1 Corinthians 6: 12-20 - Glorify God with your body
REST
Entry
Song 162 Thou has called us, Lord, and we come together - sit
Votum
Psalm 139: 13-18
Blessing
Praise
Psalm 139: 1.3 O Lord, you know me completely, You see my very nature - stand
Song 184 Praise the Lord, Eternal, Sing to His Honour! - stand
Devotion
Henri Nouwen writes in Bread for the journey :“In so manywaysweuseandabuseourbodies. Jesus’ comingtous in thebodyandhisbeingliftedwithhisbodyintotheglory of God callustotreatourbodiesandthebodies of otherswithgreatreverenceandrespect. God, through Jesus, hasmadeourbodiessacredplaceswhere God haschosentodwell. Ourfaith in theresurrection of thebody, therefore, callsustocareforourownandoneanother’sbodieswithlove. Whenwe bind oneanother’swoundsandworkforthehealing of oneanother’sbodies, wewitnesstothesacredness of thehumanbody, which is destinedforeternallife.”
There is time for quiet thought. Think about how people's bodies are used and misused in our world. In what ways should you treat your own body with more love? Treat others' bodies with more love?
Song 308: 1-3.5 Take my life, let itbe, Lord
Creed
HEAR
Prayer
Proposal for Families this week
You can focus with your children this week on how special and precious our bodies are. KidsXpress has a whole series about this, entitled " Wrapworms ". Talk about the way God made our bodies and how our bodies differ. Show different hair colours, eye colours, etc. Remind them always that God has made all of this and likes us. Let them, for example, touch their noses. Perhaps they can tell each other what form their noses are (their own noses, not others’!). Then remember that God has made and loves each one.
CLF has fun pamphlets for children about bodies and issues around bodies that you can order and hand out, like " I cansay no ." Here is also a colour image and activity.
Scriptureand sermon
Conversation about our bodies is essential
We are going to talk about physicality today and sexuality. This is what our text puts on the table, the lectionary text for today.
I wonder how you thinkabout physically and sexuality? I know some think we should talk about Jesus and avoid all the questions about the body and sex. What do you think? Do we talk about that? Or rather not?
The problem is, if we do not talk about our bodies and sexual morality, we are no longer busywith the real gospel. Because, the Bible is not silent about our body and sexual morality. Jesus is not silent about it! Just read Mark 7 and Matthew 19, and many other sections in which He expresses himself sharply about a holy moral life.
The most fundamental and intriguing presentation of the gospel in the New Testament, the letter to the Romans, begins with a sexual ethic! Paul links sexual sin to the suppression of the knowledge of God and denounces sexual sin in all its forms per se as idolatry. These are the things we need to be saved from, says Paul.
Why? for,
1.We should notunderestimatetheimpact of sexual offensein our lives. Sex beyond God's intentions with it is a destructive force in our lives within us as human beings and in our relationship with each other and God.
2.The Bible always calls us to a repentance of sin, which includes sexual sins. Jesus came for sinners. He saved us from our sins. Without this biblical call to repentance of sin, there is no more good news for people.
That is why the section I will read this morning is so important. The lectionary text from 1 Corinthians 6 focuses on the crucial idea that the body of believersisa temple of the Holy Spirit, and that God should therefore not only be served with the spirit of man but also with the body.
Therefore, the section warns against sexual immorality. And we are to focus on a positive spirit-driven ethic in which our bodies belong to God and He lives in it. In line with this, I will more specifically talk about marriagenext week from 1 Corinthians 7, the lectionarytext for the 21st January.
Glorify God with your body
The theme is thus: Glorify God with your body.
For today's Scripture reading from 1 Corinthians you should actually start reading Chapter 5, about what is said there about incestand how it should be handled. Paul speaks about it also in 2 Corinthians. You should actually also read Chapter 6's first 11 verses, because in it Paul elaborates on what immoral sexual behaviour is, and makes the point that the Corinthians were guilty of all those types of sins. "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. "
They are saved from the spiritual death that these sinsbring about. Therefore, those things are no longer part of your life.
1 Corinthians 6: 12-20
And then Paul continues and says in verses 12-20 and dealing with the arguments some still maintain to keep certain sexual sins:
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. 13You 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. 14By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15Do 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! 16Do 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.” 17But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19Do 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; 20you were bought at a price. Thereforehonor God with your bodies.
We mustavoidinjusticeand immorality
It is not without reason that Paul started 1 Corinthians 6 with the ethical issue of the church's handling of injustice. He wanted them to learn to deal with their differences - i.e. to stay out of the courts - as well as how to live sexually blameless lives. Why? Because both of these two things have to do with injustice.
The main issue in those issues where there are strong differences of opinion, Paul says, is to avoid injustice. And how do you do that? You avoid injustice by not taking your refuge in the courts, but by sorting it out in the faith community. The courts are an unfriendly place for believers. The courts work with other laws, not with the Bible.
Similarly, in issues of sexuality and morality, the main thing is to avoid injustice by not moving beyond the will of God with sexuality. That is what is behind his absolute prescription that immoralityshould be avoided. For living inimmoralityis an injustice to another,for example with adultery, e.g. with divorce, e.g. with prostitution etc. And let's never forget,you run the risk of losing eternity because of your immorality.
There arelimitsto our freedom
With this as background, Paul is ready to address the specific problem of our text. The central theme is a matter Paul dealt with repeatedly: " Since we are freed by grace and no longer under the law, what are thelimitsof this freedom we have received? " This is almost the same question Paul addressed in Romans: " Should we continue to sin so that grace can increase?" (6:1). In his letter to the Galatians, he said plainly, " Do not use your freedom as an opportunityto do sin. " (5:13).
