This is a sermon on the use of our bodies. There is a lot of shame wrapped up with the use of the body. The way forward is not to treat the use of our bodies as inconsequential. Any attempt to do so will only lead to further shame. My hope is that this sermon shows you a better way forward. It - like the rest of this series - is focused on sexuality. The Scripture below is from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. It is explained throughout the sermon. There is a video and audio recording as well as the manuscript of the sermon below.
-Adam
“12 “Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”— but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food”—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By His power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
15 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! 16 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.” 17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
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“I know it’s late, I know you’re weary. I know your plans don’t include me; still here we are, both of us lonely, longing for shelter from all that we see. Why should we worry? No one will care girl. Look at the stars so far away. We’ve got tonight, who needs tomorrow? We’ve got tonight babe. Why don’t you stay?”
Bob Seger wrote that song back in the mid-70’s. The idea behind it was that physical intimacy doesn’t really mean anything, “Why should we worry? No one will care girl. Look at the stars so far away,” but in a lonely world like ours it is at least a point of connection, “still here we are, both of us lonely, longing for shelter from all that we see.”
That’s the freedom of the sexual revolution—no meaning, no real unity; just lonely people hoping for some sort of connection. That’s a sad, sad song and that’s the sorrow of sexual immorality. It promises freedom even as it enslaves. That’s the claim of this sermon: sexual immorality promises freedom even as it enslaves.
We will study this in three points. First: misguided liberty. Second: uniting yourself. Third: your body belongs to God. We see the misguided liberty of the Corinthians in verses 12-14. We see Paul’s argument about intimacy and uniting yourself in verses 15-17. We see that the Christian’s body belongs to God in verses 18-20.
First: misguided liberty. The sexual revolution is nothing new. In many ways, it is a return to the paganism that was dominant before Christianity. Bob Seger could have written We’ve Got Tonite in first century Corinth.
As we saw last week, some of the church members in Corinth were swept up in the ways of the world. They excused their sin by assuming that since the Holy Spirit had come, it didn’t matter what they did with their bodies. They thought any restriction on satisfying these urges we’ve been talking about was just stuffy moralism.
These church members were all about liberty. That’s what’s going on with the repetition of verse 12’s, “Everything is permissible for me.” Paul was quoting their slogan—“Everything is permissible for me.” They assumed that grace freed them up to be careless about the commandments of God. “Everything is permissible for me.” They believed commandments were unnecessary now that the Spirit had come. “Everything is permissible for me.”
This isn’t just limited to Corinth. This is all over the church in this country. A majority of American Christians say that physical intimacy is always or sometimes acceptable for unmarried adults in a committed relationship—not a majority of Americans, a majority of American Christians. Exactly half of American Christians say it is always or sometimes acceptable for unmarried adults who are not in a committed relationship to hook up. Like those Corinthian church members, many American Christians seem to think that grace frees them up to be careless about the commandments of God. You don’t see such carelessness in Jesus.
You don’t see such carelessness in the Holy Spirit who inspired Paul’s response to what was going on in Corinth; he argued against their misguided view of liberty by quoting their slogan and pushing back; verse 12, ‘“Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial.’ Rather than excusing their sin with grace, Paul urged these Corinthians to keep the commandments where are always about love. The commandments are what love looks like in action. That’s why they benefit others. ‘“Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial.’
Sexual immorality doesn’t benefit others. These Corinthians missed that. Our culture misses that. Our nation’s ethics say that people can do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. We then blind ourselves to the wreckage of the sexual revolution; the modern sexual ethic hurts all sorts of people—the single mothers working two low paying jobs to make ends meet, the children growing up without the stability of both a dad and a mom, the psychological devastation that plagues the transgender community. This nation has offered up itself and its kids to be devoured by the god of this age and somehow imagined that it’s fine, “as long as no one gets hurt.”
