"My Body, My Choice"
You Have Heard It Said • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Scripture Reading: Romans 8:9-11
Scripture Reading: Romans 8:9-11
A man rented a car for a week while his own was in the shop
He wasn't thrilled with the rental:
He thought the paint color was ugly
The wheels looked cheap
The seats were made of itchy, uncomfortable cloth
The stereo barely seemed to work
Since he was the one driving it every day…
He wanted to make a few improvements:
Had the car repainted
Bought new wheels
Replaced the seats with leather
Installed a premium sound system
He invested thousands of dollars into making that car…
Exactly what he wanted it to be
But when he returned it…
The rental company wasn’t impressed
They were furious
Why do you think that is?
Because it wasn’t his car
He may have had possession of the car
But that doesn’t mean he had ownership of it
We’ll see this principle in our text this morning
You Have Heard It Said
You Have Heard It Said
Normally, I would begin my lesson…
By telling you the topic we’ll be discussing
But this time I’m going to do things a little different
I’m not going to tell you the topic of the sermon…
Until after we study the text
Here’s my reason:
If I tell you the topic…
You’re mind will immediately go to one thing
And this lesson is about much more than just that one thing
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Before we jump into the text…
It’s important to remember the context of the letter we’re reading
Paul had just addressed a situation going on in the Corinthian church
A man was in a sexually immoral relationship
And instead of the church mourning over his sin…
They had become indifferent (even proud)
Paul warned them that:
“A little leaven leavens the whole lump”
His concern wasn’t that one man was living in sin
It was that the whole church…
Was going down a path of apathy & even celebration of it
As we get to our text, Paul really hasn’t changed subjects
He is going to continue addressing…
The Corinthians’ distorted view of sexuality
This text is a little difficult to understand/interpret…
Because most scholars seem to agree…
That in this section of the letter…
Paul quotes several Corinthian slogans…
And then goes on to correct those slogans
Many translations will put quotation marks around the slogans
But as we read, I’ll be sure to point them out
12 “All things are lawful for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me”—but I will not be controlled by anything.
“All things are lawful (allowed, authorized, permissible)”…
Is one of these Corinthian slogans
They may have taken this idea from Paul & twisted it
Paul often taught against a legalistic understanding of Christianity
It isn’t a religion governed by lists of rules, laws, & restrictions
It’s a religion governed by love
Jesus taught that all the laws hang the greatest command to love
Augustine (354-430 AD) famously wrote:
“Love, and do what you will.”
When we love with Jesus’ understanding of love…
We don’t need lists of laws to follow
That love influences our desires…
And leads us toward only doing what is good & right
When love for God & others is our governing principle…
We have the freedom to do as we please
As Paul told the Galatians:
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another.
The Corinthians were using freedom in Christ…
As an excuse to indulge their flesh
Paul corrects their misuse of freedom…
By saying:
“You may be free to do as you wish…”
“But not everything you do is beneficial”
Doing whatever you want often leads to pain instead of pleasure
“You may be free to do as you wish…”
“But you’ll soon find yourself to be a slave to your ‘freedom’”
It’s hard to escape from prison when you don’t realize you’re in one
When you only do what your flesh desires…
You aren’t free
You’ve become a slave to your own desires
As we move on in the text…
We see exactly what they were wanting freedom in Christ to do
13 “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both.” The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
The Corinthians seemed to view sexual desire…
The same way they viewed hunger
“God made food to fill our stomachs”
“God made our stomachs to consume food”
“In the same way…”
“God made sex to fulfill our sexual desires…”
“And God made sexual desires to be fulfilled with sex”
Essentially, fulfilling sexual desires is as morally neutral…
As fulfilling one’s desire for food
Ultimately, the Corinthian Christians believed…
They had freedom in Christ to have sex with whomever they pleased
And this seems to be directly related…
To their very Greek perspective on the human body:
“God will do away (destroy, put an end to) both”
Their understanding of the human body was that…
God will one day destroy it & it will be gone
In much of Greek philosophy…
The body was considered a temporary prison…
From which the true self (the soul) would one day be released
That philosophy naturally led to the belief…
That what one does with their body is of little consequence
But Paul immediately pushes back against this ideology
“The stomach may be for food…”
“But our bodies are not for sexual immorality”
“Our bodies are for Lord Jesus”
“And Lord Jesus did what He did for our bodies”
14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.
