Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. (14) And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. (15) Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not!
(17) But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. (18) Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. (19) Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is inn you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (20) For you were bought at a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
The first letter to the Corinthians was written by the Apostle Paul to the Christian community at Corinth. There were many problems in the ancient church there and today’s verses address the problem of sexual immorality. There existed at Corinth a temple to the goddess Aphrodite and there was legal prostitution encouraged as part of the behavior for a cult to this pagan goddess. Religious prostitution seems to have been widely acceptable as normal and moral – and legal. In Corinth, prostitution involved a religious act of worship.
The Corinthians appeared to equate morality with legality and lived according to human judgment. Paul is telling his readers in our verses today that there is a higher standard for Christians. Paul begins Chapter 6 by saying that as a Christian all things are lawful to him but not all things are profitable and that he would not allow anything to master him. Paul believed that the cost of sexual immorality is high and there is great harm done – deep rooted damage we do ourselves in that sin. Illicit sex not only harms, it can control, drive, compel and dominate – ending in our spiritual deaths.
The Christian believes that his/her body is meant for eternal life and that our bodies are meant for the Lord. Sexual immorality is a unique sin in that it is a spiritual sin – the sexual act transcends the biological. Sex is God’s idea and is meant for marriage. In the Bible, the only ground given for divorce is adultery, mentioned twice in the gospel of Matthew. Sin always brings loss – but sexual sin especially has more consequences in shattered marriages and families, damaged children – it can bring disease,heartache and can control the body.
Christians believe that Christ lives within them and that the body is the temple for the indwelling Spirit. Christians believe that they belong to God and have been bought at the terrible price of Christ’s blood. A building is not a temple of God, our bodies are. Our bodies are meant to glorify God.