Sexual immorality isn’t beneficial. Neither is it liberating; verse 12, ‘“Everything is permissible for me”— but I will not be mastered by anything.’ These Corinthians were all about liberty, but there is no liberty in sin. Sin enslaves. You can’t use sin like a tool to accomplish what you want; sin always uses you. The sexual revolution enslaves people by promising them freedom. That’s what’s going on right now with homosexuality, transgenderism, promiscuity, abortion, unwarranted divorce—this is proclaimed as freedom in our culture when, in fact, it can only enslave.
These free love Corinthians trumpeted their liberty and they thought they had Biblical reasons for doing so. Remember, these were church going people. They believed that God’s commandments about sexuality fell away with the coming of the Spirit just like His commandments about dietary laws did; that’s what’s going on with verse 13, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food.” If you are keeping up on what’s going on in our denomination, you will notice that those who want to join or make peace with the sexual revolution just rip a page right out of this Corinthian playbook. They bring up God’s commands about not eating shellfish or not wearing garments with two interwoven cloths. They dismiss these as ridiculous and argue that therefore God’s commands about sexuality are equally inapplicable.
Paul had no patience for that; nor should we. He argued from the created order; verse 13, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” The dietary laws of Sinai had a purpose—to mark Israel off as different from the nations; that fell away when Israel became just one of the nations in the church. The purpose of the body, however, had not changed. It wasn’t meant for sexual immorality at Sinai when the commandments were given. It wasn’t meant for sexual immorality in first century Corinth. It isn’t meant for sexual immorality in today. Your body isn’t meant for sexual immorality. It is meant for obedience to the Lord, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord.”
You were created for obedience to God and so those shellfish commands at Sinai that people laugh at aren’t all that funny; they were a way of showing loyalty to God. Loyalty to God isn’t ridiculous. Jesus didn’t think they were ridiculous; he kept them as was a way of showing loyalty to his Father. You have to ask yourself whether you would keep such commands if they were still a way of showing loyalty to God. If you would, you are teachable because you have a heart that wants to obey. If, however, you dismiss any of God’s commands as laughable and if you think grace frees you up to be careless about the commands of God, repent. God’s people tremble at His word.
I hope that you can see the danger of this Corinthian slogan, “Everything is permissible for me.” I hope you can see that it is everywhere in our culture. I hope you have questions about how far it has seeped into the church. Now we need to take some steps back to see what physical intimacy is actually about; that’s our second point: unifying yourself.
Paul began his explanation of physical intimacy by reminding these free love Corinthians of the exalted status of their bodies; verse 15, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?” Notice that Paul doesn’t start off his correction of their sexual ethics with, “bad Corinthians; bad Corinthians.” He starts off by offering them the noblest picture of themselves. They are one with Christ. They are united to the very Son of God. Since they are one with Christ, they will be resurrected just like Christ was resurrected. Paul reminded them of what grace gives them and their bodies.
Once they saw this noble picture, Paul asked, “Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute?” We don’t want to corrupt what’s glorious. Can you imagine Jesus making excuses for such immorality? Can you imagine Jesus sneaking off to enjoy some sexual immorality? No? Then you shouldn’t be able to imagine any part of his body—his people—doing so either. Paul expressed the shock of the idea in the most fiercely negative form of Greek which we have before us as, “Never!”
That’s worth considering when you think of your own body. Remember who you are by grace. Jesus looks at you and says, “we’re one.” Do you want to take that oneness and look at pornography—you and Jesus side by side looking at porn together? Do you want to take that oneness and sneak around so you can be intimate with your girlfriend? Remember who you are by grace.
Remember what sexual immorality does. These acts have a powerful way of uniting your body with another; verse 16, ‘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.”’ Now some take this to mean that anyone with whom you are intimate automatically becomes your spouse; I think that is mistaken and that it can be unwise to marry someone with whom you’ve been sexually intimate even if there is a pregnancy, but I do think there is a powerful unifying power to this intimate connection. You are giving yourself over vulnerably to someone or something else.
