Principles from Paul's Epistles

The Foundation for Christian Morality

1 Cor. 6:12-20

Introduction

So far in this new sermon series, we have covered three principles taken from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. The first principle had to do with maintaining our point of reference. In that sermon, I stated that all the resources we use in our advancement in the faith must be related ultimately to Christ. All worthwhile input for us is going to be characterized by fidelity to His word and a goal of exalting Him. The second principle had to do with understanding an aspect of the nature of the Church. In that sermon, I talked about the importance of every Christian realizing that we all belong to the same Body and that we are all contributing to the character of that Body. And the third principle had to do with the benefits of grieving over sin in the congregation. I said that we should be troubled by sin in our midst, realizing that all sin is destructive. And I stated that we begin with ourselves in grieving for sin in the church.

Obviously, I am not examining everything Paul has to say in 1 Corinthians. I am picking certain passages which seem to contain fundamental principles which will help us understand the church better and help us evaluate our participation in this congregation most effectively. As I continued reading in 1 Corinthians, therefore, I came across an issue in the sixth chapter which I thought should be examined. The principle I find in the latter part of this chapter has to do with Christian morality. In fact, it is a passage in which Paul gives us the foundation for the ethical behavior which is supposed to characterize those who have been redeemed.

Once again, our principle will be drawn from a real-life issue which Paul addressed in the Corinthian congregation. Today, I'll be using 1 Cor. 6:

12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.” 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

01. The Issue (vv. 12-17)

As we know, Paul addressed a matter of serious sin in the fifth chapter. Prior to the passage I just read, he spoke to the Corinthians regarding litigations. The apostle chastised those who were pursuing lawsuits against one another. He exhorts them to settle differences among themselves without submitting their disputes to pagan authorities. Now, Paul turns again to the subject of sexual morality. He introduces this topic in an unusual way when he says that “all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.” (v. 12) At first, it may appear that this statement has no connection with what follows. In reality, it does.

Paul is introducing an idea that should always influence the choices believers make. While something may not be sinful, that does not necessarily mean it is profitable. And while something may not be sinful, that does not necessarily mean there is no danger in it. It appears that he is countering attitudes present in the Corinthian congregation. Here and in chapter 10, Paul uses that phrase “all things are lawful” and then makes qualifying statements. Some in Corinth were emphasizing what they understood to be their freedom in Christ. They held the view that they could engage in just about any kind of activity and yet remain among the redeemed. This attitude may help explain why the Corinthians had failed to discipline the man mentioned in the last chapter. It is apparent, based on what Paul says in this passage, that at least some in this church held a view on union with Christ that was seriously misguided. They were so misguided, in fact, that they were engaging in the kind of conduct which was absolutely incompatible with union with Christ.

So Paul begins by adding those two qualifiers: yes, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. “I may be able to engage in lots of activities,” Paul writes, “but just because I may engage in them without sinning does not necessarily mean that everything will be to my profit.” Yes all things are lawful for me, he continues, but I will not be mastered by anything. “I may be able to engage in lots of activities,” Paul says, “but I always have to be careful how those activities are affecting me-I must always be on guard against becoming a slave to anything.” Paul is beginning his treatment of yet another serious matter in this congregation by sounding a simple caution. All things have to be measured for profitability, he says; and all things have to be mastered or they might master you, he adds. This is, again, the sounding of a general caution because Paul knows that some in this congregation have turned their freedom in Christ into occasion for the most harmful kind of sin.

Paul next quotes what appears to be another slogan or proverb popular in Corinth: “food is for the stomach and the stomach for food...” ” (v. 13) The idea was that food exists to be consumed and the stomach exists to consume. If applied to other things, the thinking represented in this saying could lead to overindulgence is just about any area imaginable. But Paul again adds a qualifier: “but God will do away with both of them.” Here is where he puts a limit, a limit grounded in Christianity, on such thinking. There is a greater concern than food for the stomach and the stomach for food, he writes. The greater concern is that there is a God who is over all and who will, in time, do away with both. His point is that there is more to this existence than these kinds of silly pseudo-philosophical sayings. Yet many of the Corinthians were living their lives by such nonsense.

