The Body and the Lord 1 Cor 6:12-20
Introduction
We live in an age that tells us that we have aright to do what we want with our own bodies. I have seen this age grow and develop throughout most of my life. As some of you know, I was a child of the 60's, and during the 60's there was a sexual revolution. It was a revolution that promised to set people free to enjoy their sexuality. Did it make good on its promises? What has it really produced?
5 things. 1] It has produced for us an unprecedented amount of single mothers.*Single mothers have become the accepted norm in our society. 4 out of 10 births in the U.S. occur through single mothers. Of the 12 million single parent families, 80% are single mothers. 2] *Pornography is still sold on the street corner or at the local food mart; and it is also freely available on the Internet and is delivered unsolicited to people’s E-mail. Many godly men, including many pastors have fallen victim to the ease of its access. 3] *Divorce has become a way of life while the exceptions to the rule have become those who remain faithfully married for life. 4] *Homosexuality and its resulting diseases have spread like wildfire. There are entire countries in sub saharan Africa, where the majority of the population are infected the virus. Approximately 700,000 have died in the U.S. Alone from AIDS related complications. And last, but certainly, not least, 5] *Abortion has claimed the lives of 56 million people. See if this sinks in: The number of U.S. military deaths that have occurred in all of the wars that the U. S. has ever been involved in combined is approximately the same as the number of American babies killed by abortion each year.
Sadly, Evangelical & Reformed churches have often stood silent on these issues. Yet the Bible is not silent on these subjects. God does not hide His head when talking about sexual relationships and neither should the church. Christians live in a real world with real issues and we are tempted with real sins. Yet, we are called to be different, because the Body of Christ belongs to the Lord. That is what is attempting to teach the church in Corinth here in chapter 6 of his first letter to them. As we saw last week, Paul had to rebuke these immature Christians, because they were majoring on minors and minoring on majors, straining at gnats and swallowing camels, removing the specks while failing to see the logs in their own eyes.
So, Paul will make 5 points, as he relates The Body to The Lord. In ...vs.12-13 he speaks of The Body's Reason in the Lord. In ...v.14 he describes The Body's Resurrection in the Lord. In ...vs.15-17 he shows The Body's Relationship with the Lord. In ...v.19a we see The Body's Residence by the Lord. And finally, in ...vs.19b-20 Paul urges them to remember The Body's Redemption by the Lord. So, we begin with...
I. The Body's Reason in the Lord ...vs. 12-13
It seems that when Paul was in Corinth, he had asserted the freedom of believers from the restrictions that were inherent in the O.C. Ceremonial Laws, such as dietary laws or seasonal festivals. Paul address this important Truth to other churches such as what he will tell the church at Rome, “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” Rom 7:6 Similarly, he had already written to the Galatian Christians, who had been bewitched by Jewish Legalism to get circumcised, to avoid certain foods, and to “observe days and months and seasons and years!” Gal 4:10 . And so, he told them in Gal 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” The Galatians had bound themselves to 'Legalism'.
But, here, in Corinth they had bound themselves to 'License'! It was the opposite problem. Apparently, when Paul told them "All things are lawful for me," they took it as a 'license' to do any and everything their flesh desired. They established the 1st Assembly of the Antinomian. Antinomians [Lawless Professors proclaim without shame, “Free from the Law. O blessed condition. I can sin all I want and still have remission!” Paul has to correct this grave misunderstanding of what True Christian Freedom is. So, he repeats their twisted echo of his words, "All things are lawful for me," by responding with his qualification of this maxim, “but not all things are helpful.” Even if they were free to do a certain something, depending on the setting, those actions might be harmful to another of a weaker faith. They might injure the body; produce scandal; lead others to offend or to sin against their conscience. Such was the case with regard to the use of certain meats, and even with regard to the use of wine. Paul’s rule on this subject is stated in chapter 8 of this letter. 1Co_8:13 That if these things did injury to others, Paul would abandon them forever; even though they were in themselves lawful.
