at a glance
author: The apostle Paul.
date: About AD 55.
setting: Paul started the church in Corinth, a city in Greece, during his second missionary journey.
verses to remember: 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 (6:19–20).
theme to consider: As Christians, we need to think and act differently than the world.
unchanging truth
Jesus doesn’t come into your life to improve your old way of living. He comes to radically change it. He turns it upside down and right side up again.
You used to gossip about your friends at the lunch table. Now you’re learning your palm fits perfectly over the size of your mouth.
You used to fly into a rage whenever your little sister borrowed a sweater from your room. Now you may be upset, but the rage is gone.
You used to get jealous every time you saw that new girl with your ex-boyfriend. Now you pray about it when those feelings come around. And those feelings don’t last for long.
You used to think sex was something everyone was doing. Now you see the importance of saving it for marriage.
Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about how they were supposed to be different from the world. Now that they had a personal relationship with Jesus and his Spirit lived inside of them, they shouldn’t live the way they used to live. For example, sex was no longer “no big deal”—they were learning to set it aside as God’s special gift. Because of Christ, they were now different people. Christ was working in their lives to help them grow into the kind of people God intended them to be.
If you are in Christ, you don’t talk, walk or live like you used to. You have been changed.
1. When it comes to sex, Christians don’t settle for anything less than the best: one partner for life (6:12–20).
2. Paul reminds us we’re all in this together. Use the gifts God has given you to encourage others and keep your fellow Christians on the right path (12:4–31).
3. The world has a totally different definition of love than God does. True love is God’s kind of love (13:1–13).