A Temple Bought at A Price
Paul is encouraging the Corinthians to use theology to drive behavior
We are called to obedience, but without the proper understanding it is a struggle
Proper, ‘Biblical Theology’ is making God’s revelation YOUR reality
As Christians we live based on our Theology
If our theology is not Biblical we cannot even be BE saved, much less BE obedient
Doing our best to see God’s point of view, as He reveals it in His Word is important
God wants us to know that what we do with our bodies matters
When we surrender our lives to Christ we stop living 4 ourselves & start living 4 Him
This means that we are joined to him spiritually and physically
Biblical salvation results in different attitudes, actions and lifestyles that demonstrate what is now a ‘New Creation’…this is not optional, God’s Spirit changes us
If we have truly surrendered our lives to Christ we WILL live for Him!
1 Cor. 6:11
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
- We all we owned by sin lifestyles before God converted us (Washed / Sanctified / Justified)
“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.
- It is believed this was a slogan that was misapplying Paul’s teaching of freedom
- Christ sets us free not to do what we want to but to do what God wants us to do
- As followers of Christ we surrender our rights to do as we desire
- Tension between The Freedom Christ gives and the obedience we give Him
You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
- Perhaps another slogan, saying it doesn’t matter, God will end it all
- Greek thought separated the physical from the spiritual (not Biblical)
- But every bit of what we do with our bodies matters. Why?
- The spiritual effects the physical, and the physical effects the spiritual
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? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
- God’s has power over the physical world, demonstrated in the Resurrection
- We are united with Christ by God’s Spirit and become part of HIS body
- This is no small deal! Our spiritual reality is that we are an actual part of God
- It would be like taking Jesus with you to go have sex with a prostitute
Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
- The intimacy that happens in sexual relations is unique and intense
- Sex is a uniting that God has designed for a man and a woman in marriage
- It is a unity of the physical, whereas with Christ the unity is spiritual
- The key reality is that they are not separate things
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.
- Fleeing is removing yourself from it in every way, not being anywhere near it
- Sexual relations involve you in a way that cannot be separated from your body
- it can’t happen without using your body; & what you do with your body matters
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
- When God’s Spirit indwells you that makes YOU HIS TEMPLE
- It is a work of God
- He is calling them to put the things they have been taught into action
You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
- The crucial reality of salvation is that you (by God’s power) surrender your life
- God paid the ultimate price to buy you back from eternal death
- This is reality for those who have been biblically converted to Christ followers
- Based on that reality is how we are to live, in every way, because it all matters
Application Questions:
What are things you do that may not be sin yet are not beneficial?
Do you envision yourself as an actual part of God’s body? Why or why not?
What are the things about sexual sin that make it so damaging?
How can you treat your body more like God’s dwelling place?
What regular practices can connect you to the reality that Christ bought you?