Day 81: Misusing freedom – 1 Corinthians 6 vs 12 - 20

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 realise 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 realise 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. 19-20 Don’t you realise 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, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honour God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 New Living Translation.

Imagine you were asked by a rich couple to 'house sit' their beautiful mansion and swimming pool while they went overseas for 6 weeks, and they said you must make yourself 'completely at home' and do anything you liked. Does it mean you can do things you know THEY wouldn't like, and that you can leave the place in a mess? In one sense you can (they gave you permission) but we know that it would be very wrong. This was what Paul was dealing with in vs 12-20. Because Christ brings forgiveness and there's no condemnation for those who belong to him, some Christians at Corinth thought they were free to live as they please. This included going to prostitutes who were associated with pagan temples. What was the argument they used to say it was ok to 'sleep around'? (vs 13)

Many people still use that argument to say that pornography and promiscuity are ok. But there's an important difference between eating food and the act of sex. If we don't eat we will die – but no one has ever died from not having sex! Paul isn't saying sex is something bad. Like food, it is a natural God given part of life. But it has much more significance than eating. What does Paul say in vs 16 is the more significant meaning of sex?

It seems that the sexual act is a bonding of oneness. Paul quotes from Genesis Chapter 2 where we read how God created a helper for man. And vs 24-25 in that chapter say: “This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.” And this is why the sexual act belongs to marriage and is not meant to be like a cheap take-away.

But there's a still deeper truth for Christians. What do vs 15 & 17 teach about our bodies?

In vs 13 he'd already said 'The Lord cares about our bodies'. Now vs 15 &17 tell us that there is a spiritual oneness between our bodies and Jesus Christ. Misusing our bodies therefore is the same as being unfaithful to Christ. If we do that we hurt the one who bought us at such a great price. So although Christ has made us free from keeping rules and laws to get to heaven – what should our response be to the temptation to have sex outside of marriage? (vs 18-20)

The Greek word for 'run' is a strong one. It's like someone saying “flee for your life!” God's Spirit lives in our body so we should never use our body for mischief of any sort. And sexual immorality is the greatest mischief we do to our body. Jesus died for us so that our bodies can be raised when He returns, so it's right that we should use our bodies only to bring honour to God. We must never misuse the forgiveness and freedom God has given us.