Title: NOW ABOUT SEX
Focus: Honor God with your body.
Function: To move the people to adopt a biblical, sexual ethic that honors God and that leads to blessings in life.
Text: I Corinthians 6:12-20
Our culture—led by Hollywood and secular progressive people—has it all wrong. Our culture says:
“What you do with your body in terms of sex is no one else’s business. Sex is personal and private.” They are wrong. Scripture teaches that if you are a Christian, your body is the Lord’s business. Our culture says: “Sexual intercourse is purely a physical matter, a purely pleasurable thing, something casual, like eating and drinking.” They are wrong. Scripture teaches that there is no such thing as “casual” sex.
Our culture says: “Common law living (also referred to as ‘shacking up’) makes practical sense: it helps a couple to test their relationship, their compatibility, and it relieves a couple from making any lasting commitments. In fact, common law living is convenient (esp. for men), saves money, and avoids costly divorce lawyer’s fees in case common law living does not work out.’ They are wrong. Scripture teaches that common law living dishonors marriage and fits the category of sexual immorality.
Our culture says: “Teach children and teenagers the mechanics of sex, provide them with the means to practice safe sex, for children and teenagers will have sex whenever the opportunity avails itself, or whenever they feel like it.” Our culture is wrong. Scripture teaches that self-control and discipline, along with a clear understanding of God’s will for us in all human relationships will lead to principled, morally strong young people and adults. Do I have your attention?
Tonight, you will hear me say a number of things about sex. I will speak as clearly and appropriately and sensitively as I can. I will focus on the text from I Corinthians 6. I pray that God’s Word and Spirit will move us all to adopt a biblical, sexual ethic or behavior that honors God and that leads to blessings in our lives. The bottom line of my message is this: Honor God with your body.
BACKGROUND OF THE TEXT
As we zero in on the text of Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church, you need to know something about the City of Corinth and about the way the Greek citizens of Corinth think about the human body. Corinth is a commercially and politically prosperous city. It was the “New York” of Greece. Located near the Mediterranean sea, Corinth attracted numerous travelers and merchants from all over the world.
It had many attractions: a theater, a market place and a major attraction called “the temple of Aphrodite,” where more than one thousand priestess—prostitutes served anyone who worshiped Aphrodite, the goddess of fertility. Temple prostitution—as part of pagan religion and practice—was very common and accepted by the culture in the City of Corinth.
Here’s the other thing we must keep in mind as we consider Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth: The citizens of Corinth, shaped by Greek thinking, considered the human body as something that belongs to the natural realm and is therefore base. In fact, they thought that a human being is made up of two or three parts: the mind and/or soul, and the body. Whereas the body is natural and therefore base, less important, the soul is spiritual, and therefore very important. With that kind of thinking, the Greeks had no problem satisfying the impulses and desires of their bodies by way of prostitution, while feeding their soul with religious thoughts and noble philosophies. They separated their bodies and souls and saw no intricate relationship between the two.
It’s no wonder, then, that the apostle Paul encountered a number of problems in the church of Corinth. For new converts had to change their thinking about their bodies, and their sexual practices, because God’s teachings in his Word are different from the teachings of Corinth’s culture.
Jewish Christians knew the O.T. scriptures; they had a different sexual ethic and different understanding of what it means to be human. Greek or Gentile Christians, however, had to reject and give up a whole different way of life and thinking about sex and sexuality. The new Christians in Corinth, then, needed instruction to live as followers of Jesus Christ; they needed to learn to honor God with their body.
And so it is with you and me: we live in a pervasively pagan culture, where you and I must go against the stream of culture in order to remain faithful to God’s teachings on sex, marriage, and human sexuality.
PROBLEMS AND INSIGHTS
In the text, we notice that Paul addresses some problems related to sexual intercourse. And by addressing these matters of sex, Paul teaches us some insights. He wants us to have a certain kind of knowledge about sexual relationships and about our bodies.
For example: Christians must value their body. Christians must understand that their bodies are not base, or vile, or somehow inferior to the soul. Christians must understand that to be human means to live a body/soul life. You cannot separate yourself from your body. Only the power of death can separate us from our bodies. And even that is only temporary, because Christ has conquered the power of death. And just as Jesus was raised from the dead and just as Jesus’ resurrection body has become incorruptible, so Christians will be raised from the dead, and receive incorruptible, resurrection bodies.
The resurrection of the body, then, shows how much God values our body. Our bodies are intended for eternity. How can this be? How then must we see and value our bodies? The answer to that question leads us to another insight in the text.
Our bodies are united with Christ. Through faith in him, and through the workings of God’s Spirit in us, we are united with Christ—body and soul—the entire human being that makes up you and me. Listen (vs.14) “By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?”
Elsewhere, the scriptures tell us that Christ has bought us; he redeemed us, body and soul. We belong to him. Our baptism reminds us of God’s ownership or claim on us: baptized in the triune name of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—we now must honor God with our whole being, body and soul.