Still again, Paul hears the excuse, an excuse they are bound to, "All things are lawful for me," so he responds to their addiction to this slogan with “but I will not be enslaved by anything.”. If you love your freedom so much that become addicted to the exercise of that freedom, you are no longer free. You are a slave of that thing that you vigorously contend you have a right to do. Many a Christian and Christian minister “is a slave;” and is completely 'under the power' of some habit that destroys his usefulness and his happiness. He is the slave of laziness, or carelessness, or a habit - like tobacco, or alcohol. He has lost the freedom to break the cords that bind him; and the consequence is, that life is passed in self-indulgence, and time is wasted, and strength is used up, and property is forfeited, and the faith is blemished blighted, and souls are ruined. Yet, “All things are lawful for me” continues to ring through the heads of self centered Christians. The Corinthians starred in this.
Paul will bring up the same maxim in ch.10, where he will remind them that, for a greater good, a Christian should not exercise his or her rights if it will cause another brother or sister to stumble in their faith. In that chapter he, specifically, addresses the issue of eating foods that were previously dedicated to idols, or pagan deities, especially since, the eating of those foods often involved eating them in those pagan temples, where they were dedicated. In those instances it hindered the cause of the Gospel and broke down the testimony of being set apart for God's Glorious use. So, Paul brings up the slogan again there in ch.10, "All things are lawful,", because the church in Corinth clung tightly to those words, as license to do whatever they desired to do. Yes, there is freedom to eat those foods, but not if it causes another brother to stumble, as he masterfully explains in Rom 14. And everyone in Corinth was stumbling at this expression, "All things are lawful,". So, Paul ahs to qualify it with the words, “but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful," but not all things build up.”1Co 10:23 Building up the Body was to be a high priority for all of God's People.
While he's at it, Paul seems to introduce another slogan, another Corinthian Cliche in v.13 and it has to do with their view that sexual appetite was like any other appetite. So, the slogan went, "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"--and God will destroy both one and the other.” So, the Corinthians, who were steeped in a pagan religion not unlike the one that Balaam had tried to allure Israel into, believed that anything related to the body was merely a bodily function and was in itself, 'amoral'. So, sex was to them, merely a gratification of a bodily function, just the same as eating or sleeping. But Paul is telling them that God doesn't see it as merely a bodily function, because it has a deeper significance related to its true intention, which is intimacy with Christ. The Marital Union was foreordained to be a type, a picture of The Eternal Covenant & Union of Christ, the Bridegroom and the Church, His Bride! And so, because of that“The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” As a member of the Bride our bodies, in typical fashion are called to be pure as the Bride should be, Holy set apart, and waiting in anticipation for the Total Renewal & Transformation that will take place at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. It prefigures...
II. The Body's Resurrection in the Lord ...v.14
If our bodies are to be raised, Paul insists that they must not be put into the category with those parts that will be destroyed. The stomach won't be needed to digest food! Jesus didn't need a need a stomach when He enjoyed the broiled fish in His newly Resurrected Body in Luke 24! So, he assures these Corinthians that since 'God raised the Lord Jesus Christ' He 'will also raise us up by his power'! Paul will later deal with the Corinthian doubts about the resurrection in ch.15. But here, he simply affirms that the believer's body, unlike its perishable stomach in v.13, has a glorious destiny!
And notice, he has created an exact correspondence with their slogan! They said “Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, and the destiny of both is destruction. But Paul says, “The Body is for the Lord and the Lord for the Body, and the Destiny of both is ...Resurrection!” Resurrection!Paul will tell them later in this letter, “We shall all be changed, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet, the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed!” 15:52-53 He will tell the Philippians, that Jesus Christ “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” Php 3:21 Redemption from sin includes the redemption of our bodies! Rom 8 & Eph 1 This is the Christian Hope! Paul proceeds to then show them...
III. The Body's Relationship with the Lord ...vs.15-17 ...that we are...
A. United in Body ...vs.15-16 ...with an indissoluble bond!
The extent to which our bodies and the Lord Himself are woven together is clearly manifested in the 1st of Paul's rhetorical questions in v. 15 “Do you not know ...that your bodies are members of Christ?” Paul knows that the Corinthians aren't ignorant of this fact, but they must be too dull to realize its implications! He will spell it out when he writes to them in ch.12 “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.” 1Co 12:12-14 He will also tell the church at Rome that in the 12th chapter of that letter, as well.
