Sex and the Saint

“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. 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. Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. 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! 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.’ But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 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? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Rationalization is a deadly deception. The Corinthians, like many of us, tried to justify their sin by claiming to belong to a cosmopolitan society brimming with opportunity and social growth. The problem in Corinth was two fold - ignorance and immorality. Their ignorance of Christ’s teaching led to a deep seated lasciviousness that was viewed as routine and expected. But God called the Corinthian believers to live a new life of holy devotion to Him.

Yet many rationalized their sin by claiming to have physical needs they could not control. They treated sexual desire as being an appetite to be satisfied instead of a gift from God. Paul admonished them to “not be mastered by anything” (1 Cor. 6:12). He knew the most entrapping of all sin was that of sexual temptation.

Because their lives were now seated in Christ, Paul called them God’s living temples. Most understood the need to keep the temple undefiled. However, they had never considered themselves as God’s personal dwelling place.

The testimony of our lives can either mock or glorify Christ. Once the Corinthians realized the depth of their sin, they repented and began living a life of true freedom in Jesus Christ. What is the condition of God’s temple in your life?

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit...?” 1 Corinthians 6:19