MY BODY AND ME
1 CORINTHIANS 6:12-20
NASB
12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 Food is for the [a]stomach and the [a]stomach is for food, but God will do away with both [b]of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. 15 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! 16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.” 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the [a]immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a [a]temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from [b]God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
6:13 [a]Lit belly [b]Lit it and them 6:18 [a]Or one who practices immorality 6:19 [a]Or sanctuary [b]Or God? And you...own
NLT
12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything” —but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.
15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”[*] 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
[6:16] Gen 2:24.
We live in an age infatuated with the human physique. Each year people spend billions of dollars on cosmetics, exercise equipment, fitness clubs, fashion, vitamins, diet programs, and plastic surgery. Beautiful, sculpted bodies parade before us in every form of media. The perfect body, we are told, is different than ours —whether curvier, sleeker, slimmer, or more toned and muscular.
Along with the body craze has come an obsession with sex that has reached insane proportions. Television, magazines, movies, and the Internet provide a smorgasbord of opportunities to poison the mind with greatly distorted and often perverse pictures of human sexuality. God-given sexual desires —perfectly healthy and holy in the context of faithful marriage —are exploited into opportunities for immoral images, attitudes, and actions.
These worldly distortions of the human body and human sexuality should concern us, but they should not surprise us. From time immemorial the world has been departing from a balanced, godly view of the physical body. Case in point: The next issue of Corinthian immorality that Paul seeks to correct involves a perversion of human bodily existence and sexual practice. In 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, Paul challenges the church’s misconceptions and misdeeds, calling the believers to a life of physical purity to conform to their spiritual holiness.
— 6:12 —
Without doubt, Paul was a preacher of Christian liberty. In one of his earliest letters, he wrote, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free” (Gal. 5:1). Ripping this verse from its context, however, a person could wield this slogan in defense of any kind of excessive lifestyle or wanton immorality. It is not hard to imagine that in the Corinthian culture, Paul’s teaching on Christian liberty might have been taken as an endorsement for a hedonistic lifestyle among Christians.
The imbalanced Corinthians had fully embraced one side of Paul’s doctrine of liberty without embracing the other. They shouted “Amen!” to the first part of Galatians 5:13 —“For you were called to freedom, brethren” —but had forsaken the second part —“only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh.” They had so emphasized the theological truth that we are free from serving the old master, the Law of Moses, that they had utterly forgotten the equally important truth that we have been joined to Christ in order to bear righteous fruit for God (Rom. 7:4). Though they welcomed the idea that “all things are lawful for me” (1 Cor. 6:12), they wrongly took it for a banner to hang over their harmful justification of sexual immorality and other selfish desires (8:4-13; 10:23-33).
Obviously, what Paul said and what the Corinthians heard were two different things. This prompted Paul to clear up the misunderstanding by setting up two guardrails to keep Christian liberty within its proper bounds: expediency and self-control.
Freedom is to be guided by expediency (6:12). Christians are indeed free from the Mosaic Law as a covenant that once governed the Hebrews’ special relationship with God. That old covenant granted blessing for obedience or cursing for disobedience (Gal. 3:10-14). But this freedom from the covenant of the Law as a way of life does not logically lead to the conclusion that believers now have a right to do anything they please, regardless of its effects on themselves or others. Rather, by the wisdom that comes from the Spirit, believers are to be guided by whether an act is “profitable” (sympherō [4851]), that is, whether it is advantageous, useful, or beneficial. The word implies a mutual edification —building up a group. As Paul says elsewhere, “So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. . . . Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification” (Rom. 14:19; 15:2).
Freedom is to be guided by self-control (6:12). The Corinthians needed to learn that when they indulged their sinful desires, they actually were losing their freedom instead of gaining it. To engage in unbridled immorality is to trade in our freedom of righteousness for shackles of lust. Isn’t it astounding how self-deceived we can be when it comes to the distinction between freedom and bondage? How frequently we say, “I’m going to have my own way!” We think that’s liberty, when in reality we have simply bowed our heads to the very thing we couldn’t possibly say “no” to: greed, gluttony, pornography, gossip, addictions, or any other gratification to which we surrender our freedom. When believers don’t use their freedom to serve God, they unwittingly serve sin.
The 1960 Roger Corman film, The Little Shop of Horrors, tells the story of a struggling flower shop saved from bankruptcy when customers begin lining up from all over to see a strange new hybrid plant related to a Venus flytrap, named Audrey Jr. What customers don’t realize, however, is that Audrey Jr. will feed only on human blood! As the celebrity plant grows, so does its appetite. In order to maintain the success of the flower shop, the out-of-control, carnivorous plant needs to be fed an increasingly large diet. Ultimately, rather than benefiting the business with financial success, Audrey Jr. controls the lives of the shop workers, reducing them to virtual slaves of its insatiable hunger.
This classic dark comedy illustrates the seductive nature of sin. At first it seems to grant freedom as we bask in its pleasures and enjoy its benefits. But we quickly lose control, finding ourselves enslaved to a feeding frenzy that grows increasingly ravenous as we continue to gratify its desires. That’s not freedom. That’s slavery.
