"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body!" (I Corinthians 6:19-20)
In last week's lesson, on I Corinthians 6:1-11, the apostle Paul confronted the Corinthian believers with the "in your face" question of how any of them "dared" to instigate a lawsuit and take another "brother" ( a fellow believer) to civil court to settle a dispute between them, rather than settle it among themselves, or within the church--thereby not "hanging out their dirty laundry" for all to see, even dragging down the testimony of the church before an ever-watching, and already skeptical world! This kind of behavior was apparently quite prevalent in the Church of Corinth, and just another example of how worldly and carnal some of the professing Corinthian Christians were living! Just like the world! And reverting back to their former life before being saved! "Why can't you settle your disputes among yourselves, or find 'a wise man' among you (in the church) to decide on any needed actions, or better yet, allow yourself to be wronged or defrauded"? Paul asked! "It's already a defeat for you that you have lawsuits with one another! Better to suffer a loss financially than spiritually!" And he probably reminded them of what he told the Colossians (in Colossians 3) about "putting on the new self," and following the example of Christ in forgiving one another, "just as God in Christ has forgiven you"!
But he wasn't finished with his exhortation! "Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God," he wrote! "Don't be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God! Such were some of you; but you've been washed (regenerated, given a new life!), you've been sanctified (with a new capacity for holy living!), and you've been justified (given new standing!), in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God"! Thus encouraging them to examine themselves and to remind themselves that they've been transformed, and that a transformed life should produce transformed thinking, and living! (And this a lesson which left us with a challenging question to ask ourselves as well: "What will people who are observing me conclude about followers of Christ by the way I'm conducting myself?")
And that set the tone for our lesson last night on I Corinthians 6:12-20 where Paul challenges the Corinthians (and us as well!) to consider more deeply about who we are, and what we have, as "believers," and how that should affect how we choose to live!
"All things are lawful for me (Paul writes), but not all things are profitable! All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything!" Wow! Sounds like the apostle Paul is making a case for "Christian liberty"! Constable notes that "he was, and is, famous as the apostle of Christian liberty, and that he saw early, and clearly, in his Christian life that the Christian is not under the Mosaic Law"! His epistle to the Galatians is, in fact, an exposition of that theme, and he preached "freedom" wherever he went!
Galatians 5:1 says, "It is for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject to the yoke of slavery!" In Romans 6:14 he writes, "Believers are not under law but under grace!" And in Romans:1-2, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death! For what the law could not do, weak as it was in the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit!"
And so we get some insight into Paul's life as a "free man in Christ"! Obviously not as a "legalist," with a set of "do's and don'ts," and rules that governed every aspect of his life, but as one free to discern the will of God in every situation through his connection with the Word of God and the Spirit of God guiding him into all truth, and in revealing to him "the good and acceptable and perfect will of God"! Constable writes that "legality is not the only test the Christian should apply to his or her behavior, but is the practice beneficial, helpful, admirable, profitable, expedient, and good"? Paul gives insight into his guiding principle in Galatians 5:13, where he wrote: "Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh!"
The Corinthians, unfortunately, chose to twist Paul's teaching of "liberty in Christ" to mean that there were no restrictions whatsoever in Christian living and so they were free to live however they pleased, whether in choosing what they ate to satisfy their stomach's appetites or even by engaging in sexual relationships with prostitutes to satisfy their body's sexual appetites! "Sex is no different from eating! The stomach was made for food and the body was made for sex," they postulated! And by so thinking, and doing, totally violating the principle of Galatians 5:13, and getting caught up in serious sin!
The apostle Paul took immediate umbrage and, with great profundity retorts: "Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body, Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up (bodily!) through His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know (there he goes again!) that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says (going back to the beginning, in Genesis 2:24), "The two shall become one flesh"! With eternal consequences! Wow!
And thus the great warning for all who would hear: "Flee fornication! Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body!'' (MacArthur writes that "no sin that a person commits has more built-in pitfalls, problems, and destructiveness than sexual sin! It has broken more marriages, shattered more homes, caused more heartache and disease, and destroyed more lives than alcohol and drugs combined. It causes lying, stealing, cheating, and killing, as well as bitterness, hatred, slander, gossip, and unforgiveness!'' And it especially perverts God's plan and purpose for the bodies of His people"!)
And here's the clincher: "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body!" Wow!
What more can we say?
