LESSON 2 - 1 Cor. 6:12-20
Prayers & Announcements
Last Week: In 1 Cor. 1:1-25 Paul talked about two things: First, he appealed to the Corinthian church "that there be no divisions among you" (v.10). He explained that church unity should express itself in three ways: (1) that members totally agree on central matters like doctrine, mission, and vision; (2) that members should never be part of or view divisions in the church as acceptable or normal; and (3)
That members share the same judgment by supporting the pastor and the church leaders in their unified vision for the church so that as a whole, the entire church in facing in the same direction. Truth: Since Christ in not divided (v.10), the members of the Body of Christ, likewise, should not be divided. Second, Paul compared God's wisdom with human wisdom, something highly prized by the Greeks of that time. Paul told us that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men, based on two broad spiritual truths: (1) in His wisdom, God didn't arrange things so that we can know him through human wisdom; we can only know Him by His revelation, therefore, the cross, which is foolish according to human wisdom, is "wise" because it is God's initiative; and (2) unlike human wisdom, the cross is powerful because it has the "power" to save.
This week: In 1 Cor. 6:12-20, Paul addresses the problem of sexual immorality. In terms of sexual depravity, it would be fair to rate Corinth as "Sin City." It was an "anything goes, if it feels good do it" cultural mindset in which adultery, homosexuality, and all other manner of sexual practices were common. Its temple of Aphrodite, the Greek love goddess, encouraged prostitution in the name of its 'religion' and was known to have had as many as 1,000 prostitutes serving in the temple. It's no wonder that the Corinthian church was plagued with problems that stemmed from this society. The United States seems to have been going down the same road over the past 50+ years as our moral standards have steadily deteriorated. In this day and age we find ourselves in a self-indulgent society where anything between consenting adults is not only tolerated but seen as 'normal.' Abortion, the killing of unwanted, unborn children, gay marriage and all the emphasis on LGBY rights, and rampant pornography, are by-products of this trend.
Note on 6:1-11: In the first eleven verses, Paul talks about lawsuits between church members related to issues involving property or money. In summary, Paul states that such differences should be handled within the church through a process overseen by mature church members who have no stake in the matter. Scriptural support for this can be found in Mt. 15:18-20. This standard applies to us today. Paul advocated this position not only for the good of the church but also as an example to the outside world of how disagreements on non-criminal matters can be handled fairly and peaceably outside of public lawsuits in secular courts.
Read 1 Cor. 6:12 - Lawful But Not Helpful (i.e., Expedient/Beneficial)
12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.
v. 12a: "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful [beneficial]" - Here, Paul alludes to Jewish law, which generally forbade any type of immoral sexual practice. Gentile believers had been saved by the gospel of grace alone by faith alone in Jesus Christ. However, it appears that the emphasis on grace had been misinterpreted by some Corinthian believers to mean that if grace was sufficient to cover their sins, then they were free to do whatever they wanted to do. There is a sense in which this is true: God's world is to be enjoyed. Everything God created is good, including sex; however Paul is telling them that freedom does not imply the absence of limitations, self-control, or moral absolutes on behavior. Although Christ lifted the constraints of Jewish law, He certainly did not intend it as a license to indulge in sinful behavior-behavior that is damaging both to the sinner and to the church.
v. 12b: "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything" - Repeating the first phrase, Paul is saying that he will not allow himself to dominated (put in bondage) by sinful behavior. He tells them that misusing freedom to pursue self-indulgent, sinful behavior can result in slavery-the loss of freedom.
Read 1 Cor. 6:13-14 - The Body Is Not Meant For Sexual Immorality
13 "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"-and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
v. 13a: "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food-and God will destroy both one and the other" - The first phrase is apparently a slogan used by some Corinthian Christians to discount the significance of Jewish dietary laws. They claimed that the physical act of eating and digesting food had no bearing on one's inner spiritual life and by extension, the physical act of sexual relations fell in the same category. This conformed to the Corinthian philosophy of dualism in which the body and the spirit were considered to be separate, so that the body should be permitted to have everything it craves. The second phrase, "God will destroy one and the other," expressed the Corinthian notion that both food and the stomach were temporary; that in the end, God would destroy both (no longer needed), so it made no difference what they ate during this mortal life.
v. 13b: "The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body" -
Although Paul agrees that food and the stomach are temporary, he declares that our bodies are eternal and belong to God, and in relation to sex, were meant for only what God ordained-between man and wife (which is an absolute standard, OT and NT, going all the way back to Gen. 2:24)
v. 14: "And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by His power" - To emphasize the point that our body is God's body, Paul reminds these believers that God will one day raise our earthly body, which undeniably means that what we do in our bodies in this life matters greatly to God-now!