— 6:13-14 —
Having established the two guardrails that protect us against extremes of Christian liberty, Paul points his readers to the destination of freedom by explaining God’s purpose for their bodies.
Paul begins by alluding to what was likely a common proverb in the decadent Greek party scene: “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food” (6:13). Keener notes that this statement “fits the common association of gluttony with intercourse; both were sometimes available in the banquets of the wealthy. This also represented the sort of logic by which some Greeks had justified promiscuity: as ‘food was for the stomach,’ so the body was designed for intercourse.”[36] When Paul concludes that “God will do away with both of them” (6:13), it may be that he refers to the fact that someday in eternity God will put an end to the insatiable desires of the body for physical sustenance. It could also be that this was the “punch line” of the Greek hedonistic philosophy, similar to the proverb, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die” (Isa. 22:13). In any case, the Corinthian Christians reasoned something like this: When your body is hungry, feed it. When it thirsts, quench it. When it lusts, indulge it. When it craves, satiate it. Before long the situation was out of control.
The weak mortal condition of the body in this world does not lead to the conclusion that we can simply treat it however we want, as if it is disposable rubbish. Paul corrects this false dualism of the hedonistically influenced Corinthians by emphasizing that not only our souls but also our bodies are to be submitted to the service of the Lord, not to the service of immorality (1 Cor. 6:13). He also reminds us that our present mortal bodies will be in direct continuity with our future immortal bodies. God truly raised Jesus Christ from the dead. The very body that had been crucified and buried was not disposed of or annihilated, but glorified, transformed, and made immortal by the power of God. In the same way, believers’ bodies also will be resurrected to live in an immortal, glorious, spiritual condition (6:14). Yes, our bodies will be qualitatively transformed, but they will be the very bodies that have existed on this earth (see 1 Cor. 15).
Because these same bodies are to be resurrected and glorified to reign as kings and rule as judges over heaven and earth, they should never be used for sexual immorality —whether premarital, extramarital, homosexual, bisexual, incestuous, or bestial. Christ has purchased not only our souls but also our bodies from the slave market of sin (1 Cor. 6:20; 7:22-23; Titus 2:14; 1 Pet. 1:18-19). Therefore, we should serve God through our bodies, worshiping Him by abstaining from any form of sexual immorality. Simply put, our physical bodies are to be fully incorporated in the process of sanctification (being made progressively holy in practice), just as our bodies are destined to be fully involved in future glorification (the ultimate perfection in holiness through resurrection).
BODY AND SOUL
1 CORINTHIANS 6:15
The common secular Greek approach to body and soul in the first century was that the body was material, temporary, and merely a distraction from our true being —the soul. In this approach, what happened to the body was irrelevant to the soul. By contrast, the Bible and the early Christians taught that the physical body was part of God’s original good creation (Gen. 2:7), and therefore the physical body was an essential part of humanity. Though the physical body is currently subject to corruption, suffering, sin, and death in this present life, God’s plan is not to annihilate the body and free our souls in a bodiless existence for eternity. As remarkable as it may sound, God’s plan is to restore and glorify the physical part of our humanity through bodily resurrection (1 Cor. 15:42-43).
The Corinthians struggled with a view of the human body that differed greatly from ours —the body was like a prison or tomb of the soul, merely a physical shell of the “real person.” In light of this strong dualism that separated soul and body, the body could be understood to have no moral value, but because of its sensual, earthy appetites, it seduced the good soul to sin and dragged it down into the gutters of vice.
Two approaches to life emerged from this philosophy. One group became ascetics; those who, through harsh self-discipline and even self-mutilation, went to ridiculous extremes to curb the body’s desires. Others became hedonists. They believed that, since only the soul would survive death, it didn’t matter what was done through the body. They gave the body every opportunity to quench its lustful longings. Both approaches were to be found in Corinth (6:12-13; 7:5) and, unfortunately, had infected many of its Christian inhabitants. Paul therefore needed to teach them about the place of the human body in God’s design.
— 6:15-20 —
In 6:15-20, Paul continues to argue against the Corinthians’ imbalanced views of the body and sexual immorality. He presents three facts about our bodies that further confirm their worth and our responsibility to use them in the service of God.
First, our body is a physical extension of Christ in this world (6:15). Just as the church is the body of Christ (Eph. 4:12), and since each one is a member of that body (Rom. 12:5), the “body of Christ” cannot be regarded as only spiritual and invisible; rather, it is manifested through a physical presence, just as Christ was both spiritual and physical. Each member of Christ’s body is to represent the Lord on earth. Like ambassadors in a foreign land who act as their nation’s eyes, ears, hands, and mouth, we are Christ’s ambassadors in this world, carrying out His interests in His name. Only by consecrating our physical bodies to the service of God can we fulfill our calling to be not only Christ’s heart and mind in the world, but also His hands and feet.