Then Paul gets to the heart of what is on his mind at this moment: “Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.” Immorality, that is what concerns Paul. His prior statements about things being lawful, but not profitable or even harmful were a prelude to this issue. The Corinthians were following pagan notions of morality and self-gratification. They were indulging in whatever activity presented itself and that view of life had led them into some extremely threatening territory. They reasoned that food was made for the stomach and the stomach for food, so why not indulge as much as they pleased. And they brought that distorted viewpoint into the area of sexual activity and were following similar excesses. This was a culture in which prostitution and fornication were considered entirely allowable and even advantageous. Some of the Corinthians, therefore, were engaging in immorality and they were doing so in the name of their warped sense of freedom in Christ; they reasoned that they were secure in Him and could, therefore, do just about anything they pleased without fear of consequences.

But Paul sets forth a truth which stands in direct opposition to the kind of thinking present in this congregation. He sets forth a truth regarding the reality of the believer's experience in redemption. “The body you inhabit,” Paul says, “is not for immorality...” ” The very thing the Corinthians were practicing was forbidden for them, Paul declares. Their redemption was not of the soul only, but also of the body. The regenerated heart does not live apart from the body as if one may be holy and the other put to unholy uses. “The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord,” he continues, “and the Lord is for the body.” Again, Paul simply means to make a connection between the regenerated heart and the conduct of the person with the regenerated heart. “You cannot be redeemed and yet lend your body to wicked pursuits,” Paul tells them.

We see, then, the issue now being addressed by the apostle. The issue has to do with the foundation for Christian morality. The Corinthians were not resting on that foundation, which was their relationship to the Lord. They were redeemed and that status implied conduct in keeping with that redemption. Their union with Christ was the basis upon which they should decide how to behave, but they were, as noted, behaving contrary to that basis-they were behaving as if they were not united to Christ. They were behaving as if salvation had to do with their souls, but not their bodies, as if they could be regenerated in heart and yet engage in activities which flatly and grossly contradicted all that Christ was and all that He taught.

Paul goes further to explain his “whole man” view of salvation in v. 14. Jesus Christ was raised bodily from the grave, Paul reminds them, and God, by that same power, will also raise up all who belong to Christ. The body of the believer is included in the process of redemption; it is not just his soul which is saved, but, as Paul says here, his body also partakes of the benefits of Christ's work, including a coming resurrection from the dead. The human body was created for God's glory; redemption naturally includes, therefore, the reclamation of the whole man, soul and body.

To take the body, therefore, and subject it to immoral conduct is a most serious offense-it is to oppose directly and deliberately the work of the Savior. This is the point made by Paul when he asks: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” (v. 15) The implication, of course, is that our bodies are involved in Christ's act of redemption-He saves the whole man, once again. Therefore, Paul declares: “Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!” Can that which is part of Christ be made part of a prostitute? Can that which is holy be subjected to unholy uses? Is it proper for a redeemed man to engage in illicit sexual conduct-the very conduct forbidden and condemned in the law of God? May it never be! Paul exclaims. Such a thing is absolutely and undeniably wrong. Yet some in Corinth were doing exactly what Paul condemns; some were joining themselves to prostitutes and committing acts of impurity.

Paul returns to the origin of the human race to underscore his condemnation. If you join yourself to a prostitute, he says, you become one body with her (cf. v. 16); the Creator Himself declared that when a man joins himself to a woman, the two shall become one flesh. The Corinthians were violating the institution established by God; and, as already stated, they were also guilty of denying and opposing the work of the Savior who, in his atonement, provided for the right establishment one again of relationships between men and women.

The issue, once again, is that the Corinthians did not understand the foundation for all Christian morality. That foundation is our union with Christ. The fellowship we have with Him is sacred and must not be polluted by wicked behavior. Because we are His in redemption, we cannot indulge in behavior that He condemns. Our relationship with the Savior is the beginning point for all of our behavior. We cannot go through life thinking “all things are lawful” as if freedom from condemnation has granted to us freedom to sin without consequences! The Christian must measure his intentions by his union with Christ. He cannot claim to be redeemed in soul, but engage his body in unlawful acts.

02. The Response (vv. 18-20)

As usual, by this time in our study of these passages, we don't have to wonder about Paul's response. But, typically, there comes a point in these passages where Paul states his response in a blunt, unmistakable manner. That happens here in v. 18: “Flee immorality.” If you have incorrectly understood what union with Christ means in terms of morality and have, consequently, become entangled in immoral behavior, what is the answer? The answer is simple-flee! You are to stop doing that which is wrong and start doing that which is right. This is Paul's exhortation.

The word translated “flee” (pheugo) means “to escape, to be saved by flight.” Paul doesn't mean that the Corinthians were to pause and consider the error of their ways and he doesn't want them, at this moment, to analyze how they got in this situation, he wants them to flee for their lives. Paul understood not only the error of what was going on, but also the destruction that this error represented. Therefore, he commands the Corinthians, who thought they could be one with Christ and engage in immoral behavior, to take flight, as it were, before it was too late. He is commanding simple repentance. This is what repentance looks like. You realize the sin you are in and you flee from it so that you might pursue a course of conduct which God commends.

