Sex

Expository preaching is good for the church in a thousand different ways. And it’s good for the preacher, even when it’s tough. For instance, I’m not sure that I’d preach this chapter in 1 Corinthians if it wasn’t what was next. No, I am sure; I’d skip it. It’s just a little awkward, a little sensitive, a little close to home.

We face the same temptations, we have the same struggles, we commit the same sins as the Corinthians.

A quick reading of church history reveals something very sad about the church in the past. Time and again we see that followers of Christ fell into beliefs and practices that were considered acceptable in their cultures. They thought they were following Christ and seeking His kingdom, but today we realize they were blinded by the norms of their cultures.

Examples appear in every historical period: the atrocities of the Crusades; executions of heretics; wars between Protestants and Catholics; the African slave trade. The list goes on and on. We read about these events and wonder how Christians could have stooped so low. How could they have endorsed such pagan practices?

It is easy to see these failures in Christians of the past, but it is important to realize that we face the same temptations ourselves. Christians are easily influenced by the standards of the world. When we grow up in a culture that tells us certain practices are good, we tend to embrace these practices even as we follow Christ. Every Christian has such cultural blind spots. We follow wrong cultural practices because we are blind to their evil.

-Richard L. Pratt, Jr.

Sex, views on sexual behavior, and sexuality in general—these are some of our cultural blind spots. We are, no doubt, influenced by our culture and we always have been. There’s never been a moment in the history of the church where the culture hasn’t had some measurable sway over the church and her members.

The root problem, I think, is that we believe, along with the Corinthians, that we “have the right to do anything.”

It’s a pretty common cultural assumption: “I have the right to do anything.”

It creeps into our thinking, into our kids’ thinking, into the very fabric of the church. “I have the right to do anything.”

It might be true on some level that you have the right to do whatever you please, but not without consequences. You have the right to drive 120 mph down Third Street, but it won’t turn out to be a good decision, and there will likely be some serious legal ramifications.

You have the right to do with your body whatever you please; technically, you do. But, friends, I promise you there are long-lasting consequences, damage to future relationships, and harmful effects on your soul when you do whatever you please.

“I have the right to do anything,” so say the Corinthians. This was one of the mantras of their day. This, they believe. It was a saying used to justify all sorts of behavior. If you think about it “I have the right to do anything” could be used to justify any and every kind of behavior.

“I have the right to do anything.” The Corinthians would say this and then they’d go visit a temple prostitute. That was a thing! Some in the church were even convinced that religious prostitution was a benefit to their spiritual life—the promise of good fortune and blessings.

It’s whacky, but it’s no more odd than our views on sex and sexuality. The birth control pill came out in ‘60s which led to “free love” in the 70s, sexual promiscuity in the 80s and 90s, internet pornography in the late 20th- and early 21st century, cohabitation, common law marriages, multiple partners, swinging, and a general redefinition of marriage and gender and what’s proper.

And the church has, in part, gone right along with the culture.

Talk about whacky. “I have the right to do anything.” That will lead all sorts of places, and it has.

“I have the right to do anything” is a dangerous place to be. It’s a dangerous thought. It’s a dangerous cultural assumption, and we must not allow it to creep into the church anymore than it already has. We must, as Paul does, confront this attitude within our own church family, and repent of believing and behaving that we have the right to do anything.

>If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 1 Corinthians 6. And if you’re able and willing, please stand for the reading of God’s Holy Word. 1 Corinthians 6, beginning with verse 12:

1 Corinthians 6:12–20 NIV

12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

May the Lord bless the reading of His Holy Word!

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Paul acknowledges the Corinthian mantra—“I have the right to do anything.”—and comes back with a much-needed corrective (a big ‘but’ alla): but not everything is beneficial.

Boy, howdy, isn’t that true? You might have the right to do whatever you’d like, but ask yourself if it’s beneficial in any way that’s not temporary, carnal, or outright sinful. Not everything is beneficial. Whatever liberties believers have, choices must be carefully evaluated as to their spiritual benefit.

“I have the right to do anything, but (big ‘but’ alla) I will not be mastered by anything.”