It is nothing more than pagan Greek philosophy…
To say that Jesus died & raised for us…
Simply to save our souls/spirits
He died & raised to save our bodies as well
Our bodies matter to God
He created them
He has a purpose for them in this life
And He has a purpose for them in the age to come
15 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! 16 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.” 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
Have you ever thought of it in that way before?
We understand as Christians that we are members of the body of Christ
But I think we often think of that in a strictly spiritual way
Paul says our bodies are members of Christ
As it pertains to us being Christians & members of Christ’s church…
Our bodies are just as much involved as our spirits
And to use our bodies for fornication…
Is to rip parts off of Christ’s body…
And attach them to a prostitute instead
To use our bodies for fornication…
Is to become one flesh with someone…
We have no business being united to
As Christians, our greatest & most important union is with Jesus
And its impossible to be one flesh with an illicit partner…
And be one spirit with Jesus
18 Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin a person commits is outside of the body”—but the immoral person sins against his own body.
Paul gives a blunt & simple command to the Corinthians:
“Run!”
“Flee from sexual immorality (fornication, adultery, sexual sin)”
Paul tells the Corinthians to be like Joseph…
Who literally fled from sexual temptation
Then we see what may be the last Corinthian slogan:
“Every sin a person commits is outside of the body”
This seems to be another excuse for their fornication
“It’s just the body having its desires fulfilled”
“It’s not like it’s a sin against a person’s soul”
But Paul counters with:
“The sexually immoral person sins against his own body”
To this, the Corinthians would probably respond with:
“So what?”
So Paul explains:
19 Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.
Why is sinning against the body a big deal?
Because the body of a Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit of God
To sin against God’s temple is to defile/profane His temple
Throughout this text…
Paul has been dismantling the Corinthians’ view of the body
They believed:
They should be free to satisfy their bodily desires
What they did with their bodies didn’t matter
Their bodies are temporary
But Paul taught:
True freedom is had when we’re governed by love
God cares deeply about our bodies & what we do with them
Our bodies are for Jesus & His glory
God is going to raise our bodies to eternal life
Our bodies are members of Christ’s body
Our bodies are God’s temple
And now he reaches his final argument:
“You are not your own”
“You don’t belong to you”
Why?
“For you were bought at a price”
Jesus bought & paid for you with his own blood
Your body belongs to Him
It’s time to reveal our topic for the day
You have heard it said:
“My Body, My Choice”
“My Body, My Choice”
Most of us hear that phrase & immediately think about abortion
And the principles we’ve studied in our text…
Absolutely have something to say about abortion
But Paul is actually focusing on something much deeper
His focus is on the assumption underneath the slogan:
“My body belongs to me”
“And only I have the right to decide what I do with it”
But Paul show us that perspective is like that of the man renting the car
He was driving the car
He had possession of the car
He was responsible for the car
He even invested money in the car
But, ultimately, he didn’t own the car
Paul says the same is true for our bodies:
We live in our bodies
We have possession of our bodies
We care for our bodies
But, as Christians, we don’t own our bodies
Those of us who have given our lives to Jesus…
Who have trusting in His gracious death & resurrection…
And who have been clothed with Him in baptism…
Have taken on new ownership
We belong to God
Our bodies are His
They are united to Christ
They are temples of the Holy Spirit
They have been bought at a great price
They don’t belong to us anymore
Modern culture says, “My body, my choice”
But for Christians, that slogan just isn’t true
It isn’t my body
Therefore it isn’t my choice
Whether it be referring to:
Sexual Immorality
Substance & Alcohol Abuse
Eating Habits
Self-Harm
Gender Identity
Cosmetic Surgeries Motivated by Vanity
Or Abortion
Christians shouldn’t think in terms of:
“How do I desire to use my body?”
But, “How does God desire for me to use my body?”
This principle isn’t just for individual Christians
It’s also a message for the collective church
The Corinthians didn’t wake up one morning…
And decide that their bodies don’t matter…
And fornication is no big deal
It’s the persistent messaging of the culture over time…
That begins to compromise the church
And before long, the slogans of culture…
Become the slogans of the church
And when the church adopts the assumptions & slogans of culture…
We shouldn’t be surprised…
When the church begins to look & behave…
More & more like culture than Christ
Paul’s final words on the matter were this:
“So glorify God with your body.”
If we as Christians are ever making choices with our bodies…
That are not glorifying to the God who bought us…
With the blood of His Son…
Then we need to carefully reconsider our choices & repent
The only man who could ever truthfully say, “My body, My choice”…
Made a choice to use His body for our benefit
He surrendered His life to buy our bodies back from death…
And provide us with eternal life in the age to come
Let’s glorify Him with our bodies
