| Your Body; God's House |
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YOUR BODY; GOD’S HOUSE 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 (19-20) If you are a Christian, if you have placed your faith & trust in what Jesus did for you when He died on the cross taking the punishment for your sin, then God lives in your body. This building is not God’s house; your body is God’s house. What kind of a house are you providing for Him?
Last Summer we had the great joy of making our final payment on the house we had built when we came to But what about the house God lives in? How well are you taking care of you body, the Read 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 God uses the Apostle Paul in these verses to talk to us about our human bodies. He gives us a general principle, talks briefly about food, and then at length about sex. So let’s look at these two and one more. These verses start with giving us a general principle – look again at v.12. “Everything is permissible for me”, but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything. The “everything” or “all things” as some other translation say, does not include sin. Paul is not saying that pornography is permissible, or that adultery is permissible, or that drunkenness is permissible, or that lying is permissible – just so long as you don’t get addicted to those things. That’s not what God is saying to us here. Paul had preached a Gospel of Christian liberty. Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians But that’s exactly what some had done. The NIV has the words: Everything is permissible for me in quotation marks. Those words are used twice here in 1 Cor. 6:12, and some think that this was a sort of slogan in the church in As he wrote this, Gnosticism was beginning to creep into the Church. Gnosticism taught that God doesn’t care about our bodies. God is interested in our spirit. The spirit is good, but the body is inherently evil. It can never be otherwise. So as long as you endeavor to keep your spirit right, you can do whatever you wish with you body & God doesn’t really care. It’s just going to be destroyed along with our stomach. Some of those same Gnostic tendencies are present in some Christians today. They make a distinction between spirit and body and think that what happens in the body is of little interest to God. He really does not care. And Paul’s word to the Corinthians and to us is: “Yes He does!” The argument in v.13 is not the main argument here. It’s only a lead in to the main section about sexual activity. “Food for the stomach, and the stomach for food. But God will destroy them both.” “What’s the big deal about what you eat? The stomach was made for food, so fill it.” That was the argument the Corinthians made. But let’s see some things that God says about… YOUR BODY AND FOOD. Proverbs 23:1-3 warns: When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive. The dictionary defines gluttony as: excess in eating or drinking. Excess! Gluttony is eating more than your body needs, eating in excess. How do I know if I’m eating in excess? Just look down. Phil Isa That’s why Rom 1 Corin. 3:16-17 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. That sounds serious! If your eating habits are being detrimental to your body’s health, you need to change your eating habits. And that’s not just because I say so, it’s because your body is God’s house, and if you are destroying God’s house because of your excesses, God is not pleased with you. And it’s not just how much you eat, it’s also what you eat. You may eat 3 meals a day, and only consume 16 ounces of food at each meal. But if your meal consists of potato chips and coke, you need to change your eating habits. What you put into your body matters to God. YOUR BODY AND SEX. This is the main topic in our verses for this morning. The Corinthians argument was, “as the stomach is for food, the body is for sex. The body has instincts and needs and desires, and we are to let our body have its way. Give in to those instincts and fulfill all your desires.” These verses argue against that teaching. The statement in v.13 is strong & clear: The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, & the Lord for the body. God cares about what you do sexually. These verses are an argument against visiting prostitutes. Evidently that had become a problem in the Corinthian church. There were those who were arguing for greater sexual freedom, the kind of the sexual freedom that the non-Christian of that day enjoyed. “Our bodies are no different than theirs. Our desires are no different than theirs. So why not enjoy the same sexual freedom that they enjoy?” Sounds like today. The argument that Paul makes here is not cultural; it’s theological. It did not just apply to the first century Christians; it applies to Christians of all centuries: our physical bodies are united with Jesus in a spiritual sense. We are united with Christ. So we must not take these bodies and unite them sexually to someone else in a way that is sinful. And the teaching of the Bible is that all sex outside of marriage is sinful. Sexual intimacy brings a oneness that God says must be reserved only for marriage. What you give to someone outside of marriage in a sexual encounter is a part of you that you can never get back. Your life does not become the richer for the experience, but poorer. So the words in v.18: Flee from sexual immorality. We live in a very sexually saturated society. Sex is everywhere, and along with it, temptation. Could I make an appeal to our ladies, especially our young ladies? You could help some of our men by dressing more modestly. Men are visually stimulated, and some of you are stimulating some of our men without even knowing it. I say that as a pastor, and a father, and a grandfather, who has heard from some of our men the struggles they have even here in church. It’s not ok for our men to let their eyes linger and their minds fantasize, but modesty seems to be a thing of the past in our world, and that attitude is even invading the church. Ladies, please help us here. Verse 18 does not say we are to stand and fight sexual immorality; it says we are to flee. That means we don’t put ourselves deliberately in places or situations where we will be sexually tempted – in our minds as well as in our actions. It means not visiting those sites on the internet, not watching those videos or movies and TV programs, not going to those places where we know we will be tempted. Sex outside of marriage is sin, and that being the case, Paul goes on in the next chapter to say: 1 Corin. 