Flee fornication, men!
Lowell
In last week's lesson, on I Corinthians 6:1-11, the apostle Paul confronted the Corinthian believers with the "in your face" question of how any of them "dared" to instigate a lawsuit and take another "brother" ( a fellow believer) to civil court to settle a dispute between them, rather than settle it among themselves, or within the church--thereby not "hanging out their dirty laundry" for all to see, even dragging down the testimony of the church before an ever-watching, and already skeptical world! This kind of behavior was apparently quite prevalent in the Church of Corinth, and just another example of how worldly and carnal some of the professing Corinthian Christians were living! Just like the world! And reverting back to their former life before being saved! "Why can't you settle your disputes among yourselves, or find 'a wise man' among you (in the church) to decide on any needed actions, or better yet, allow yourself to be wronged or defrauded"? Paul asked! "It's already a defeat for you that you have lawsuits with one another! Better to suffer a loss financially than spiritually!" And he probably reminded them of what he told the Colossians (in Colossians 3) about "putting on the new self," and following the example of Christ in forgiving one another, "just as God in Christ has forgiven you"!
But he wasn't finished with his exhortation! "Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God," he wrote! "Don't be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God! Such were some of you; but you've been washed (regenerated, given a new life!), you've been sanctified (with a new capacity for holy living!), and you've been justified (given new standing!), in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God"! Thus encouraging them to examine themselves and to remind themselves that they've been transformed, and that a transformed life should produce transformed thinking, and living! (And this a lesson which left us with a challenging question to ask ourselves as well: "What will people who are observing me conclude about followers of Christ by the way I'm conducting myself?")
And that set the tone for our lesson last night on I Corinthians 6:12-20 where Paul challenges the Corinthians (and us as well!) to consider more deeply about who we are, and what we have, as "believers," and how that should affect how we choose to live!
"All things are lawful for me (Paul writes), but not all things are profitable! All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything!" Wow! Sounds like the apostle Paul is making a case for "Christian liberty"! Constable notes that "he was, and is, famous as the apostle of Christian liberty, and that he saw early, and clearly, in his Christian life that the Christian is not under the Mosaic Law"! His epistle to the Galatians is, in fact, an exposition of that theme, and he preached "freedom" wherever he went!
Galatians 5:1 says, "It is for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject to the yoke of slavery!" In Romans 6:14 he writes, "Believers are not under law but under grace!" And in Romans:1-2, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death! For what the law could not do, weak as it was in the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit!"
And so we get some insight into Paul's life as a "free man in Christ"! Obviously not as a "legalist," with a set of "do's and don'ts," and rules that governed every aspect of his life, but as one free to discern the will of God in every situation through his connection with the Word of God and the Spirit of God guiding him into all truth, and in revealing to him "the good and acceptable and perfect will of God"! Constable writes that "legality is not the only test the Christian should apply to his or her behavior, but is the practice beneficial, helpful, admirable, profitable, expedient, and good"? Paul gives insight into his guiding principle in Galatians 5:13, where he wrote: "Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh!"
The Corinthians, unfortunately, chose to twist Paul's teaching of "liberty in Christ" to mean that there were no restrictions whatsoever in Christian living and so they were free to live however they pleased, whether in choosing what they ate to satisfy their stomach's appetites or even by engaging in sexual relationships with prostitutes to satisfy their body's sexual appetites! "Sex is no different from eating! The stomach was made for food and the body was made for sex," they postulated! And by so thinking, and doing, totally violating the principle of Galatians 5:13, and getting caught up in serious sin!
The apostle Paul took immediate umbrage and, with great profundity retorts: "Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body, Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up (bodily!) through His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know (there he goes again!) that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says (going back to the beginning, in Genesis 2:24), "The two shall become one flesh"! With eternal consequences! Wow!
And thus the great warning for all who would hear: "Flee fornication! Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body!'' (MacArthur writes that "no sin that a person commits has more built-in pitfalls, problems, and destructiveness than sexual sin! It has broken more marriages, shattered more homes, caused more heartache and disease, and destroyed more lives than alcohol and drugs combined. It causes lying, stealing, cheating, and killing, as well as bitterness, hatred, slander, gossip, and unforgiveness!'' And it especially perverts God's plan and purpose for the bodies of His people"!)
And here's the clincher: "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body!" Wow!
What more can we say?
Flee fornication, men!
Lowell
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