Our bodies are limbs of Jesus Christ, and Paul's rhetorical question, “Do you not know this?” reveals how fundamental to our faith is this Union with Christ! We are glued to Christ! How therefore, can we attach or glue to Christ, that which is unholy? Whether it be a sinful action or a sinful thought or a sinful relationship? God loves the Body! God designed the Body! God is going to redeem the Body! Even though they are distinguished from one another, God doesn't separate the body from the soul [or spirit]!
The Corinthians, however, saturated in Greek dualistic Gnostic Philosophy, saw no connection between the body and the spirit, other than to say that they were spirits dragging around a corpse. To these Greeks, whether they were Stoics or Hedonists, matter was bad, and spirit was good. In their minds what the corpse did had nothing to do with who the spirit was. But God, from the beginning, never said anything like that in His Word. As C.S. Lewis commented, “God loves matter. He invented it!” Likewise, God loves the Body, and plans on redeeming it, along with the soul. So, Paul, the student of the Word that he is, sees the glaring contradiction between intimacy w/ Christ & intimacy w/ a prostitute, which is why he asks in v.16 “Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?” Never! [May-ginomai!] God forbid! May it never be!
For the 2nd time in this section, Paul appeals to a question, with an obvious answer, 'do you not know ...that he who is 'joined to' a prostitute becomes one body with her?” For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh." Notice, Paul has transitioned from using the ethically neutral word 'soma' 'body' to using the word 'sarx' 'flesh', which often has overtones to the corruption of the sinful nature. Perhaps, he is reminding them of their fallen condition. This quote is from Gen 2:26, where God first instituted the Sacred Bond of Marriage [a bond being mercilessly attacked today]. Paul uses it to show how the sexual act between what God has joined together creates a permanent bond. That passage is also utilized by Jesus in Matt 19:4-6, in reference to divorce, which tears apart what God had joined together. Paul is using the Genesis passage to show that the act of fornication, which was so closely linked to idolatry also tears at the Spiritual marriage bond, between the believer & Christ, because in Christ we are not only united in Body, but we are...
B. United in Spirit ...v.17
“ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” That word for 'joined' in both verses 16 & 17, is the Greek word 'kollao', and its where we get the English word 'collate' from. When you collate papers, you staple or clip or glue them together. So, just as he who is glued to a harlot has become one with her in flesh, so he who is glued to the Lord has become one with Him in spirit. One leads to the degradation of the human soul, and the other leads to the exaltation of the human soul. Paul is contrasting the fallen flesh with the exalted spirit. The one who is 'glued to the Lord', has had the 'Mind of Christ and the Mind of the Spirit' glued to him ...cleaved to Him. The Gen 2 passage that Paul just quoted is preceded by the words, “Therefore, a Man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave, hold fast to his wife.” Gen 2:24 He leaves and cleaves and they reside together in their own house. And this is Paul's point. Their bodies and spirits belong to another, and cannot reside, by cleaving to a harlot or an adulteress. It is that unity of spirit which includes and defines...
IV. The Body's Residence by the Lord ...v.18-19a
Joseph understood that, when he was faced with the overwhelming temptation to gratify his flesh with the wife of his master, Potiphar. Joseph was a man who was 'endowed with the Spirit of God'. Gen 41:38. So, he ran out, rather than continue to stand and face her seduction. He understood that to sin this way was not only an act against the man that owned him, but it was against the God that made him, and it was...
A. Against the Body ...v.18
...that sustained him. So, Paul alludes to Joseph in Gen 39, as his example of what each & every Christian is to do when facing such temptation. [Interestingly, Moses seems to contrast Joseph's success in Gen 39 with Judah's failure in Gen 38. Joseph ran from his master's wife, who acted like a harlot. Whereas, Judah slept with his son's wife, Tamar, who posed as a harlot. Judah failed, because he didn't do what Joseph did. He didn't“Flee from sexual immorality!” His sin was within. Paul says, “Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” Wm. Vines says, that in sins outside the body, the body is the subject acted upon, and in harlotry the body is the instrument acting. Likewise, A. T. Robertson refers to drunkenness & gluttony as examples of sins that the Corinthians committed which were from an outside source. But, he says, “In fornication the body is the instrument of sin and becomes the subject of the damage wrought.” We see that damage on one level in sexually transmitted diseases. But the damage on the Spiritual realm, though unseen, is even greater. And so, for bodily preservation, Paul does not tell them to conquer immorality ...to contend with immorality or ...to counsel immorality but to clear out from it ...to Flee immorality! Because immorality is...