7:1-5 Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry. But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. Let me give a word to those of you who are married: your spouse’s only holy outlet for their sexual needs is you. That’s what these verses are saying. If you are not meeting your wife’s sexual needs, if you are not meeting your husband’s sexual needs, you are putting them in a place of great temptation. To remain holy, you are their only option sexually. The Bible is really practical. It addresses things that we have to deal with in our everyday life. And this is one of them. God is concerned that our sexual life be pleasing to Him, and that we live holy lives in this area. Here is another of the passages that deal with this subject: 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God. This in not just my Victorian ideas, or just the Apostle Paul’s ideas. This is God’s Word to us, friends, & to reject that Word is to reject God. God warns us that He will punish us for sexual sins. Argue with it if you like, but it’s still the truth. Back to our passage in 1 Corin. 6. Verses 18-20 give us reasons for fleeing from sexual immorality. Sexual sin is different v.18 says. It is a sin against our body in a way that no other sin is. It is perhaps here speaking of consequences, or of the loss of a part of us that cannot be regained. But sexual sin is not a light thing in God’s eyes, and should not be a light thing in our eyes. We are a The price spoken of here, is the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross. That’s the price He paid to make me His own. And if I have put my trust in Him, I no longer have control of what I do with my body. I have placed that under His control. And He says: Flee sexual immorality. He says: Honor God with your body. Let’s move now to our third point: YOUR BODY AND NEGLECT. A couple of years ago I noticed that on the south side of my house the paint was peeling off. It was on a part that I didn’t see very often, and others didn’t see either. So I had neglected it for quite a while. But I decided I had better repaint it. When I started scraping the rest of the old paint off, some of the wood began to come off as well. So I took some of the trim off around the window, and found that the siding had begun to rot. And so had the wood under the siding – the rain and snow and ice in the winter and the hot sun in the summer had done their damage. It was quite a project to repair and repaint what had rotted out because of my neglect. The house wasn’t falling down, so I had just let it go. And that’s the way we sometimes are with our bodies. They aren’t completely falling apart, so we neglect them. But it’s like the old man who said: “If I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself when I was younger.” We’ve already talked a bit about nutrition, so let’s look at a couple of other things: rest and exercise. “Pastor, how in the world are those things spiritual? Aren’t you getting a bit off base this morning?” Look again at the last verse in our text for this morning: Honor God with your body. You cannot do that if you neglect your body. Neglect, and the problems it causes do not honor God. So let’s press on. Rest. To rest is Scriptural. Some of you need to remember that. I have a pastor friend who used to pride himself that he never took a day off. But God did – after creating the universe in 6 days, He took the next day off and He rested. In John 4:6 it says, Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down. Jesus got physically tired at times; He got weary at times and when He did, He sat down. So we do not have to feel guilty when we sit down once in a while, when we take a day off once in a while, when we take a vacation once in a while. Jesus was totally without sin, and yet He got tired, and He sat down. Resting is not a sin. Here is what life was like for the first disciples: Mark Some of you need to hear Jesus say those words to you, and you need to respond to them: Come with Me by yourself to a quiet place and get some rest. If you do not, you will soon find out why God has said we need to set aside one day in 7 to rest. These bodies that God has given to us have limitations, and when we press those limits, we suffer the consequences. Exercise. In Jesus’ day most of life was exercise. Most work was physical work, from fishing to farming to shepherding – life was very physical. They didn’t have the labor saving devices we have. And then they usually had to walk everywhere they wanted to go. So they did not have to think about exercise. Life is so different today, at least in our culture it is. For most of us, the greatest exercise we have during the day is walking from our office down the hall to the bathroom. So we join health clubs and fitness centers to get our exercise artificially. If I would just walk to work and back each day (it’s only 3 miles each way) then I wouldn’t have to walk on my treadmill every morning. The Bible doesn’t talk much about physical exercise. The only verse I could find that directly addresses it is 1 Tim. 4:8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things. “Physical training is of some value” it says in the NIV. Obviously, physical exercise is not the primary thing in life. But caring for our bodies is an important part of our being healthier followers of Jesus. Let me summarize with three things about our bodies: 1. Your body is sacred. It is God’s House, God’s 2. Neglecting your body has consequences. When our ailment is a consequence of abusing or even neglecting our body, when it’s a consequence of our own sinful behavior, so often I see God leave the consequences even when He forgives us. I think He does that so we can learn. Does that mean God never takes away the consequences of sin? He’s a God of mercy and grace, and sometimes He does. But many times He does not. People smoke and sometimes they get lung cancer. People have sex outside of marriage, & sometimes they get terrible diseases. Diabetics keep on eating sugar and sometimes they go blind or have limbs amputated. People eat and eat, they gain weight and cholesterol fills their veins, and sometimes they have heart attacks or strokes. “But I’m a Christian; shouldn’t God protect me from those things?” Sin has consequences, and not caring for your body is a sin. You can be forgiven and still be suffering the consequences of your sin. 3. We are to honor God with our body. That’s the final general statement here in 1 Corinthians 6: You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body. We could spend another hour together looking at ways we can do that. Honor God with your body. As I was down at the hospital this week praying with Sandi Fulton, I though about how much God has used her in touching so many lives in this church and in this community. Her ministry has been possible because she has a body, and for that ministry to continue, she needs to continue to live in that body. And that’s why many of us have been praying for her. We honor God with our body when we use our mouth, our hands, our feet, our ears – our body in ministry. Are you honoring God with your body? Are you using it in ministry? Are you caring for it? Are you giving it proper nutrition and proper rest? Are you keeping it holy? Your body is God’s House, and He wants you to take good care of it.
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