Those Corinthians who thought they were secure in Christ even though they were following the “anything goes” philosophy of the culture were sadly and dangerously mistaken. You cannot be joined to what is holy and what is unholy at the same time, Paul teaches. You cannot embrace Christ as Savior and participate in conduct which He forbids. You cannot claim to know Him and then deny Him by your actions. The Corinthians were facing a critical matter. They had to understand that the gospel which they professed required them to refrain from conduct which, while endorsed by their culture, was offensive to their Savior. This was a crucial test for them as a congregation.

These believers lived in one of the most secular cities of this period; there were manifold temptations to engage in sinful conduct every day. They had to reach the point in their thinking where they realized that their union with Christ was the basis for their code of morality. They were bound to speak and act in ways that reflected His holiness. They were called to be saints-holy ones-and saints don't visit prostitutes and saints don't mimic the behavior of those whose moral center is their own fleshly desires.

Paul spells it out for the Corinthians: this particular sin, this sin of fornication, was exceptionally destructive because it finds expression in the body-and Paul has already stated that the body is involved in the redemption accomplished by Christ. The body of the believer is to be kept pure. And so Paul asks: “Do you not know that you body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (v. 19) Here is the ultimate conclusion to what Paul has been saying about the body of the believer and its relation to the work of Christ. Christ has redeemed the whole man, soul and body, and that body will one day be glorified based on the work of the Savior.

In the meantime, that body is the dwelling place of Christ's Spirit, the Helper and Keeper He has sent to us in this life. The presence of that Spirit underscores that the body is a temple, as Paul says here; the body of the believer is where the Spirit of God resides and that requires a perspective on the body which the Corinthians were not reflecting. They were polluting the temple of the Spirit by engaging in fornication and Paul reminds them that their bodies did not even belong to them, but belonged to God who had redeemed them.

This image lends much power to what Paul has been saying. Whenever the Corinthians engage in immoral behavior, they were taking the Spirit with them; they were subjecting His dwelling place to conduct which was unholy and unsuitable. This is why fornication is such a dreadful sin-sin which finds primary expression in the body directly defiles the place where the Spirit of God dwells. It's no wonder, therefore, that Paul spoke so emphatically here. This was a most severe sin.

This is Paul's response: Flee from immorality because your body is the temple of the Spirit because you are united to Christ in salvation. Flee from immorality because your body has been redeemed. Flee from immorality because you are desecrating the temple of the Spirit of God. Flee because, as Paul adds, “you have been bought with a price.” (v. 20) That price was the blood of God's Son, Jesus Christ. You are not your own, as the apostle just said, you belong to God. Therefore, “glorify God in your body.” That is the ultimate conclusion to be reached based on the fact of redemption. Christ has purchased us and has sent His Spirit to dwell in us. We must glorify God in our bodies by not lending them to unholy pursuits.

Application

There are two categories of application to be made from this passage. The first category is the most direct. Paul has been speaking of those who, while professing to belong to Christ, were engaging in fornication. It is always possible, even in a church, that someone is guilty of the sin Paul condemns in these verses. It is possible that someone here professes to be a Christian, yet is engaged in some form of immoral behavior. Paul has spoken plainly to such a situation. He has condemned such conduct because it is contrary to the work of Christ and because it is particularly wicked and because it is exceptionally destructive. To anyone who may be engaging in fornication, I repeat Paul's admonition: flee immorality. Understand that union with Christ is the basis for your morality and if you are engaging in fornication, then you are directly contradicting what Christ has done and you are directly denying what you profess with your mouth. Seek God's grace to repent.

The second category of application for a passage like this has to do with what it implies for us beyond the obvious. The obvious is what I just mentioned-the obvious is what this passage has to say about fornication. But in addition to that, this passage speaks to the more general issue of your moral code. Paul teaches that, for the Christian, there is a foundation for our morality; and that foundation or that beginning point is our relationship with Jesus Christ. If we are His, if we have believed the gospel, then how we think and how we speak and even how we dress does matter. These things matter because they all are expressions or indications of whatever moral code we are seeking to follow.

Every person has a code of conduct which informs their activities each day. Every person determines what they believe is acceptable and what they believe is unacceptable. The question is: what is the basis of that code? What is serving as the foundation for your morality? The language you use is an indicator of your moral code; and Paul says that your moral code, as a Christian, is to be grounded in Christ. Your language, therefore, should be Christ-like.