You may have the right to do this or that, but has that thing become your master? Do you serve that thing, that behavior, that action? You might have the right to do anything, but can you stop doing what you’re doing? Or has it caught hold of you?

The Corinthians had become victims of their own desires. They had lost control over their own bodies as they gave themselves to sexual immorality. Their sexual desires had mastered them. And therein lies a good portion of the problem.

The Corinthians had a lot of catchy sayings but none catchier than this: “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.”

The Corinthians (along with the Greeks of their day) believed that sexual pleasure was meant to be enjoyed just as food was meant to be eaten.

Sex was for them just another bodily function: “We’ve got sexual organs; might as well put them to use.” “We’re sexual beings.” “Sex is natural, a biological imperative.” If the body is to sex as the stomach is to food, reason the Corinthians, then sure, every form of sexual pleasure is legitimate. “Have at it. Do whatever feels good, whatever makes you happy.”

But we know (and we’re told) that we mustn’t treat sex as casually as we do food. And, what’s more, our bodies are not throwaways.

The body isn’t meant for sexual immorality.

The body is meant for the Lord; it’s the instrument by which we serve and glorify God.

And our body has great worth and importance:

1 Corinthians 6:14 NIV

14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.

We are to serve Him with our bodies AND we must remember that Christ redeems our bodies.

Paul references the resurrection of Christ—the bodily resurrection of Christ. God didn’t just raise the spirit of Christ from the dead. The physical body of Jesus was raised from the dead; He walked right out the tomb, leaving it empty.

Likewise, on the final day of judgment, God will raise the bodies of all believers from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus means that we, too, will be raised and by the same power.

This gives our bodies inherent worth. This means our bodies must not be used for acts of sexual immorality, but for Christ and His service.

Paul desperately wants to Corinthians (and us) to:

Understand

He uses a phrase five different times in 1 Corinthians 6. Paul is begging for them to understand: Do you not know?

Paul asks this question five different times in this short chapter—Do you not know?

1 Corinthians 6:15 NIV

15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!

1 Corinthians 6:16 NIV

16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”

1 Corinthians 6:19 NIV

19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

Understand your bodies are members of Christ, so what we do with our bodies matters, infinitely.

We are joined with Christ spiritually—so intimately joined to Christ on every level that even our physical bodies are united to Him, being parts of His body here on earth.

Understand you are one in body with whomever you have sexual contact.

For the Corinthians to have casual sex, to engage in sexual acts with prostitutes (religious or otherwise), is beyond wrong. If they belong to Christ, their bodies are members of Christ Himself.

Should they take the members of Christ and join them with a prostitute? May it never be! Of course not!

There is no such thing as casual sex—for the Christian or anyone else. Sex outside of marriage, sex between anyone other than husband and wife is wrong.

Sex is for man and wife. This is God’s design, His creation, His idea; it has not changed and it will not change.

Paul references Genesis 2:24—

Genesis 2:24 NIV

24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

For the Corinthians to have sex with prostitutes is to unite themselves with them. For you to have sex with anyone, outside of marriage, is uniting yourself with that person in a very intimate way: one flesh.

Because a believer’s flesh is united to Christ, when a believer becomes one flesh with another, they are taking Christ and uniting Him with that person.

If you think: “How is that? That’s horrifying!”—that’s exactly the point. How could a professing Christian do such a thing? Such mistreatment of Christ is unthinkable and must be avoided.

Understand you are a temple of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit—the Spirit of the Lord—lives within individual Christians, making each Christian’s body a temple, just as the Church (corporate) is also a temple where God’s Spirit dwells.

This is an important understanding, and one which will hopefully do more than shame. This is an encouraging and motivating point. Understand, friends: if you belong to Christ, the Spirit of the living God dwells within you. You, Christian, are a temple of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit lives in you. You have received, from God, the Holy Spirit. This marks you. This makes you different. This sets you apart from the world. As a temple belonging to God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, your body doesn’t belong to you. You are not your own.

Sexual integrity is one of the main ways we respond to Jesus love and grace. If your body is being redeemed now and in the future, then what you do with your body matters—a lot!

A number of people during my youth used these verses to dissuade us from getting tattoos or drinking or smoking. “Your body’s a temple. Remember.”

All of that misses the essential point.

