“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. 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. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 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! 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.” But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 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; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
- 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
The problem of sexual sin was clearly a big issue for the first-century church in Corinth, as Paul continues to address it in his letter to them. In the previous verses, Paul included sexual sins among a much larger list of sins, indicating that the people really needed to change their ways in order to live in a way that honors Christ. Here, he further addresses changing their mindset.
Some of the believers in Corinth believed that they were allowed to do anything (verse 12). They likely took that idea of freedom in Christ too far, claiming that they could do whatever they wanted because they would be forgiven. While we don’t have dates on Paul’s writings, scholars believe that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians before he wrote Romans, so they would not have had the beginning of Romans 6 to refer to, telling them that they should not go on sinning just so that they could receive more grace.
But the questions the Corinthians should be asking are whether an action is beneficial for them and whether that action could become their master. We are allowed to do whatever we want; God has given us that free will. But that does not mean that we should do whatever we want, because sinful actions are not beneficial, and they can very easily become our master and control our lives.
It appears that the Corinthians were using the argument that the act of eating has no bearing on Christian morality, so why should what they do sexually matter (verse 13)? Paul agrees that eventually, we will have no need for food or our stomachs, but sexual immorality is different so they cannot make that parallel. Eating is a natural process, but sexual immorality is unnatural. Our bodies are meant to glorify God and to be used in the ways that God intended, and sexual immorality goes against that.
So along with asking whether something is beneficial and may become a master over our life, we should also ask two additional questions. Will the action be glorifying to the Lord and to the intended purpose of our bodies? Will the action support the fact that the Lord has redeemed our bodies through his death and resurrection? Just because we can do an action does not mean that we should, and as people who strive to glorify God with our lives, we should carefully weigh every action with these questions.
In verse 14, Paul goes on to show the connection between God and our bodies. God’s power raised Jesus from the dead, and that same power of God will raise us one day too. We will be raised out of corruption from our sin into perfect eternal life, which was bought and paid for by the death of Jesus.
Because of that, our physical bodies “are members of Christ himself” (verse 15a). We should treat our own physical bodies as we would treat Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Because of that, Paul gives additional warnings in verses 15-16 that we should not unite our bodies with a prostitute because that would be the same as uniting Christ with a prostitute. Paul reminds them, quoting Genesis 2:24, that having sexual intercourse unites the two bodies together into one flesh – whether they are married or not. We should treat our bodies as we would treat Jesus, who we claim to honor and glorify.
Then Paul takes it one step further and says in verse 17 that, “whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.” Uniting our bodies physically also results in the uniting of our spirits. The body and spirit are connected; when one is united, so is the other. This is a good unity when it is in the proper context of marriage, but outside of that, it is immoral.
Paul gives them a clear command in the first part of verse 18: “Flee from sexual immorality.” He then gives more explanation as to why he’s talking so much about sexual sin – because it is a sin against one’s own body. All other sins are committed outside the body, but this is a sin against our bodies. Sexual sin actually defiles the way our bodies were created to function and be in unity with one another and with God.
But when we’re told not to do something, it’s always helpful to also look at the positive side of things. In verses 19-20, Paul shares that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. We have one person of the Trinity of the holy God dwelling inside of our bodies! If we profess any kind of allegiance to God, that alone should make us want to honor God with our bodies. He is literally living inside of us! If the person Jesus was going to come to your house for a visit, wouldn’t you do everything possible to clean up and make your home look perfect? The same should be true with our bodies; we should do everything possible to honor God with our bodies because He is living in them.
We do not own our bodies; they were given to us by God. Not only that, but He bought them at a price – that price was the blood of His Son Jesus. Because of all of that, we should desire to honor God with our bodies, especially when it comes to sexual sins. We must remember who our bodies should be united to, both physically and spiritually. Just because we are permitted to do things out of freedom, that does not mean that we should do those things that do not honor God.
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