Even more to the point, however, is the issue of how you appear. Paul taught that your body is involved in the redemption Christ has accomplished; he taught further that your body is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Are you lending your body to unholy uses? I don't mean just rank fornication. There are other ways to dishonor the Lord in your body which don't involve direct sexual sin. I think that one of the most pressing issues today is the matter of how Christian young people dress, for example. What message are you sending when you are seen by other people? Is the message: I am a temple of the Holy Spirit of God? Is the message: I belong to Christ and I will glorify Him in the way I appear? Or is the message: This is the most I could get away with and still be allowed out of the house?

Most of the time, it seems that young men are the ones who need to be hammered on when it comes to purity of mind and body. But in our culture, there is an attack on the purity of young women; there is an attack upon the notions of modesty and discretion. And this attack is producing some alarming signs in the Church of Christ. For some reason, some parents seem oblivious to provocative dress when it comes to their daughters. They are quick to chasten their sons for bad language or rude behavior or sloppy dress, but many seem blind when their daughters go out of the house dressed as if they are about to appear in a music video. There are some fathers who need to wake up and fulfill the responsibility God has given you-guard the moral purity of your daughters. Don't leave that duty to your wife and don't leave it to someone else outside your family. It is your responsibility and, as I said, these days, it looks like many fathers are simply not meeting that responsibility.

And let me say especially to the young people of this congregation that there is a lesson you need to take from this passage and you need to make it a principle by which you live the rest of your days. The principle is this: sometimes, you simply need to flee sin, not analyze it. Often, we seem to want to evaluate some practice or some trend and we want to evaluate it while we are engaging in it. Our sinful flesh tries to convince us that something is not all that bad and the flesh does this because the flesh wants to show-off and the flesh wants to be provocative and the flesh wants to call attention to itself. But there are times when the proper response for you is to flee, to run from conduct or ideas that you know are condemned in Scripture. Scripture teaches that we are to be modest in our appearance, for example, and Scripture teaches that this is particularly important for women. So, when you are tempted to downplay modesty, your duty is to resist that temptation and flee from that idea or that situation in which the temptation arises.

This culture is going to press upon you from all sides; you are going to be tempted to do things which you know immediately are questionable from a Biblical standpoint. The thing to do at such times is to flee, as Paul advises. Never let your security in Christ become an excuse for lingering in sin. Remember that you belong to Him and remember that His Spirit resides in you.

If you wouldn't use certain words in the presence of Christ, then don't use them at all. If you wouldn't look upon certain images if Christ were standing beside you, then don't look upon them at all. If you wouldn't wear an article of clothing if you were going to meet Christ, then don't wear it at all. Your calling is to please Him because you have been bought with a price. It is not your friends who died on the cross for you and it is not this culture which provides your redemption. Remember that you are called to be a saint-think like one, talk like one, act like one, dress like one.

Remember Paul's closing statement: therefore, glorify God in your body. That was a summary statement meant to encapsulate all that he said about having Christ as the foundation for our morality. He means to glorify God in your whole life-in all that you are and all that you do. That word “glorify” is the Greek term doxazo. It means to give honor, to magnify, to praise. Paul teaches that we all our to live doxological lives-that is lives which honor God, lives which magnify His great name, lives which are, in essence, living and breathing examples of praise to Him.

If you want really want to understand what Paul is teaching in this passage, then start asking yourself these questions: Is my language doxological-that is, do the words which I choose to use each day honor God? Is my appearance doxological-that is, do my clothes and the way I present myself serve to magnify the name of God? Don't let this culture determine how you will speak or appear. Don't let this culture keep you from appearing as a saint-that's what you are.

When you come to the Lord's Table each week, you are come because you are a saint. You come because Jesus saved you by giving Himself in your place. This Table is for His saints and His saints love Him and they want to honor Him with their lives. The Table is also present to remind us that when we stumble, He comes to our rescue; and when we lose our way, He comes to guide us. If you need to, confess your sin to Christ as you come to the Table and know that He welcomes you and is ready to forgive and strengthen you.

The hymn we're going to sing in a moment says that we don't come to Christ despairingly, as if we have no hope once sin has overcome us. No, we come to Christ even though we have been overcome by sin because He is our Redeemer and Friend. This is where you come when struggling with sin-you come to Christ and you remember what He has done for you and you remember how you are to respond. That's what this sacrament is about.

Let's pray...