And his answer is straight. There are limits to our freedom. Why? Because, freedom can easily be misused to do sin, and then you play with eternity.
There is a unity between our body and mind
Paul knows that many of the Corinthians thought the Christian faith was about the human spirit only. The Greek dualism between body and mind was undoubtedly how some of their heads were still working. Dualistic thinking limits religion to the mind and soul. It thinks religion does not really matter to the body, because faith belongs to the spirit or soul. What you do in your religion have nothingto do with what you do with your body. If you think like that, you can do with your body what you want - without affecting your spirit.
But this is a lie. You can deceive yourself and think that you are free to be in a relationship with anyone you choose and still be in a living relationship with God. But then you deceive yourself and the truth of God is no longer in you.
Why? Because there is a unity between body and mind. So, what you do with your body affects your spirit. And what you do spiritually affects your body. They are inextricably linked.
Paul motivates this from the Old Testament background according to which man is a unity. Earlier in the letter, he already put it sharply. The whole human being is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3: 16-17) and abuse of the body is an offense against the Holy Spirit living in believers.
Everything is not beneficial
But for the Corinthians it is a dilemma. It can’t be thus, Paul. Our whole Greek culture has taught us that you can serve God with the spirit, but that He has no say about our relationships and what we do with our body.
"We have the right to do anything! We are free! You said so! "
In verse 12 and 13, Paul then addresses this confused ideas. He starts with a quote or slogan of the Corinthians (in italics) which he then corrects in the second part with his own interpretation (underlined) :
•Verse 12a. It is said, "We have the right to do anything"but I tell you, "not everything isbeneficial."
•Verse 12b .You said, "We have the right to do anything,but I tell you, "I willnotbe mastered byanything."
•Vers.13a. It is said, "The food is for the stomach,and the stomach is for food."- a Greek idiom for freedom in sex. Verse 13b. But I tell you,"This body isnot there for immorality (fornication)but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body."
It is clear that everything is not just permissible. Our Christian freedom is restricted. And by three things:
•Our freedom is restricted to the benefittoour Christian lives in what we do with our body. The Lord gave us bodies to live, to serve, to reproduce, to work, and to live to His glorification.
•Our freedom is limited by the fact that we as Christians should not be addicted to anything. Nothing must dominate us by e.g. unlimited pleasures or desires. Abuse of the body and its needs becomes a kind of slavery again.
•Our freedom is limited by the fact that your body is therefor the Lord, not for sexual immorality. You do not ask so much what is good for you or someone else, but what the Lord wants you to do with your body and your freedom as a child of God.
And hear this. It's not about a law of do’s and don'ts. It's not about the law, even if it's obviously also what the law says. You are really free. Jesus has made you free. But it is a freedom in the Lord. It is a freedom in which He has the final say. We must be established in the freedom that He brings.
Which means that we must never allow ourselves to be dominated again by those sins which Jesus precisely redeemed us from, those sins which verse 9-11 talks about.
And it is very practical. You can use these three questions to consider as free people what’s lawful:
•Is it beneficial?
•Is it addictive?
•Is it for the Lord?
The point is that our bod has not been created for the satisfaction of needs in the first place, but for the Lord and His will for our lives. After all, Jesus died physically for our sin, so that we can live physically for the Lord. Then we cannot do what we want with our body.
Flee fromporneia
I can say more about this and especially about the connection between Jesus' physical resurrection and our own physical resurrection, as Paul further exploreshere in verse 14-17 and later in chapter 15.
I can also say a lot about the absolute ban Paul puts on any sexual relationship with the overarching term porneia. Indeed, we are one body with the Lord Jesus Christ, which involves not only our spirit but our body as well.
There is only one advice for your desires. "Escape from immorality!" Refrain from anything that can make you sin against your own body. For, any sin against your own body, and this includes the unlawful sexual relationships with others, is ultimately a sin against the body of Christ.
The effect of immorality, of porneia, is therefore potentially worse than any other sin. Porneia threatens the relationship with God like no other sin can do.
Glorify God in your body as a temple of God
But I want to come back to verse 19, that's the crux of the matter. Paul emphasizes there that their bodies are temples. Your body is holy. Why? It becomes that place where the Holy Spirit is present.
If Jesus is talking to the Samaritan woman about worship, then Jesus talks about this. " God is Spirit,and who worship Him, worshipin spirit and truth. " (John 4:24). It is clear that the meeting place between God and man, according to Jesus, is now wherever the Spirit is. That it is no longer a temple or a church building. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
We therefore no longer belong to ourselves. If we are in Christ, our old life is over and we no longer belong to ourselves. We are like an expensivebuilding that God bought for Himself so that He can be worshiped in it.
Therefore, we cannot afford to live immorally because God lives in us. This is why Paul underlined this so strongly that we should glorify God with our bodies. Yes, we have to pray. Yes, we must witness. Yes, we must read and obey His Word. But, that includes our body.
As we have been released from the sins that once we denied the kingdom of God, as we have washed away from the sins of verses 9-11, we must serve God with our body by seeking His will for sexuality and followit to the last prescription.
We cannot afford to harm this intimate unity with God through sexual immorality.
Our congregation
Our congregation has work to do in this area . This message means we will have to seriously reflect on our bodies. We also have to flee from porneia. We may not share in it. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must glorify God with our bodies. Within His guidelines. As I will explain further next week, based on 1 Corinthians 7, the lectionarytext that is prescribed.
LIVE
Prayer
Thanksoffering
Final Song
Song 286 Lord, God of love, where we go, we want to standby you in your shadow
Blessing
Response
Song 286 last three lines Lord Jesus, let us never be alone, we would forever trust you omnipotence - stand
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