“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 people commit are outside their bodies, but those who sin sexually sin against their own bodies. 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 (TNIV)

Here we have the biblical response to those who mistakenly argue that our bodies are ours and we have the right to do with them what we please. Paul would beg to differ. To the contrary, he reminds us that our bodies are God’s, not our own, and we are not to do anything that would dishonor God by dishonoring his temple (our bodies in which the Holy Spirit lives).

I don’t know about you, but I am glad my body belongs to God. I wish I had taken this teaching more seriously when I was younger. It may have prevented me from living the profligate lifestyle I lived. You see, I have tried that old “self-help” program and it has been a disaster. I need God’s Presence in me so that he can transform me to become like Jesus. I want that very badly because I want to enjoy a real relationship with my Creator who loved me and gave himself for me on the cross to make it possible for me to have that relationship in the first place.

Paul lays out three great biblical teachings in this dense passage. First, we see the biblical teaching on resurrection. We are not going to spend eternity with God as some disembodied spirit. We are going to one day enjoy new resurrection bodies, the kind that our Lord Jesus has. Paul explicates this elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 15.

Second, we see the value of God’s created order. Because we are promised resurrection bodies, we are reminded that God values his creation and plans to redeem it, not destroy it. We get a wonderful vision of this in the last couple of chapters in Revelation. Check it out. Because God values his creation, so should we. That means we need to roll up our sleeves and be extensions of God’s love for his broken and hurting world.

Last, we see a wholesome and winsome vision for Christian marriage and sexuality. Note carefully the self-giving essence of love that exudes from this passage. We are not to focus on ourselves but on others. We are not to delude ourselves into thinking we are gods over our own bodies, but rather our bodies are vessels in which the Living God wants to dwell. Paul refers us back to Genesis 2:24 by reminding us why God created male and female and his purposes and will for his gift of sex to us. Sex is a good and God-given gift, intended to be used in a permanent monogamous relationship between one man and one woman, i.e., marriage. As Paul further explicates in tomorrow’s passage, husbands and wives are to submit their bodies to each other. But first and foremost, both are to submit themselves to the headship of Christ. So while Paul does argue elsewhere for male headship in the family, this passage reminds us that he surely did not have in mind a headship that was authoritarian, demanding, cruel, or abusive, but rather one patterned after the headship of Christ, who loves his bride, the Church, and gave himself up for her.

If you want to know the secret to a happy marriage, here it is in all its Christian glory.