B. Against the Spirit ...v. 19a
For the 3rd time, Paul asks them his famous rhetorical question. Remember, they are convinced that they stand in wise man's shoes, but with this phrase, do you not know, Paul has put a rock of foolishness in those shoes. Apparently, Paul had made these points crystal clear during the 18 months he had visited them, which may be why he is so stunned at their ignorance of something he considers so basic to the Christian Faith. And that is, as amazing as anything can be, that we have been made the dwelling place of God! So, he asks them a third time in this section, “Or do you not know that your body [singular] is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” You are not alone! You are joined in & by the H.S. He had already told them essentially this back in 3:16 ,“Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?” God had a Temple built in the O.T. to prefigure this Temple, our bodies. And the Holy Spirit is 'the seal ...the deposit guaranteeing our inheritance', the redemption of our bodies. And that is Paul's final point...
V. The Body's Redemption by the Lord ...vs.19b-20
“You are not your own” You don't have a right to do what you want with your body! Why? “for you were bought with a price!” You were purchased by the King out of the Agora, the slave market, Paul tells them. “So glorify God in your body!” According to Psa_16:2, we know we cannot add any thing to God’s glory. However, God, Himself is glorified by our service. As the Psalmist wrote in Psa 50:23 “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!" There are many ways in which we may glorify him daily, and so our devotion to him is justly called “our reasonable service' in Rom_12:1 Paul's exhortation, then, is to have its intended effect, on all whom God claims to have as His very own. Let us not, then, live as though we were free from His Holy Calling, and left to do as our flesh is inclined to. Let us, rather, adopt the resolution of Joshua, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Jos_24:15 'Me and my house' surely includes the bodies, as well, as the souls of these Corinthians, and also for us.
As Paul told the Romans, “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” Rom 6:13 May we with, all our faculties cry from deep within, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” Psa 103:1 None of us are an island to ourselves. We are part of the Country that awaits us. We were born for Immanuel's Land. By God's Grace, we will, each, fulfill Paul's inspired declaration “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. Rom 14:7 “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body!” You are not Alone. You are not your own. Honor His Throne.
Closing
Some of you grew up in a Christian environment, where the Word of God and, hopefully, the Grace of God saturated the air in your home, and perhaps, because of that, some of you have not experienced how low, in depravity, you are capable of going. I for one, did not grow up in such an environment, and because of that, I reached into some pretty low places, not unlike that which Paul has been dealing with in this section of ch.6. Because of that, I know for a fact, what kind of a purchase I was from the slave market of sin. I have been bought with a Great price. How can I, who belong to my Master, seek to run back into the dark Slavery of Egypt? You too, have been purchased from the same slave market. You were a slave by nature, even if you didn't get entangled in the same sins as I did. The details of our slavery don't stop our Great Savior.
He came to set the captives free, free to serve Him! You know the Truth and the Truth has made you free! Paul agrees, “You were called to freedom, brothers” Gal 5:13a But Freedom must not commit suicide. J.P. Lange, the Lutheran scholar said, “The body was designed to be the organ of the Spirit for ruling over nature , ...not the organ of nature for ruling over the Spirit.” “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”And one Great day“the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Rom 8:21
This is why Paul breaks into Doxology at the end of Rom 11, because he sees a glimpse of the “depth of both the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” and he proclaims “How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” He is the Hound of Heaven, and He will pursue you, who have been wandering lost, without a compass, in the dark forest of sin, until He gets what He wants from you. And what does He want from you? He wants you to be 'His Own purchased possession'! He wants you to drink from the Fountain of Life! He has chosen you ...to eat at the King's Banqueting Table! That is Amazing Love! As the hymnwriter wrote, “Could we with ink, the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, Nor could the scroll contain the whole tho' stretched from sky to sky"
You are still a slave, only not to sin, but to righteousness, and a slave is purchased for the use of his body. Glorify God, therefore, ...in your body. Let's pray!