Second, our body is to be a living picture of our relationship with Christ (6:15-18). Because we are members of Christ’s body —spiritually and physically —we should be just as appalled at sexual immorality in our personal lives and in the life of the church as we would be at the idea that Christ Himself would chase after prostitutes. So disgusting is the idea that Paul utters the strongest condemnation of such a thought: mē genoito [3361 + 1096], “May it never be!” . . . “God forbid!” . . . “Perish the thought!”
When we engage in the sin of sexual relations outside of marriage, we form an immoral union that mars our holy alliance with God through Christ. Why? Because the sexual union is a physical expression of the most intimate union two people can have. They become “one flesh” (6:16). Yet some of the Corinthians held the body in such low regard that they failed to see the spiritual implications of their physical actions. Those who joined themselves with the Lord, perhaps through the personal self-consecration pictured in the physical rite of baptism, became “one spirit with Him” (6:17). The physical act illustrated a spiritual reality. Therefore, by subsequently submitting their bodies to immorality, they contradicted their spiritual union with Christ.
Yet the Corinthians failed to understand the close relationship between the inner, spiritual reality and the outer expression. They held that whatever was done by or through the body was not immoral but amoral —that is, morally irrelevant. Paul refutes their claim, saying, “The immoral man sins against his own body” (6:18). Sex outside of marriage is wrong because it abuses the body with pleasures that don’t last and that, ultimately, are vulgar sources of regret. So Paul commands the Corinthians to “flee immorality” (6:18).
Third, our body is a living temple of the Holy Spirit (6:19). In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul likened the church in Corinth to a temple of God in which the Holy Spirit dwells (3:16). There the emphasis was on the corporate body of believers as the temple, with the Spirit dwelling among the gathered community in a unique way. In 1 Corinthians 6, however, Paul draws out another important type of indwelling of the Spirit —His presence in the body of each individual believer (6:19). Just as God manifested His presence in Solomon’s majestic temple, setting it apart from all other buildings for special use to glorify Him (2 Chr. 5:11–7:16), so the Spirit indwells each of us who has been bought with the priceless blood of Christ, setting us apart from all others for His glory alone (Rom. 8:9, 11; 1 Cor. 6:20).
God sent His Son to die in order to redeem us from sin. One day, God will raise us from the dead, as He did with Christ Jesus, so we can reign with Him forever (6:2-3). In the meantime, the Lord has called us to live according to His standards and by His indwelling power. He bought us at the highest price imaginable, His own life. He gave us the noblest vocation, representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth. He prepared us for the most glorious end, eternal life in our resurrected, glorified bodies. How can we do less than honor Him through obedience, especially through our bodies? If we truly belong to Christ, how could we not consecrate our bodies to His service? How could we not flee from the slavery of immorality in all its forms and run back to the liberating arms of Jesus?
APPLICATION: 1 CORINTHIANS 6:12-20
My Goal? His Glory!
Our physical bodies are not disposable waste, fertilizer for flowers, or food for worms. This pagan notion of the flesh is an affront to God’s handiwork. He created us with both immaterial and material aspects —both originally good —so we could serve as His image-bearers in creation. As His redeemed people, one day God will transform our mortal bodies into immortal bodies, but until that time our bodies are a physical extension of Christ, a moral illustration of the Lord, and a temple for the indwelling Spirit.
All of this leads to a compelling conclusion, which Paul underscored with a simple imperative: “Therefore glorify God in your body” (6:20).
God let His Son die to redeem our bodies from a lifestyle of sin and rebellion. One day, God will raise us from the dead and redeem our bodies from death and decay. In our glorified state, we will reign with Him forever (6:2-3). In the meantime, the Lord expects us to live in our mortal bodies according to His standards —reflecting the light of His truth. Physical mortality should never be an excuse for physical immorality.
Paul reminds us that we have been bought “with a price” —the precious blood of Christ (6:20). How can we do less than honor Him through an obedient, God-glorifying life? If we belong to Christ, we should serve Him faithfully and consistently. Not just in our thought life. Not merely with our feelings. But with our hands, our feet, our eyes, our ears, our tongues. What we say, what we do, where we go, what we watch, what we listen to —all these things are to be done for His glory.
How do we do this?
First, we avoid the extreme of asceticism. That is, we neither neglect our bodies as if they are irrelevant to our spiritual lives, nor do we reject our bodies as if they are distractions to God’s service. Denying the needs of the body isn’t spiritual. After all, we’re embodied creatures designed with God-given needs and desires. Mature Christians don’t deny these; they submit them to God’s will and use them for His glory. We all need food, clothing, shelter, companionship, and intimacy. All of these, though, should be sought according to God’s commands.
Second, we avoid the extreme of hedonism. We honor God with our bodies by keeping passions under control. We don’t dive in to sexual immorality. We don’t overindulge in food and drink. We don’t focus on our physical appearance while our character and virtue suffer. And we don’t build our physique while neglecting our spiritual health.
Because we were bought at a price, our goal for our bodies should be His glory.