Sex and the Body (1 Cor. 6:12-20)

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The context seems to be a Greek downplaying of the body, and listening to some superficial slogans about freedom.

  • 2 Peter 2:19. Jonathan Edwards compared physical desire to a fire in a house: ‘very useful while kept in its place, but if left to take possession of the whole house, soon brings all to destruction.’ Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: ‘The liberation of man as an absolute ideal leads only to man’s self-destruction.’;
  1. Sex is physical but not simply physical.
    • 6:13. Alex Comfort tries to be clever, and says that ‘chastity is no more a virtue than malnutrition’. Not so – see 6:15-16, 18.
  2. The body will be resurrected.
    • 6:13b-14; see Luke 24:39-43; Phil.3:20-21. Nancy Pearcey says the problem is not that people love their bodies too much but not enough. John MacArthur once had a very promiscuous sixteen year old girl come to see him, and she could not bear to look at herself in the mirror. Promiscuity degrades; it does not set free.
  3. Christ redeemed our bodies with His blood.
    • 6:20; 1 Pet.1:18-19.
  4. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.
    • 6:19. The third person of the Trinity dwells within the body of each individual Christian.

There are two immediate applications: ‘Flee sexual immorality’ (v.18); Gen.39:7-12, unlike Prov.7:18-23. The second application is positive: ‘Glorify or honour God in your body’ (v.20).