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.
–1 Corinthians 6.12-20 (NIV)
Yesterday we saw that Paul had the courage to speak the truth in love to the Christians at Corinth who were abusing their freedom in Christ. We saw that sexual sin played a prominent role in the list of behaviors that Paul considered to be dehumanizing and contrary to God’s good will for us.
Today Paul explains why sex played such a prominent role in his previous admonitions. In Corinth of Paul’s day there was a major temple to the goddess Aphrodite in which over 1000 prostitutes were employed. Hence, having sex with a temple prostitute was a real possibility for all Corinthians and the Christians living there were no exception. Why is this historical context relevant? While we don’t have many temple prostitutes running around in our culture today (at least not yet), it doesn’t take us long to see that sex is regularly elevated and promoted. Sex appeals to us and sex sells. We can’t escape it in our present day culture and it presents a formidable challenge to Christians today, just as it did in Paul’s day. So we need to pay attention to what Paul is telling us here, much of which is quite countercultural.
First, to those who say that a person’s body is his or her own, Paul responds by saying poppycock. Our bodies our not our own. They are God’s and they house his Spirit. God is not disinterested in our bodies because he intends to redeem our fallen bodies one day. How do we know that? Because God raised Jesus’ mortal body from the dead and transformed it into a resurrection body, just like the ones Christians will get when God raises us from the dead. If you miss the theology of resurrection in this passage you are not reading it very carefully. It is the resurrection, combined with the fact that God’s Spirit lives in our bodies, that gives the human body dignity and worth. Consequently, we have no right to practice those things that will degrade our body. To compare food to sex is a category mistake because sex does make a difference in God’s eyes. Food does not.
We also notice the theology of sex and marriage. Our sexual drive is God-given and therefore good. But we cannot abuse or misuse God’s good gift to us. The only context in which God will bless sex is marriage as Paul reminds us when he cites Genesis 2.24 above. This clearly shoots a hole in the agenda of those who advocate a lifestyle of casual sex or polyamory or homosexual relationships, among others. This stance is terribly unpopular today but that does not change the fact of the matter for those who are trying to be faithful to God’s general will for all humans. It is also important for us to remember here that Paul desires for us to live life in accordance with God’s will for us so that we can be truly human and truly happy. Any other route to happiness is doomed to fail as should be evident to anyone having eyes to see and ears to hear.
Likewise, for those who advocate a woman’s right to abortion, Paul has some unwelcome news. You have no right to an abortion because your body is not yours. Neither is the fetus in your body yours. Both are God’s. Yes, you and your partner used God’s ordained method to create that fetus but that is not about rights. It is about responsible usage of the freedom God gives you to use (or abuse) his good gifts to you. Again, this particular stance is extremely unpopular in some quarters of our society today. But as Paul is reminding the Corinthians (and us), living a faithful and obedient life is not about winning popularity contests. We have to look no further than either Jesus’ life or Paul’s to see the truth in that. We live to and for God and that is the only way we will find fulfillment and learn how to be truly human.
Again, this is not about following a bunch of arbitrary rules. It is about learning to live as the creatures God created us to be. When we have real faith which will always manifest itself in action, we will discover this truth by God’s grace and our own experience. Every one of us seeks meaning and purpose for living. What Scripture tells us is that we have lost both because we have chosen to thumb our nose at God and sought to find happiness on our own. In today’s society, many try to find happiness in and through sexual promiscuity. They believe that they can find happiness, in part, by how many notches they can notch on their bedpost. Sadly I was like that at one point in my life and I burn with shame over it today. I discovered, as countless others have, that seeking happiness through multiple sexual partners and other such behaviors is futile.
Fortunately for us, God has done something about our futile searching. He has taken on our humanity and died for us. In doing so, God has also left us a model for living that is the only way to find true happiness. It is about losing ourselves for God’s sake and the sake of others–and all that that entails. It is about paying attention to God’s good will for how to live and conduct our lives, sex included.
Moreover, given the breathtaking resurrection theology we see in Paul’s writing today, we are reminded that the human body and things of this world have meaning and worth. We need to respect that, both in our own bodies and the bodies of others. Paul’s resurrection theology also means we have work to do here in this world. We are to be open to the Spirit’s Presence and guidance in our life so that he can use us to be Christ’s agents of his healing and redemption. It isn’t up to us to save the world. Only God can save the world. It is up to us to live faithful and obedient lives so that we can mirror God’s glory to others who desperately need to see it and to bring God’s healing love to bear on his broken and hurting creatures. And yes, as Paul reminds us here, how we use the gift of sex and treat our bodies (and the bodies of others), is an important part of living faithful lives to God.
If you really want to be countercultural and make a difference in this world, muse on what Paul is telling us here. What you will find–if you take Paul seriously–is that being countercultural isn’t all that glorious or all that it’s cracked up to be. But take heart and hope. Even if being countercultural won’t win you any popularity contests, you know that you are living your life in a way that is pleasing to God and you will certainly reap the benefit of that, in part by discovering the joy that comes from living as a fully human being. Our Lord Jesus would surely approve.