You have no business doing so sinfully because you are already united with Christ; verse 17, “but he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.” The message here is that you will give yourself over to something. You are, in some ways, offering yourself as a sacrifice to something. Physical intimacy is a sort of living sacrifice. You are offering yourself to another. You have no business doing that outside the relationship in which God affirms this expression, which his marriage.
Perhaps you recognize ways in which you’ve been corrupted by uniting yourself outside of God’s will. Jesus remains willing to be one with you. He died to be one with you. While you were still a sinner, Christ died for you. He remains willing to be one with you, but to remain one with him you need be putting sin to death. You need to become more and more of a commandment keeper. As Jesus told his first disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love.” Remaining in the love of God is the best joy of all, and all it will ultimately cost you is your sin. It will cost you your sexual immorality.
Now, this is radically counter-cultural. The slogan, “my body, my choice,” dominates the landscape not just in abortion but in everything else having to do with the use of the body as well. We see God’s alternative in our final point: your body belongs to God.
Paul has been dealing with the Corinthian slogan, “Everything is permissible for me.” Now he offers a slogan of his own; verse 18, “Flee from sexual immorality.” How’s that for a bumper sticker? It would probably be quite helpful to see that plastered all over the place.
If you don’t flee from sexual immorality, sexual immorality will certainly catch you. You’ve got the same flesh as those Corinthians. The same devil is at work, and the world today is much more skilled at pushing immorality upon us than it was in Paul’s day. We’ve got movies and television—twenty-four frames per second—magazines and billboards; Paul would not be able to comprehend how much pornography we can access through our smartphones. Sexual immorality is big business in this nation; don’t be naïve; it is constantly working to create demand for what it offers. We parents need to be remarkably careful with what we allow in our house. Young people need to remarkably careful about what they expose themselves to. Each of us disciples of Jesus must come to terms with the fact that we will spend a fair bit of our lives fleeing from sexual immorality. You will only rest when you get to glory.
Why flee sexual immorality? What’s so bad about it? Verse 18, “All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” Now we use our bodies in a whole host of sins, right? You can’t steal without using your body. You can’t commit violence without using your body, so how is sin different? As we’ve seen sexual immorality has a unique way of unifying your body with someone else. As William Loader puts it, “sexual intercourse actually changes people by creating a new reality: oneness with another person.”
Sexual sin changes people, which is one reason why sexual sin has become so closely tied to identity. This is why so many people have come to see their sexual behavior as essential to who they are. This is one reason why so many people who consider themselves to be homosexual identify themselves first and foremost as homosexual. This allows no room in their minds for “hate the sin, love the sinner,” because they believe that they and their sin are one. This has entered the church. Just forget about homosexuality for a minute—we seem to believe that if you condemn anyone’s sin, you are condemning that person. It’s insanity. It makes gospel ministry almost impossible.
Paul wanted the Corinthians to know the dangers of their immorality in misusing their bodies, but again, please note that he didn’t just say, “bad Corinthians; bad Corinthians.” He showed them what grace did; verse 19, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” In our last point, Paul spoke about being united with Christ; now he speaks of being united with the Holy Spirit.
You don’t simply flee sexual immorality because it is so bad; you flee sexual immorality because being united with the Holy Spirit is so good. You have what actually satisfies. The fact that you, sinful, messed up person that you are, can be a temple of God is very good news.
You don’t want to dishonor that temple. Good hearted people don’t enjoy dishonoring anything beautiful; recognize that as a child of God you are beautiful in the sense that you are God’s chosen temple. You belong to Him and that’s an exalted status; that’s verse 19, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” Remember that if you still feel shamed for confessed and repented of sins—you are a temple of God. Your body which has done this or that is now a temple of God and God is happy about having you.
Your body is His. It is His because He cares. “Why should we worry? No one will care girl,” sang Bob Seger. God cares. He cares because He cares about you. Amen.