Introduction
We live in an age that tells us that we have aright to do what we want with our own bodies. I have seen this age grow and develop throughout most of my life. As some of you know, I was a child of the 60's, and during the 60's there was a sexual revolution. It was a revolution that promised to set people free to enjoy their sexuality. Did it make good on its promises? What has it really produced?
5 things. 1] It has produced for us an unprecedented amount of single mothers.*Single mothers have become the accepted norm in our society. 4 out of 10 births in the U.S. occur through single mothers. Of the 12 million single parent families, 80% are single mothers. 2] *Pornography is still sold on the street corner or at the local food mart; and it is also freely available on the Internet and is delivered unsolicited to people’s E-mail. Many godly men, including many pastors have fallen victim to the ease of its access. 3] *Divorce has become a way of life while the exceptions to the rule have become those who remain faithfully married for life. 4] *Homosexuality and its resulting diseases have spread like wildfire. There are entire countries in sub saharan Africa, where the majority of the population are infected the virus. Approximately 700,000 have died in the U.S. Alone from AIDS related complications. And last, but certainly, not least, 5] *Abortion has claimed the lives of 56 million people. See if this sinks in: The number of U.S. military deaths that have occurred in all of the wars that the U. S. has ever been involved in combined is approximately the same as the number of American babies killed by abortion each year.
Sadly, Evangelical & Reformed churches have often stood silent on these issues. Yet the Bible is not silent on these subjects. God does not hide His head when talking about sexual relationships and neither should the church. Christians live in a real world with real issues and we are tempted with real sins. Yet, we are called to be different, because the Body of Christ belongs to the Lord. That is what is attempting to teach the church in Corinth here in chapter 6 of his first letter to them. As we saw last week, Paul had to rebuke these immature Christians, because they were majoring on minors and minoring on majors, straining at gnats and swallowing camels, removing the specks while failing to see the logs in their own eyes.
So, Paul will make 5 points, as he relates The Body to The Lord. In ...vs.12-13 he speaks of The Body's Reason in the Lord. In ...v.14 he describes The Body's Resurrection in the Lord. In ...vs.15-17 he shows The Body's Relationship with the Lord. In ...v.19a we see The Body's Residence by the Lord. And finally, in ...vs.19b-20 Paul urges them to remember The Body's Redemption by the Lord. So, we begin with...
I. The Body's Reason in the Lord ...vs. 12-13
It seems that when Paul was in Corinth, he had asserted the freedom of believers from the restrictions that were inherent in the O.C. Ceremonial Laws, such as dietary laws or seasonal festivals. Paul address this important Truth to other churches such as what he will tell the church at Rome, “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” Rom 7:6 Similarly, he had already written to the Galatian Christians, who had been bewitched by Jewish Legalism to get circumcised, to avoid certain foods, and to “observe days and months and seasons and years!” Gal 4:10 . And so, he told them in Gal 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” The Galatians had bound themselves to 'Legalism'.
But, here, in Corinth they had bound themselves to 'License'! It was the opposite problem. Apparently, when Paul told them "All things are lawful for me," they took it as a 'license' to do any and everything their flesh desired. They established the 1st Assembly of the Antinomian. Antinomians [Lawless Professors proclaim without shame, “Free from the Law. O blessed condition. I can sin all I want and still have remission!” Paul has to correct this grave misunderstanding of what True Christian Freedom is. So, he repeats their twisted echo of his words, "All things are lawful for me," by responding with his qualification of this maxim, “but not all things are helpful.” Even if they were free to do a certain something, depending on the setting, those actions might be harmful to another of a weaker faith. They might injure the body; produce scandal; lead others to offend or to sin against their conscience. Such was the case with regard to the use of certain meats, and even with regard to the use of wine. Paul’s rule on this subject is stated in chapter 8 of this letter. 1Co_8:13 That if these things did injury to others, Paul would abandon them forever; even though they were in themselves lawful.
Still again, Paul hears the excuse, an excuse they are bound to, "All things are lawful for me," so he responds to their addiction to this slogan with “but I will not be enslaved by anything.”. If you love your freedom so much that become addicted to the exercise of that freedom, you are no longer free. You are a slave of that thing that you vigorously contend you have a right to do. Many a Christian and Christian minister “is a slave;” and is completely 'under the power' of some habit that destroys his usefulness and his happiness. He is the slave of laziness, or carelessness, or a habit - like tobacco, or alcohol. He has lost the freedom to break the cords that bind him; and the consequence is, that life is passed in self-indulgence, and time is wasted, and strength is used up, and property is forfeited, and the faith is blemished blighted, and souls are ruined. Yet, “All things are lawful for me” continues to ring through the heads of self centered Christians. The Corinthians starred in this.
Paul will bring up the same maxim in ch.10, where he will remind them that, for a greater good, a Christian should not exercise his or her rights if it will cause another brother or sister to stumble in their faith. In that chapter he, specifically, addresses the issue of eating foods that were previously dedicated to idols, or pagan deities, especially since, the eating of those foods often involved eating them in those pagan temples, where they were dedicated. In those instances it hindered the cause of the Gospel and broke down the testimony of being set apart for God's Glorious use. So, Paul brings up the slogan again there in ch.10, "All things are lawful,", because the church in Corinth clung tightly to those words, as license to do whatever they desired to do. Yes, there is freedom to eat those foods, but not if it causes another brother to stumble, as he masterfully explains in Rom 14. And everyone in Corinth was stumbling at this expression, "All things are lawful,". So, Paul ahs to qualify it with the words, “but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful," but not all things build up.”1Co 10:23 Building up the Body was to be a high priority for all of God's People.
While he's at it, Paul seems to introduce another slogan, another Corinthian Cliche in v.13 and it has to do with their view that sexual appetite was like any other appetite. So, the slogan went, "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"--and God will destroy both one and the other.” So, the Corinthians, who were steeped in a pagan religion not unlike the one that Balaam had tried to allure Israel into, believed that anything related to the body was merely a bodily function and was in itself, 'amoral'. So, sex was to them, merely a gratification of a bodily function, just the same as eating or sleeping. But Paul is telling them that God doesn't see it as merely a bodily function, because it has a deeper significance related to its true intention, which is intimacy with Christ. The Marital Union was foreordained to be a type, a picture of The Eternal Covenant & Union of Christ, the Bridegroom and the Church, His Bride! And so, because of that“The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” As a member of the Bride our bodies, in typical fashion are called to be pure as the Bride should be, Holy set apart, and waiting in anticipation for the Total Renewal & Transformation that will take place at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. It prefigures...
II. The Body's Resurrection in the Lord ...v.14
If our bodies are to be raised, Paul insists that they must not be put into the category with those parts that will be destroyed. The stomach won't be needed to digest food! Jesus didn't need a need a stomach when He enjoyed the broiled fish in His newly Resurrected Body in Luke 24! So, he assures these Corinthians that since 'God raised the Lord Jesus Christ' He 'will also raise us up by his power'! Paul will later deal with the Corinthian doubts about the resurrection in ch.15. But here, he simply affirms that the believer's body, unlike its perishable stomach in v.13, has a glorious destiny!
And notice, he has created an exact correspondence with their slogan! They said “Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, and the destiny of both is destruction. But Paul says, “The Body is for the Lord and the Lord for the Body, and the Destiny of both is ...Resurrection!” Resurrection!Paul will tell them later in this letter, “We shall all be changed, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet, the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed!” 15:52-53 He will tell the Philippians, that Jesus Christ “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” Php 3:21 Redemption from sin includes the redemption of our bodies! Rom 8 & Eph 1 This is the Christian Hope! Paul proceeds to then show them...
III. The Body's Relationship with the Lord ...vs.15-17 ...that we are...
A. United in Body ...vs.15-16 ...with an indissoluble bond!
The extent to which our bodies and the Lord Himself are woven together is clearly manifested in the 1st of Paul's rhetorical questions in v. 15 “Do you not know ...that your bodies are members of Christ?” Paul knows that the Corinthians aren't ignorant of this fact, but they must be too dull to realize its implications! He will spell it out when he writes to them in ch.12 “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.” 1Co 12:12-14 He will also tell the church at Rome that in the 12th chapter of that letter, as well.
Our bodies are limbs of Jesus Christ, and Paul's rhetorical question, “Do you not know this?” reveals how fundamental to our faith is this Union with Christ! We are glued to Christ! How therefore, can we attach or glue to Christ, that which is unholy? Whether it be a sinful action or a sinful thought or a sinful relationship? God loves the Body! God designed the Body! God is going to redeem the Body! Even though they are distinguished from one another, God doesn't separate the body from the soul [or spirit]!
The Corinthians, however, saturated in Greek dualistic Gnostic Philosophy, saw no connection between the body and the spirit, other than to say that they were spirits dragging around a corpse. To these Greeks, whether they were Stoics or Hedonists, matter was bad, and spirit was good. In their minds what the corpse did had nothing to do with who the spirit was. But God, from the beginning, never said anything like that in His Word. As C.S. Lewis commented, “God loves matter. He invented it!” Likewise, God loves the Body, and plans on redeeming it, along with the soul. So, Paul, the student of the Word that he is, sees the glaring contradiction between intimacy w/ Christ & intimacy w/ a prostitute, which is why he asks in v.16 “Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?” Never! [May-ginomai!] God forbid! May it never be!
For the 2nd time in this section, Paul appeals to a question, with an obvious answer, 'do you not know ...that he who is 'joined to' a prostitute becomes one body with her?” For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh." Notice, Paul has transitioned from using the ethically neutral word 'soma' 'body' to using the word 'sarx' 'flesh', which often has overtones to the corruption of the sinful nature. Perhaps, he is reminding them of their fallen condition. This quote is from Gen 2:26, where God first instituted the Sacred Bond of Marriage [a bond being mercilessly attacked today]. Paul uses it to show how the sexual act between what God has joined together creates a permanent bond. That passage is also utilized by Jesus in Matt 19:4-6, in reference to divorce, which tears apart what God had joined together. Paul is using the Genesis passage to show that the act of fornication, which was so closely linked to idolatry also tears at the Spiritual marriage bond, between the believer & Christ, because in Christ we are not only united in Body, but we are...
B. United in Spirit ...v.17
“ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” That word for 'joined' in both verses 16 & 17, is the Greek word 'kollao', and its where we get the English word 'collate' from. When you collate papers, you staple or clip or glue them together. So, just as he who is glued to a harlot has become one with her in flesh, so he who is glued to the Lord has become one with Him in spirit. One leads to the degradation of the human soul, and the other leads to the exaltation of the human soul. Paul is contrasting the fallen flesh with the exalted spirit. The one who is 'glued to the Lord', has had the 'Mind of Christ and the Mind of the Spirit' glued to him ...cleaved to Him. The Gen 2 passage that Paul just quoted is preceded by the words, “Therefore, a Man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave, hold fast to his wife.” Gen 2:24 He leaves and cleaves and they reside together in their own house. And this is Paul's point. Their bodies and spirits belong to another, and cannot reside, by cleaving to a harlot or an adulteress. It is that unity of spirit which includes and defines...
IV. The Body's Residence by the Lord ...v.18-19a
Joseph understood that, when he was faced with the overwhelming temptation to gratify his flesh with the wife of his master, Potiphar. Joseph was a man who was 'endowed with the Spirit of God'. Gen 41:38. So, he ran out, rather than continue to stand and face her seduction. He understood that to sin this way was not only an act against the man that owned him, but it was against the God that made him, and it was...
A. Against the Body ...v.18
...that sustained him. So, Paul alludes to Joseph in Gen 39, as his example of what each & every Christian is to do when facing such temptation. [Interestingly, Moses seems to contrast Joseph's success in Gen 39 with Judah's failure in Gen 38. Joseph ran from his master's wife, who acted like a harlot. Whereas, Judah slept with his son's wife, Tamar, who posed as a harlot. Judah failed, because he didn't do what Joseph did. He didn't“Flee from sexual immorality!” His sin was within. Paul says, “Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” Wm. Vines says, that in sins outside the body, the body is the subject acted upon, and in harlotry the body is the instrument acting. Likewise, A. T. Robertson refers to drunkenness & gluttony as examples of sins that the Corinthians committed which were from an outside source. But, he says, “In fornication the body is the instrument of sin and becomes the subject of the damage wrought.” We see that damage on one level in sexually transmitted diseases. But the damage on the Spiritual realm, though unseen, is even greater. And so, for bodily preservation, Paul does not tell them to conquer immorality ...to contend with immorality or ...to counsel immorality but to clear out from it ...to Flee immorality! Because immorality is...
B. Against the Spirit ...v. 19a
For the 3rd time, Paul asks them his famous rhetorical question. Remember, they are convinced that they stand in wise man's shoes, but with this phrase, do you not know, Paul has put a rock of foolishness in those shoes. Apparently, Paul had made these points crystal clear during the 18 months he had visited them, which may be why he is so stunned at their ignorance of something he considers so basic to the Christian Faith. And that is, as amazing as anything can be, that we have been made the dwelling place of God! So, he asks them a third time in this section, “Or do you not know that your body [singular] is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” You are not alone! You are joined in & by the H.S. He had already told them essentially this back in 3:16 ,“Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?” God had a Temple built in the O.T. to prefigure this Temple, our bodies. And the Holy Spirit is 'the seal ...the deposit guaranteeing our inheritance', the redemption of our bodies. And that is Paul's final point...
V. The Body's Redemption by the Lord ...vs.19b-20
“You are not your own” You don't have a right to do what you want with your body! Why? “for you were bought with a price!” You were purchased by the King out of the Agora, the slave market, Paul tells them. “So glorify God in your body!” According to Psa_16:2, we know we cannot add any thing to God’s glory. However, God, Himself is glorified by our service. As the Psalmist wrote in Psa 50:23 “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!" There are many ways in which we may glorify him daily, and so our devotion to him is justly called “our reasonable service' in Rom_12:1 Paul's exhortation, then, is to have its intended effect, on all whom God claims to have as His very own. Let us not, then, live as though we were free from His Holy Calling, and left to do as our flesh is inclined to. Let us, rather, adopt the resolution of Joshua, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Jos_24:15 'Me and my house' surely includes the bodies, as well, as the souls of these Corinthians, and also for us.
As Paul told the Romans, “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” Rom 6:13 May we with, all our faculties cry from deep within, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” Psa 103:1 None of us are an island to ourselves. We are part of the Country that awaits us. We were born for Immanuel's Land. By God's Grace, we will, each, fulfill Paul's inspired declaration “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. Rom 14:7 “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body!” You are not Alone. You are not your own. Honor His Throne.
Closing
Some of you grew up in a Christian environment, where the Word of God and, hopefully, the Grace of God saturated the air in your home, and perhaps, because of that, some of you have not experienced how low, in depravity, you are capable of going. I for one, did not grow up in such an environment, and because of that, I reached into some pretty low places, not unlike that which Paul has been dealing with in this section of ch.6. Because of that, I know for a fact, what kind of a purchase I was from the slave market of sin. I have been bought with a Great price. How can I, who belong to my Master, seek to run back into the dark Slavery of Egypt? You too, have been purchased from the same slave market. You were a slave by nature, even if you didn't get entangled in the same sins as I did. The details of our slavery don't stop our Great Savior.
He came to set the captives free, free to serve Him! You know the Truth and the Truth has made you free! Paul agrees, “You were called to freedom, brothers” Gal 5:13a But Freedom must not commit suicide. J.P. Lange, the Lutheran scholar said, “The body was designed to be the organ of the Spirit for ruling over nature , ...not the organ of nature for ruling over the Spirit.” “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”And one Great day“the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Rom 8:21
This is why Paul breaks into Doxology at the end of Rom 11, because he sees a glimpse of the “depth of both the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” and he proclaims “How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” He is the Hound of Heaven, and He will pursue you, who have been wandering lost, without a compass, in the dark forest of sin, until He gets what He wants from you. And what does He want from you? He wants you to be 'His Own purchased possession'! He wants you to drink from the Fountain of Life! He has chosen you ...to eat at the King's Banqueting Table! That is Amazing Love! As the hymnwriter wrote, “Could we with ink, the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, Nor could the scroll contain the whole tho' stretched from sky to sky"
You are still a slave, only not to sin, but to righteousness, and a slave is purchased for the use of his body. Glorify God, therefore, ...in your body. Let's pray!