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with getting a tattoo (it’s not for me, not my thing, but find me any biblical teaching against it that’s not part of the OT ceremonial law and I’ll eat my hat). There’s nothing sinful about drinking alcohol (in moderation, when you’re of age, as long as you don’t drink to get drunk). Smoking anything seems ill-advised at best, but the context, the point of these verses has nothing to do with any of those things.

Even as a kid I knew people were taking out of context these verses. This has nothing to do with matters of Christian freedom (tattoos, drinking, smoking, etc).

This has everything to do with using our bodies in a sexually pure manner, a manner befitting the Lord, a manner worthy of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Understand what your bodies are for. Understand to Whom your body belongs. Understand that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, that you are not your own, you were bought at a price.

Understand.

So what do we do with this understanding? It’s a good question and you can be thankful that the application is nothing I had to come up with in my severely lacking creativity and cleverness. The application (2 points) is right here in the text. Two words.

Flee

One of the great stories in the Old Testament is the story of Joseph—sold into slavery by his jealous brothers to the Midianites. The Midianites sold Joseph to the Egyptian Pharaoh’s official, Potiphar.

Eventually, Joseph became Potiphar’s attendant, in charge of Potiphar’s household and everything Potiphar owned.

Joseph, we’re told, was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”

Joseph refused, but Potiphar’s wife kept on insisting—day after day. She kept insisting and he kept refusing to go to bed with her or even be with her.

Genesis 39:11–12 NIV

11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12 She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.

When faced with the temptation of sexual immorality, fornication, adultery, what did Joseph do? He fled. He ran away, and fast. He fled; he ran out of his cloak.

When faced with sexual immorality, we’re told to skedaddle. We’re told to run out the house. We’re instructed:

1 Corinthians 6:18 NIV

18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.

Flee.

We are to flee from sexual immorality largely because of what the previous verses discussed; sexual immorality is a unique sin against the body. It brings the body into a wrongful “one flesh” union. It violates the most significant fact about believers’ physical existence: their bodies belong to Christ.

This word—flee—is the word pheugete where we get the word “fugitive”. We aren’t meant to play around with sexual immorality; we’re meant to run like Harrison Ford from sexual immorality. “Run like a fugitive from sexual immorality; flee!”

This is the negative command of the application—flee. Get out of there. If you’re in a situation, if you find yourself in some place or with someone where something sexually immoral is going to occur—flee! Run!

As Christians we must, both individually and corporately, flee from sexual immorality; be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little eyes what you read, be careful little ears what you hear, be careful little feet where you go. Be careful, friends.

Flee, and

Honor

This is the positive half of the application. We’re told to honor God with [our] bodies.

Your Bible might read, “glorify God with your body” and that might be a better choice of words.

This is the word doxasate, which sounds a lot like doxology, the glorifying of God. “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow”—that’s doxology.

So is this:

1 Corinthians 6:20 NIV

20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Honor. Honor God. Honor God with your bodies.

Rather than merely resist sin, believers must see themselves as temples of God purchased by Christ. Of course, this purchase refers to Christ’s work on our behalf. This is a reference to His atonement.

What Jesus did on the cross—taking our sin, bearing our shame, absorbing the wrath of God—all of this was a work of redemption. He purchased us from the slave market of sin never to be bought again. We are, because of Him, redeemed; He, our kinsman redeemer. He paid the price, once and for all. He paid the price for us; we are His.

Because Christ died and purchased us, we owe Him obedience and honor.

Do what He says.

Keep from doing that which He has forbidden.

You see, God is glorified, and we honor Christ’s death by living as if His death has made the difference in our lives.

God is glorified when a man loves his wife and no other; when a wife loves her husband and no other.

God is honored when a man is faithful to his wife; when a wife is faithful to her husband.

God is glorified when His people who are unmarried abstain from all sexual activity.

God is honored when His people maintain purity of thought, when they’re careful about what they watch and what they read, when they shun crass conversation—God is glorified.

Understand. Flee. Honor.

May it never be said of us that we believe we have the right to do whatever we please. We understand who we are and understand that what we do with our bodies matters. We understand the need to flee from sexual immorality and honor God with our bodies, for we have been bought with a price.