More than that, God has given us his Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God dwells in our body. Our bodies have become the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit connects us with the risen, exalted Christ in heaven. The Holy Spirit unites us here on earth with Christ in heaven.
The bond of faith and the unity of Christ’s Spirit also connect Christians together. How we relate to each other and how we treat each other sexually matters deeply, because each one of us is united to Christ, and Christ unites us together. This is also why your and my sexual relationships matter to the rest of Christ’s body, the church. And it’s in this context that we must understand Paul’s words when he says: “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.”
This is not hard to understand. Consider: God’s Spirit lives in you; your body is his temple. Now when we sin sexually, for example, by having sexual intercourse with a prostitute or having so-called “casual” sex, we become physically one with such a person. That’s what sexual intercourse is about: two becoming one. (This is something that God intends to happen within the boundaries of marriage). Now remember that the Holy Spirit temples or lives within us. By uniting sexually with someone else other than my spouse, I sin against my body, that is, I defile my temple.
Imagine Israel’s high priest setting up an altar for Aphrodites in the Holy of Holies in the temple of Jerusalem. That would be a clear case of the priest defiling God’s temple and sinning against God and against God’s house. So it is when you and I engage in sexually inappropriate relationships; we sin against our body; we defile the temple of God’s Spirit. This is why Paul says: (vs. 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; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”
This leads us to one more insight from the text: Sexual intercourse is never “casual” or insignificant or simply an animalistic drive or a mere natural thing to do. God designed it specifically for marriage, where a husband and wife become so united in body and soul that the two become one flesh. When sexual intercourse takes place within the boundaries of marriage, God’s blessings and shalom rests upon that relationship. When sexual intercourse takes place outside of marriage, all kinds of weird, strange, painful, confusing, and disappointing, hurtful things tend to take place. Therefore, we do well to honor God with our body.
GUIDELINESS FOR SEX
Here are some ways to honor God with your body: First of all:
· Do what God does and learn to honor or regard the following:
a life of celibacy, abstinence/self-control, and the institution of marriage.
Most parents do not think much of celibacy—the state of being single all your life. Perhaps that’s because most of us do not have the gift or desire or sense of calling to a single life. But the fact remains that the Bible honors celibacy, especially when such a life centers on serving the Lord our God. Also, when Christ returns, we learn from scripture that there shall be no such institution as marriage. Though difficult for many to do or understand, celibacy is an honorable state of living one’s life before God.
Abstinence or learning to control your physical drives or sexual appetite is not something for saints to do or for “prudes” to consider, but for all people, young and old alike. Anyone who seeks to honor God with his/her body may turn to God for strength, guidance and wisdom to apply self-control. God will bless and honor such discipline. Easy? No. doable? Yes, with God’s strength we can honor him with our body.
Marriage is a God-ordained institution. We must not mess with it, change its definition to suit the culture, nor defy it with convenient substitutes such as common law living. Honor God with your body; therefore do what God does: honor and respect celibacy, abstinence/self-control and marriage. Secondly:
· See yourself as God sees you. Unlike the teachings of secular progressive people and institutions, human beings are not the product of evolution; we are not mere pieces of meat; we are not simply a multi-trillion bundle of cells. God has created us; God has designed our bodies for a purpose. Therefore, we shall see ourselves and use our bodies for God’s purposes. We shall do what God calls us to do and present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.
Therefore, we shall not flaunt our bodies, tempt others lustfully with our bodies; we shall dress appropriately—in church as well as in society. We shall not fixate on our bodies or become obsessed with them. We shall learn to conduct ourselves as followers of Christ—not giving offense to Christ or to others by abusing or misusing our bodies. We shall see ourselves as God sees us: a temple belonging to God. Thirdly:
· Flee from sexual immorality: The heavens and the earth belong to our heavenly Father; you and I may go anywhere in God’s name. In Christ Jesus, I am free. However, freedom in Christ comes with restrictions, cautions, and warnings: As a Christian, I may access the Internet; I may have that freedom. But such freedom is not always beneficial or in line with God’s law of love. I may have freedom to surf the Internet; but I do not have the freedom to enter any chat room or website: pornographic websites, pedophile chat rooms, hate bloggers—these are all sites that kill the spirit, and put us in bondage, and spoil our spirits. These sites are not beneficial.
In other words, there are times and moments that I must flee: A casino is not a good place to discipline my proclivity toward greed; a place of prostitution or an escort service is not something I should avail myself of. In fact, says Scripture, flee from them. Be like Joseph. Discipline yourself and see yourself as God sees you, and when temptation throws itself at you (like Potiphar’s wife), then you flee.
There is so much more to say. I could speak about God’s forgiveness toward all who have sinned sexually; I could say much more about sexual immorality, the Bible and our culture. But I must limit myself to the text and to the time allotted to preach this sermon. So, I will repeat the bottom line one more time: honor God with your body.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.