city, materially prosperous and sexually

permissive

1) the sexual perversion was so pervasive that the verb “corinthianize” had become

synonymous with prostitution and sexual license in the first century

b.

Aphrodite, goddess of love, was revered in Corinth

1) 1000 prostitutes served in the temple dedicated to her worship

2) as a result of living in a highly sexualized culture, sexual immorality found its way

into the church in Corinth big-time

“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that

is not tolerated even among pagans, ... ” (1 Corinthians 5:1, ESV)

3) the apostle Paul is referencing a situation in which a young man—who is a

member of the church—is openly having an adulterous affair with his stepmother

4) to make matters worse, the church has said and done nothing about it

5) the apostle Paul says that even people with no religious scruples whatsoever

recognize the scandal of the man’s behavior— why can’t the Church?

c. the word that the apostle Paul uses to describe this immorality is porneia

1) it is where we derive our English word “pornography”

2) Corinth was a pornographic culture, and that culture had rubbed off on the church

3. the Corinthian believers justified the immoral behavior among their members by rattling

off the church motto; “all things are lawful for me”

a. in verse 13 the church goes even further by claiming "Food is meant for the stomach

and the stomach for food"

b. in this statement we, once again, hear the secular philosophy of the culture affecting

their theology

1) Greek culture believed in the immortality of the soul, and that the body simply

wears out and perishes

2) therefore, what the Corinthian believers do with their bodies is no big deal— sex,

after all, is just hormones and fun

3) sex, they argue, is as natural as is eating

4. it is true that the Christian life should not be hedged in with lots of laws and restrictions

(we are not to become ‘legalists’), but, at the same time, we are to live according to clear guiding principles

a. to their slogans the apostle Paul succinctly replies The body is not meant for sexual

immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body

b. the body’s God-given sexual appetites are to be satisfied only within a moral

framework and that framework is marriage

c.

God wants every aspect of a believer’s life to be pleasing to him, including our

sexuality

B. 2nd, ESSENTIAL TO ACHIEVING THIS IS SELF-CONTROL is recognizing the important

difference between what is permissible and what is beneficial to the Christian

ILLUS.

While, for example, it is permissible for us to have lots of sugar in our coffee or tea it

may not be beneficial.

1. self-control enables us to opt for the beneficial over the permissible

ILLUS.

On a more serious level, it may be permissible for men to counsel women and