Read 1 Cor. 6:15-17 - Your Bodies Are Members of Christ
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh." 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
v. 15: "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!" - Three times in this verse, Paul uses the word "members." He forcefully reminds the Corinthian believers (and us) that the exact moment we believe in Jesus Christ, we are grafted to his body. Because we are now members with Christ, we take Christ with us everywhere we go and include Him in everything we do. Taking the point further, he asked then if they would profane Christ's body by making Him a "member" of a prostitute.
v. 16: "Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh" - The word for "joined' (GR. kollaō) literally means to glue something together-to bond it into one thing. Thus, a person having sex with a prostitute is "bonded" with her so that they become "one body." And what if it's not a prostitute but a consenting partner outside of marriage? The point Paul is driving home here is that it's impossible to have a physical-only sexual relationship because it's an act of such intimacy that it involves the whole person. Therefore, there is no such thing as casual, inconsequential, or recreational sex. "The two will become one flesh" is a quote from Gen. 2:24: "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." God's divine plan for human sexual relationships is a unity of personhood: marriage between one man and one woman.
v. 17: "But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him" - Here we see Paul again use the verb "join" in the sense of being glued to something. Just as a man and a woman become one flesh through sexual union, a Christian becomes "one spirit" with Jesus Christ as Lord. We are, in effect, "glued" to Him in an unbreakable bond. Paul's use of the word "spirit" doesn't mean that it excludes the physical body. In v. 15a, he already established that our bodies are members of Christ and this verse adds that we are one in spirit with Him as well. While this spiritual union with Christ is a higher unity than the marriage bond, it nevertheless forms the perfect model for the kind of unity that should mark a marriage.
Comment: Paul's entire objective in the preceding verses was to utterly transform the Corinthian's way of thinking about sex-to completely discredit and abolish what they had learned from their society and show them that sexual immorality is an offense against God the Father (vv.13-14), the Lord Jesus Christ (vv. 15-17), and the Holy Spirit (v. 16-17).
Read 1 Cor. 6:18-20 - Flee Sexual Immorality
18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
v. 18: "Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body" - The word for "flee" (GR. pheugo) literally means to escape from a threat. The verb is a present imperative which means we should "keep on escaping" from sexual immorality. In this day and age, we must be constantly on guard. We must keep on escaping by staying away from persons, places, and things that can lead us into the temptation to sin. This includes what we watch on television, movies, and the internet. You could be trapped by simply opening a suggestive message in your junk e-mail inbox. Notice that Paul puts sexual sin in a category of its own: all the sins of the world are in one column and sexual sin is in another. All sins are outside the body except sexual immorality, which is alone a sin against your own body.
vv. 19-20: "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." - Paul makes three important points in these last two verses: (1) We are a "temple" of God in which God Himself is resident within us. Would you ever consider committing an act of sexual immorality inside a church sanctuary? No. Well, as disgusting as that sounds, for a Christian it would be no worse than committing the same sin anywhere else. (2) We have been given the Holy Spirit as a gift. We have received Him, and He lives inside us, ready to help us in our battle against sin. One of the Greek words for Holy Spirit (parakaleo) means "counselor or helper." We don't have to be on bondage because we have the power of the Spirit of God within us to supernaturally help us resist temptation. (3) We have been bought at a price, which means we're not our own. Paul's words here don't picture us as being bought by God and being set free; no, it pictures a transfer by sale from one owner to another. Formerly, we were slaves to sin, but now we are slaves to God (Rom. 6:16-23; 7:6). Our body is God's body, so we have no right to pervert or misuse our bodies sexually, because they don't belong to us to do with as we please. And don't forget God's purchase price for us-the blood of Jesus Christ, and besides, His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Mt. 11:30).
Comment: Beside the fact of being a sin against the body, a body owned by God (v. 20), why is sexual immorality in a category by itself? For a short-lived time of pleasure, countless men and women will throw their lives away. Just think for a moment about the potential consequences of sexual sin: Loss of fellowship with God (remember the agony of David in Ps. 51?), divorce, disease, unwanted pregnancy, alienation from family and friends, psychological damage, financial loss, damage to reputation, and the list goes on. Indeed, there is no sin in life with such brutal consequences.
APPLICATION:
