Flee From Sexual Sin
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Truth Taught- the believer is to guard his body because it belongs to Christ
We are now going to look at the next issue the Corinthian Church was struggling with. We have already looked at the sexually immoral man. Now the Apostle wants us to see another issue regarding the sin of sexual immorality.
Most scholars think by Paul’s subject matter here in this section that the Corinthians were teaching that their freedom in Christ extended even to free sex. Some in Corinth were going out to prostitutes within the city and claiming it was all within the realm of their Christian Liberty. Paul teaches that Christian liberty does not mean we are free to do anything but we are free from sin to be enslaved to Jesus.
We have been set free in Jesus Christ but in being set free by Jesus we are now bound to Him as His possessions. We have been redeemed; set free from our former enslavement to sin but we are not given a license to do whatever we want.
We must realize in this section, as with the others, it was the very Gospel that’s at stake. Their false view of spirituality and salvation was leading them actually to engage in sexual sin even more. Jesus does not save us and set us free so we can sin without consequences. This was a great flaw in their thinking. This type of thinking says that since the body will one day be destroyed and it is the soul that is eternal, therefore what we do in the body does not matter. From this thinking they went to prostitutes thinking that was permissible because the body does not matter.
So, as Paul addresses their sexual immorality, he also teaches what true Christian Liberty is. So, we can learn a lot from this section that will help us live for God’s glory.
1 Corinthians 6:12–20 (ESV)
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised 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 prostitute? Never! 16 Or 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.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1. Our Bodies Are Physical and Spiritual (6:12-14)
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
There was a slogan that the Corinthians loved to say…All things are lawful for me. There is problem with this slogan. They had equated Christian freedom with freedom to do what they wanted. True Christian freedom is not freedom to do anything you want but freedom to not engage in certain behaviors in which you once took part. Our freedom comes in the fact that in Christ we are free not to sin. This is a very important issue Paul seeks to correct.
Notice here, at first, he does not attack their sin but seeks to straighten out this flawed theology concerning sin and their bodies.
While the Christian has been set free from the power and rule of sin over them, they are no longer dominated by sin. Here we see that we are not to be dominated by sin. We do have freedom in Christ and in the freedom comes special discernment. In our freedom, we must discern whether our freedom to act is helpful to others and could it lead to us being enslaved again?
Here’s an example…in Christ and in Christian Liberty we must never go further than the Bible does. For example, the consumption of alcohol is almost a status symbol in some Christian groups. We are free to do this and if you have a problem with this then you are the weaker brother. The Bible does not say anything about drinking being a sin. It does say that getting drunk is a sin. So, we must allow freedom in this area.
I do not drink socially. The reason is not because a glass of wine is a sin but because it’s not helpful and it can easily lead to something that dominates me. I have other sins I’m seeking to kill in my life, I don’t need to add another potential sin.
I have heard of more than one pastor who at first was simply exercising his freedom in Christ to drink occasionally and in moderation who now has had to resign his pulpit because alcohol had consumed him. He thought he could control it but eventually it controlled him.
So, to choose not to partake does not make one a weaker brother as some suggest it may make you a wiser brother who refuses to ever be dominated by anything but Jesus.
Our bodies are physical and spiritual. Does drinking alcohol make you stronger spiritually? Does it cause you to walk closer to Jesus? Is it helpful? Can it dominate you?
Our bodies are also spiritual. Things we do in the body affects us spiritually. If I break my arm, there is a spiritual component. If I get a diagnosis of cancer there is a spiritual component. All this is because we are made and meant for eternity.
So when seeking whether or not to engage in certain things, we can ask ourselves what Paul used as a test…is this action helpful to me and could it ever dominate me?
13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other.
Here, we see that God’s logic goes that food and the stomach were made for each other. This is to say that when we eat food, it goes into the stomach and it does what it does because it was made for food.
One day, both will be destroyed. Our stomachs at death and food when the old creation is burned away.
Here’s where the Corinthians might jump in and say something to this effect, well if food is made for the stomach and the stomach for food and both will be destroyed, then the body is also made for sex and sex for the body. They would be deadly wrong. That was their thinking.
The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
The body was not made for sex but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.
Also, by this argument, we will see that the body is made for sex with one’s spouse not for sex with a prostitute.
Their first theological mistake was to think the body was made for sex. It is made to be devoted to Christ. Their second theological mistake was to think the body is not spiritual and will be destroyed forever…
14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
Just as we are God’s eschatological people, destined to judge the world and angels, our bodies are destined to be raised just like Jesus was. So, it does matter what we do with our bodies. Even though they will one day be destroyed, they will also one day be raised.
Paul will address this further in Chapter 15 where it seems some were denying the resurrection of believers.
When God saves us, He saves the entire person. The Christian view of the bodily resurrection of the saints is in contrast to the Greek view that says the body is just of this world therefore because it will pass away forever then we can do whatever we want in the body.
2. Our Bodies are Members of Christ (6:15-17)
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 prostitute? Never! 16 Or 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.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
The bodies of believers are members of Christ. We are members of the body of Christ. If we are members of Christ’s body then it would be a great sin to then go out and join ourselves to a prostitute to become one with her.
Genesis 2:24 (ESV)
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
There is a one flesh dynamic here that we should understand if we are to understand Paul’s logical argument.
When a husband and wife are joined together in the marriage union then, they come together physically in the one flesh union. Being joined together in sex after marriage is the one flesh union that takes place in the physical realm. There becomes a bond.
The same is true spiritually when we are joined with Christ by the Holy Spirit and our spirit. There is a union that takes place a bond. We become one with Christ spiritually. When this union takes place then our bodies are to begin serving Him.
Paul said he would not be ruled or mastered by anything…except he was mastered by Christ.
Our spirits are joined with Christ and so what happens to Jesus happens to us. He is righteous and by our union with Him we too are righteous. Jesus was raised from the dead…we too will one day be raised from the dead. These things and others are the result of our union with Jesus by faith.
Paul’s point is when the Corinthians went out and engaged with prostitutes, they were taking the very body that was joined to Christ by faith and joining themselves to a prostitute and there becoming one with them just like in a marriage bed.
he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.
So, we learn that the physical body counts. It is for the Lord.
17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
Paul teaches that the same principle is true for those who are in Christ. We become one with Him. This dynamic is why being joined to a prostitute is such an evil sin for the Christian.
Here we see the Apostle’s command…
3. Flee From Sexual Immorality (6:18-20)
18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
The initial command is simple to understand…flee from sexual immorality. Literally, flee from pornea.
Genesis 39:6–12 (ESV)
6 So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate.
Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. 7 And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” 8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. 9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”10 And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.
11 But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, 12 she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house.
Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce Joseph, but he staunchly refuses her advances: “My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9). Joseph is loyal both to Potiphar and to God. Potiphar’s wife doesn’t give up; she “spoke to Joseph day after day, [but] he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her” (verse 10). Note the wise course Joseph takes, choosing not to be alone with Potiphar’s wife if he could help it.
But then came a turning point in Joseph’s life: “One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. [Potiphar’s wife] caught him by his cloak and said, ‘Come to bed with me!’ But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house” (Genesis 39:11–12).
There is our example. We too must flee sexual immorality.
God does not just give us the command but then tells us why we are to flee.
The sin of sexual immorality is a sin that affects the body. Because we are in union with Christ, to commit sexual immorality is to join one’s self to whatever sexual immorality looks like. Is it a prostitute, another woman, another man, pornea in the modern sense. All these things are done by joining to that object.
Now, we have gone full circle. Paul said,
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
Sexual sin is the sin that dominates. Christ has set us free and the one committing these types of sins joins himself to the harlot. We are meant to be joined to Christ. The body is for the Lord and to serve Him not joined to a prostitute.
I want us to see together two very odd things.
In Christ we have been set free. Notice, You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price.
We are not to be dominated by anything but we are to be dominated by Christ.
Our spirit and the Holy Spirit are connected by faith therefore flee sexual immorality.
The doctrine of the sanctity of the body needs to be heard over and over again within the modern Church. Our body belongs to Christ and is destined for the resurrection. Therefore, flee sexual sin.
Never forget, there is something within the sexual sin that captures your affections and commitment to Christ. There is something within that sin that will dominate you and enslave you. Beloved, we are meant for eternal glorious things and not the filth of this world.
Resources Used
https://www.gotquestions.org/Potiphars-wife.html
1 Corinthians by Gordon Fee
1 Corinthians by Robertson and Plummer
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